Thing that makes the Taylor Lab unique at Upstate is the fact that we are primarily corely a Black lab.

(gentle music continues) There is not one lab on this campus that looks like ours.

And I think that just alone, us just being corely a Black lab makes us more unique than any of the other labs that are here.

My mentor, Harry, had this vision of creating a space where he can give young Black scientists the tools that they need to thrive in our field.

He has actually been able to provide that, with the fact that all three of his graduate students are not only Black, but they're Black women.

By him being able to create the safe space that he's always wanted, he gives the future a whole new different path, which is extremely invaluable.

- The fastest is the one that wins.

It's just the way- (both chuckling) that's the way it works, right?

But it's gonna be great because it's gonna allow us to prepare pretty well for this meeting that we wanna attend the fall.

- Mm, yeah.

- Right?

- Allowing us to do, like, three experiments a week, get a lot more data out, easier to push forward with the projects.

I was one of the only kids in my family that had any kind of STEM interest, so my mom really nurtured that.

And just trying to find out where that spark was coming from so that she could flame it.

My mom, just being like my number one person in my corner growing up is what made the huge difference.

A lot of the times when kids have an interest in STEM, the reason why they stay in it is because their parents show an interest in their interest.

But I knew from maybe a couple weeks in that I just wanted to study something that was more impactful for me for the Black community.