WEBVTT

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INTERVIEWER: All right.

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You ready?

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Your challenge, identify
each item in the slides.

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[UPBEAT MUSIC]

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You have five minutes.

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[UPBEAT MUSIC]

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SEETHAL: My name
is Seethal Meda.

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I really wish I
can see this in here.

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SEETHAL: I enjoy working
with microscopes,

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because I can see the tiny
cells and how confident they

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are in the flask.

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I'm not able to focus here.

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That is the problem, I guess.

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Mosquito?

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[DING]

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INTERVIEWER: You got it.

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[UPBEAT MUSIC]

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Coffee granule.

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[DINGING]

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What is this?

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Cheetos.

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[DINGING]

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[UPBEAT MUSIC]

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I was born and brought
up in Andhra Pradesh,

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in the south part of India.

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My dad was a professor.

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We are three sisters,
and I'm the oldest.

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As a kid, I was
interested in plants.

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So somehow, my interest
started with botany.

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I got into college.

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It was 2001 when I graduated.

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[CHEERING]

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My majors were botany,
zoology, and chemistry.

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And then, 2002, I got
married and I got my son.

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I was completely
mesmerized with him

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and completely focused on him.

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We moved to US in 2011, to
San Francisco and Pennsylvania

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in 2014.

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I'm in Pennsylvania since then.

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[PHONE RINGING]

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[SPEAKING TELUGU]

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SEETHAL: Since I was
focused on my son,

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I was not working anywhere.

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My only interaction was
with my family, friends.

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And then, when he was in
high school, I realized,

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I want to do
something for my sake.

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I thought, I want to study.

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Then I heard about
Montgomery Community College.

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[UPBEAT MUSIC]

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I started with English 101,
and then I got the confidence

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that I can join a biotechnology
and biomanufacturing course.

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Dr. BRYANS: Today, we're going
to repeat our PNA isolation

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experiment from the
protocol that you used.

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So grab your micropipettes,
and you can get started.

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SEETHAL: I thought,
I don't know that I

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can be able to sit in a
class in a different country

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after 15 years of gap
from my education.

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Dr. BRYANS: I remember
that, when she first

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started the program.

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The program can be
quite intensive.

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It's a lot of lab work as well.

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And within about
three or four weeks,

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she was mentoring
her lab partner.

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She was now telling the lab
partner how things are done.

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SEETHAL: I was not very
confident with new people,

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but Dr. Bryans gave me the
confidence that I can do it,

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which helped me
complete this course.

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GEISELA: I know
Seethal since she

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worked in two different
positions at Rockland

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under my supervision.

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Seethal was very shy
at the beginning,

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but she knew what she was doing.

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Yeah.

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SEETHAL: Actually, I got the knowledge
of what the industry is

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doing from this program.

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I went to Washington for the
Advanced Technology Education

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conference to display my
work from my internship.

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HETAL: Presenting the
internship project,

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you talk with scientists,
and the experience

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gives us more confidence.

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And I have seen her.

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She takes all the opportunity,
and she's a successful story.

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GEISELA: Today, Seethal
looks like an ambassador.

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We would like to have more
Seethals working with us.

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[LAUGHTER]

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SEETHAL: So how ATE helped
in my career?

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Dr. BYRANS: Yeah.

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So the ATE stands for the
Advanced Technological Education

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program.

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And it's an initiative funded by
the National Science Foundation,

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funding for biomanufacturing to
help with developing programs

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to train graduates to enter
the biomanufacturing workforce.

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SEETHAL: Montgomery College gave me
the confidence that I can do.

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My son, he told
me, Mom, I thought

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you will see me graduating,
but I saw you graduating.

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SUBASH: When she finished the
certification course,

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that was our achievement.

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And above that, going
all the way to here,

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today, working as
a job, was amazing.

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Dr. BYRANS: That's the great
thing about Seethal.

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She's been all the way
up for the challenge.

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SEETHAL: Today, I work
in the BioPharma company.

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I work on vaccines.

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I learned about myself
that I can do it,

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and I can work for the industry,
which I never thought of.

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That gives me a feeling that I'm
doing something which matters.

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[UPBEAT MUSIC]

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