Featured ‘day in the life of’: Gina, a Biology PhD candidate studying the social regulation of zebra finch song.

Gina is the 11th featured day in the life of, Gina is the face behind the Instagram “the_dancing_scientist”

A day in the life of Gina (PhD Student in Biology):

Hi! My name is Gina. I’m a PhD student in Biology studying the mechanisms behind the social regulation of zebra finch song. As a first generation college student, I didn’t realize I could make science a career. I thought being a scientist meant you worked in a sterile lab all day and all night, and you did nothing else. My goal is to help other #firstgen students realize they too can be scientists, and it doesn’t mean giving up other things that they love! I hope you enjoy my day in the life!

7:21am: My physical and mental health is very important to me, so I go to the gym most mornings and workout for an hour. This morning is cardio and leg day! When I don’t go to the gym, I like to dance or take hikes outside to relieve stress and stay in shape.

4:29pm: Time to practice coding! I’m new to coding so I try to spend a little time each day working on small coding projects to help analyze my data. Here, I tried to write code to plot my data, and it doesn’t work so I’m going to work on troubleshooting. 

5:56pm: Before I go home, I need to make sure my syringe pump is working so that I can start experiments tomorrow. Here, I’m making sure that there are no blockages in my tubing that might prevent liquid from flowing through!

7:30pm: Dinner is ready to go in the oven! Tonight, I’m making baked cod. I grew up in an Italian household, so cooking is a nice stress relief for me at night.