I attended a three-year junior high school in a small town. Then I went to a very small rural high school for two years. There were only 200 students so class sizes were small. One math class had only six students. Most days were spent working at the blackboard, so we really learned to think on our feet! For as long as I was in school, I studied math—basic algebra, plane and solid geometry, trigonometry, matrix algebra, and analytic geometry.

At UC, San Diego, I earned a BA in Biology. While there, I took three courses of calculus and one course of statistics, and worked in a variety of jobs. As an undergraduate and between research positions, I worked as a bookkeeper. Good math skills helped me get those jobs, and they certainly paid better than the usual student employment. Bookkeeping was okay and I learned useful skills, but it was not nearly as fun as working in a lab.

I also worked in immunology research in cancer research and cellular immunology at the University and at the VA Hospital in San Diego. My bookkeeping skills were valuable when I was working as a lab supervisor, because I was responsible for budget management and developing budget estimates for grant funding. Math was also needed for scientific calculations and statistical analysis. Later, I was co-owner of a business making antibodies for diagnostic and research use, and served as a consultant to other companies involved in antibody production.