Melanie's life has been affected by rheumatoid arthritis (RA) since her senior year of high school when her single mother began to suffer from severe RA. "It was at this point when I realized that, although RA wasn't my diagnosis, it still gave me very personal boundaries to overcome," Melanie explains. At her mother's insistence, Melanie left home for college and eventually let go of her feelings of guilt for not being more present during those difficult years. About her mother, Melanie says "It was heartbreaking for me to hear the sound of pain in her voice while I was over two hours away, until she made me see that college was exactly where she wanted me to be." During her weekend trips back home, Melanie was impressed by how diligently her mother's doctor and pharmacist worked with her to explain the disease and improve her treatment. Melanie was inspired by what she saw and decided that helping others overcome RA would become "the focus of my career. I'm looking forward to helping people like my mother through my work as a pharmacist and scientist." Now in her fourth year in the pharmacy sciences program at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Melanie plans to pursue a PhD in autoimmune diseases, specializing in RA.