Jada Suber ’15
Jada Suber ’15: A chemist. A researcher. A Blue Hose.
“I was attracted to PC because it was in my backyard,” says Jada Suber, a Clinton, South Carolina native, and 2015 graduate. “I grew up in a single-parent household. My mother has always been my inspiration. She’s the most beautiful person I know inside and out. Unlike others who lived in town, I was determined to go to PC to stay close to home. But I was also attracted to the small size and the guarantee of having one-on-one attention from my professors. When I visited PC, I was greeted by nearly everyone. Every encounter was pleasant, and I was sold on becoming a Blue Hose.”
Through PC’s encouragement and one-on-one mentorship, Jada’s goal shifted from doctor to research scientist. “When I was a little, I dreamed of becoming an allergist. At the age of seven, I learned of my food allergy to tree-nuts and peanuts. Living with such a severe allergy eventually made me realize that I wanted to help others like me by working to find a cure for food allergies,” she says. “Instead of going to medical school, I decided to attend graduate school to conduct scientific research. I stumbled across the idea of research outside of PC when participating as a fellow in the Summer Undergraduate Research Program at the Medical University of South Carolina during the summers of 2013 and 2014. The goal at the time was to participate in the program to broaden my experiences and to become a better medical school applicant; but during the process, I fell in love with research.”
Jada graduated with a degree in chemistry and a minor in creative writing. She is now completing a Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program at MUSC. “Being in a lab and not being as guided and just experimenting, I discovered I was okay with it. It was then that I started thinking—this could put me closer to finding a cure for food allergies.”
She’s now living away from home, but she still talks to her mother on the phone all the time. Jada is learning that a person can have many families in a lifetime. “My experiences at PC—I wouldn’t have gotten them anywhere else. A lot of that had to do with the one-on-one atmosphere and what I got from other students. It was totally a family. PC helped me to grow as an individual, a scientist, and a student.”
Take the next step. Be a Blue Hose.