The encouragement of three women helped to bring Kileen Mershon to graduate school at UCLA, where she's studying microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics. First, there was Professor Christina Bailey, who gave a tea each spring for junior and senior women in chemistry, biochemistry, and physics at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Attending in her junior year, Kileen was persuaded that graduate school was an option for her: As a magna cum laude student, she had the grades, and the chances were good that fellowships would pay the way.

Nevertheless, she thought she might like to take a year or two off before continuing school. Then chemistry instructor Peggy Rice told her that graduate school "wasn't five more years of cramming for tests," Kileen says. "She said I'd spend my time doing hands-on science research—the same thing I'd be doing if I got the job."

And finally, there was her mother. About the time Kileen was in middle school, her mother went back to college to work on a degree in food science and dietetics and "asked me to help her study for her exams." The microbiology coursework was especially appealing to Kileen—"I said, this is really cool stuff." Besides introducing her daughter to science, Mrs. Mershon encouraged good study habits: "Sunday afternoons at my house were homework time," Kileen says. Sometimes, her friends came over "because it was such a good study environment."

And as Kileen continued to waver on whether or not to pursue graduate studies, it was her mother who asked the crucial question: What's holding you back? Kileen couldn't come up with an answer, so she "picked some schools based on their web sites and applied." Kileen chose UCLA because of the ACCESS program, which lets students rotate through three laboratory settings before they select a research mentor. Graduate school hadn't been part of her long-term plan, Kileen says, so although "I liked science, I had no idea what particular area I wanted to study."

As it turned out her first rotation—with Professor Sherie L. Morrison—was the one she chose. With encouragement from the ACCESS program, Kileen applied for a Ford Fellowship during her fall term with Professor Morrison and based her research proposal on the work she was doing in that lab.

Professor Morrison's research involves antibody-mediated therapies for Cryptococcus, a fungus associated with pigeon droppings that can lead to serious illness and death in countries where modern medicines are not readily available or among people whose immune systems are compromised by AIDS or other health conditions.

Kileen is using mouse cancer cells to produce large quantities of Cryptococcus antibodies, turning them into "protein machines," she says. "We put the DNA with its instructions into the mouse cell cultures, and they spit out the protein." Her next step will be to create mutations in the antibodies, turning off one amino acid at a time and checking to see what the outcomes are. What symptoms are associated with different mutations? How do survival rates change?

Having just finished her second year, Kileen has a lot of work ahead. Besides paying for two more years of study, the Ford provides valuable feedback, Kileen says. Twice a year, she's required to submit a progress report. "That means I take a moment to stop and see what I've done this far," she says, and she also likes the idea that "one more person is looking out for you, making sure you're progressing through your graduate career."

Once her PhD is in hand, Kileen plans a year or two of postdoctoral studies, perhaps overseas. A dual citizen of the United Kingdom and the United States, Kileen is intrigued by the idea of "learning how they do science over there—I hear it's different." After that, she will choose between work in the research industry or an academic appointment. The latter is gaining in attractiveness. Although Ford funding can mean freedom from work as a teaching assistant, the ACCESS program requires teaching, and Kileen found she "loved the interaction with students." She worked to incorporate student-friendly attitudes in her teaching, and she has talked to several students about graduate school as an alternative to medical or dental school, passing along the support and guidance that set her feet on the path to a doctorate. "I wouldn't be in graduate school," she says, "if it wasn't for some of the professors and their encouragement."

Published in Fall 2005, Graduate Quarterly