A Brief Introduction to Me by Janay Cammock

Hello everyone, my name is Janay Cammock! I’m 16 years old, and a rising Junior at Germantown Friends School. Throughout my life I’ve moved to 3 different states all together. I was born in California then later moved to North Carolina, then finally Philadelphia the home of the TRIP Initiative. Like everyone else that applied to TRIP I have a deep love and interest in the scientific field. For me my love for science stems all the way back into my years in elementary school. When I was younger I would explore the plants around my home and collect them and run my own individual experiments on them, documenting my processes. Even in school my interest in science was well known since I entered in the school science fair every chance I got, as an excuse to feed into my curiosity. As I grew older my interest in experimentation and plants only continued to grow. In middle school the horrors of climate change became apparent which drove me into learning about its negative effects and potential future problems relating to the Earth, and the plants and fungi that continue to grow on it. Though I am mainly more focused on North American plants and fungi since I come in contact with those plants the most. More recently I’ve done my own personal research on plants that can break down plastics. An example of this is Pestalotiopsis microspora, which I have taken great interest in. In school I am also apart of a few clubs such as SAGA (straight and gay alliance) and SISTAS which is a club for woman of color to join and conversation about social and political issues pertaining to those communities. I also really enjoy reading. My favorite genre of books are fantasy and horror though I am trying to branch out to different types of books on the more political side.  

Outside of my academic interest, I have deep passionate interest in visual arts and on the lesser scale, fashion. In the time I get I enjoy drawing and painting, my usual mediums are more often physical like with a regular graphite pencil, oil paint, and more recently digital. I find art to be an incredibly fun way to pour out my imagination into an image that can possibly speak to others and translate my ideas to others. During quarantine I continued to hone my skills as an artist. Art has always been a big part of my life so I am happy to have continued improving. 
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For me TRIP will be an exciting and wonderful introduction to formal lab work and creating my own individual lab project. TRIP will give the opportunity to learn more about science, research, problem solving and give me insight on my career choices for the future.