Finding her path

Student researcher and Pathways mentor Lanie Jackson graduates

By California State University, Bakersfield

May 17^th, 2024

Lanie Jackson has overcome a lot on her way to earning her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry. In addition to the pandemic that started in her second semester as a college student, she was also trying to find out who she was without basketball, which had dominated her life until she decided to step away from the sport and focus entirely on her education.

What helped her with these difficulties, and all the others that come along with pursuing an education, was the community she found at California State University, Bakersfield, especially in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department and in the School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering’s Career Pathways mentorship program.

“I had a sense of community, I had stability and I had a support system, most importantly,” Jackson, 23, said. “I think my first year would have been a lot different, and then going into the pandemic would have been a lot different, if I hadn’t made the friends I did in that program.”

In the time since that tough first year, Jackson has gone from mentee to mentor in Pathways, conducted research with Assistant Professor Dr. Lance Talbert and been accepted into Marshall B. Ketchum University’s pharmacy program. This week, Jackson will commemorate her degree and all that went into earning it by walking in commencement.

“Honestly, I feel like something is going to go wrong! I feel like it’s fake,” Jackson said of this chapter of her life ending. “I’m really excited to finally graduate and feel some accomplishment for everything I’ve done so far. You go through your degree, and you go, ‘Check, check, check, I’m doing all these things,’ and you don’t realize how big of a deal it is to get through higher education.”

Finding her path

A Bakersfield native, Jackson’s teen years were all about basketball. Her life really started when she decided not to pursue the sport in college and instead concentrate on school.

It took some time for Jackson to decide exactly what she wanted to do, but she knew she wanted to work somewhere in the medical field. When she was in junior high, her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Jackson would often accompany her mom to doctor appointments.

“That’s when I started realizing, ‘Oh, I could do this job,’” she remembered. “I was able to talk with her different doctors and realize that I wanted to help people the way they were helping my mom.”

With that in mind, Jackson decided to major in biochemistry. As a declared science major in her first year, she was able to join the NSME Career Pathways program’s 2019-20 cohort. As part of the program, Jackson was paired with an older student who would mentor her.

“I went in there like, ‘OK, I gave up basketball, I don’t really have an identity right now, and here’s someone who is going to mentor me through the first year and get me on my feet to where I can be successful,’” she said. “I feel like I needed that in order to realize that I can still be successful in other things that I haven’t been pursuing my whole life.”

When the COVID pandemic struck in her second semester, Jackson admits she was scared and struggled with motivation. Fortunately, the community she found at CSUB with her classmates, mentees and fellow mentors in the Pathways program and her professors in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department kept her afloat.

“I think one of the best things that came out of me being at CSUB was the people who surrounded me coming out of the pandemic,” she said. “Having people around me to reassure me and support me through these years was really important to me and something I’ll never forget that I had at CSUB.”

After her first year in the Pathways program, Jackson became a mentor herself, working with younger students to start their college experience on the right foot. One thing she took from being mentored was the importance of understanding that everyone’s situation is different.

“I try to implement that into how I mentor my students, because it’s easy to say, ‘Oh, everyone should be getting A’s, I’m helping them,’ and that’s not always the case,” she said. “Things come up. Mental health is a big thing, and we don’t always have the motivation to get things done the way we once did, so it’s important for me to be understanding and open with my mentees that we’re not always going to be perfect, and that’s OK.”

Jackson has served as a Pathways mentor since the fall of 2020 and as the lead student assistant in the NSME Advising Center. More recently, she has transitioned into the lead role for the Pathways program, taking on the responsibility of supervising mentors while the program adviser is out on leave.

“It’s been really fun to have the ability to directly help students and prepare them in ways they didn’t think they needed to be prepared in,” she said.

Rigorous research

In between classes and her work in the Pathways program, Jackson has also worked in Dr. Talbert’s research lab studying phthalate esters and their presence within soils in the Central Valley. Phthalates are an endocrine-disrupting chemical often found in items like food packaging, personal care products and medical tubing.

The research team has presented its work at the American Chemical Society meeting, and Jackson herself presented her work at the Southern California Conferences for Undergraduate Research in the fall 2023 semester. Last year, she won second place in the Physical and Mathematical Sciences category of CSUB’s Student Research Competition.

“While we are trying to bring awareness of the concentrations in the soils in the Central Valley, we’re also trying to just bring awareness to the topic, because these chemicals are very harmful, and they do pose a significant risk to consumers,” Jackson said.

Jackson’s time researching with Dr. Talbert was her first lab experience, something she said her professor didn’t realize until after she joined his group. But lab newcomer or not, he was impressed with Jackson’s abilities.

“Over the past two years, Lanie has developed excellent lab technique and critical thinking skills while working in my lab,” Dr. Talbert said. “She demonstrated a thirst for knowledge in her drive to read scientific literature, which led to new research ideas for her project about phthalate esters in soil.”

Jackson believes her time at CSUB, and especially time spent under Dr. Talbert’s mentorship, has prepared her well for pharmacy school.

“It’s easy to run away from the scary things, and doing analytical chemistry with him is the most detail-oriented, rigorous thing you can go into,” she said. “But in the end, pushing myself through that, he has made me realize that I am capable, and I can pursue whatever I want.”

Through her research and classes, Jackson said she has developed the skills to write lab reports, analyze data, problem-solve and be flexible.

“I am proud of the scientist she has become over the last four years,” Dr. Talbert said. “I have no doubts that she will continue to be successful, and I know she will excel in pharmacy school due to the skills and knowledge she acquired at CSUB.”

Striking a balance

Though Jackson first considered becoming a psychiatrist, she decided a career as a pharmacist would offer her more balance between her work and personal life.

Balance is something that did not always come naturally to Jackson, who was used to working nonstop ever since her days as a high school athlete. She credits Dr. Talbert with showing her that working hard doesn’t have to mean sacrificing everything else in life.

“I tried to take on everything I could,” Jackson said, adding that she would take 19 units a semester and at one point had a third minor. “I wasn’t really raised to have balance — you work, you work, you work and you work some more. It’s been nice to get different perspectives. People can’t live that way.”

Giving herself the grace to take the time she needs and understand that she cannot always be on her A-game has made all the difference as she finishes up her undergraduate education. Learning that early is her biggest piece of advice for other students.

“Understand that some days you need a break,” she said. “You can’t study for seven days a week and not have that balance, because that’s what I did, and it really turned into its own monster. Then I was balancing that monster and balancing school and all my other responsibilities. Work hard but work hard efficiently and reward yourself for working hard.”

Jackson also encouraged students to be open to new things, even if they’re not what they thought they wanted to pursue, because it could lead to finding something they’re passionate about.

“It’s OK to reassess and change your plan because you found something you love and want to pursue,” she said. “Yeah, it might take a couple more years, but we don’t live to work, we work to live, and that’s something that I try to live by. I think that helps a lot of students realize, ‘It’s OK for me to take a little extra time.’”

The guidance Jackson shares is hard-won insight she learned firsthand and that will serve her well going into pharmacy school. But before she gets there, she has one last milestone at CSUB: commencement, where her parents, grandparents, brother and friends will cheer her on from the stands.

Jackson joked that this actually won’t be her first CSUB graduation. While her mother was a student here, she enrolled a young Jackson in the children’s center on campus.

“I had a little graduation from CSUB in preschool,” she said. “I always love telling people about that. I’m like, ‘Yeah, this is my second time going here.’”