Hi everyone! My name is Deeya Patel and I am an Avatar this year at The Gatton Academy. Before Gatton, I attended to University Heights Academy in Christian County where I was active on my tennis team, running a literary magazine, and tutoring inner-city students.

As I am writing this, excited students and their weepy parents are carrying boxes and suitcases into their rooms, saying goodbye to each other as well as goodbye to a stereotypical high school life. I got a look into the unconventional ways of Gatton life when my brother attended from 2013 to 2015. As I watched him blossom into a confident, skilled student, I knew that Gatton had simply drawn out the talent that was already inside of him. Wanting to know what sort of potential that I had locked away, I applied, making the best decision of my life.

At Gatton, I participated in the Genome program, where I learned invaluable research tools including bioinformatics. Those skills helped me during my summer Research Internship Grant (RIG), where I worked with Vanderbilt University’s Dylan Burnette on cardiomyocytes, or heart muscle cells. This fall semester, I plan on working with Western Kentucky University’s Ajay Srivastava, and am eager to get my first taste of genetics research. So many exciting opportunities have come my way because of this school, and I cannot wait to see what lies ahead this year.