What is your personal and educational background?

I was born and raised in Houston, TX. I received my B.S. in Mathematics from Texas Southern University (TSU) and my M.S. in Mathematics from Sam Houston State University (SHSU). It was during my time at TSU and SHSU where I discovered the importance of pursuing a PhD. I am currently a PhD student at The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), working with Dr. David Jorgensen in the field of commutative algebra. During my time at UTA, I have had the privilege of participating in the College of Science Black Graduate Student Association (COSBGSA) and the American Mathematical Society (AMS).

Please describe an experience (or 2) that helped you discover/cultivate your interest in the mathematical sciences.

I had the privilege of participating in a summer undergraduate research program (SURP) at TSU. That was my first real taste of mathematical research. I was working on third order maxilinear difference equations with Dr. Willie Taylor. Discovering new results created a new outlook on mathematics for me. I now go into every math class wondering if I can discover any new results from every lemma, theorem and proposition that I learn. Mathematics is this never-ending puzzle and I want to be able to solve as much of it as I can.

Please share any words of wisdom/inspiration or anything you would like to promote.

I could go into this whole soliloquy about everything that you should keep in mind, but I prefer to keep things simple. No matter what you choose to pursue, my advice to you, in the words of the great James Valvano (aka Jimmy V), would be these seven words: “don’t give up, don’t ever give up.”