BACE Credential Earner: Carol Agaiby

Name:

Carol Agaiby

Organization:

University of South Florida

Position:

Pre-Med Student & BACE Program Director

> About:

Carol Agaiby is a Pre-Med student at the University of South Florida, majoring in Biomedical Sciences. She has been involved in research since her first semester of college, and even found her own species of bacteriophage that she later published a paper on! Having this wet-lab experience motivated her to seek further opportunities in research, which is what inspired her to earn her BACE credential.

Carol is deeply interested in research. She is currently doing clinical research with Tampa General Hospital and is also a research assistant at the USF Global Center of Speech and Hearing. In this role, she investigates the acoustic startle response in mice, focusing on the neurological mechanisms underlying how variations in acoustic startle stimuli influence the mice’s behavioral responses.

Currently, Carol is also the program director of the BACE program at USF. Alongside her team, she helps instruct students through lectures and lab practical sessions so they, too, can earn the BACE credential like she did.

> BACE Impact:

Carol says earning the BACE credential gave her a significant advantage among other applicants applying for the same positions as she was. Having the BACE credential helped her impress physicians she is doing research with, earned her a research assistant position in a lab, and even allowed her to gain admittance into an SRIP (Summer Research Internship Program) at the University of Virginia!

> Job Description:

As a Research Assistant, Carol is responsible for handling mice and conducting various acoustic tests, ensuring that all results are accurately documented and organized on the lab’s shared drive. In her clinical research work, she extracts data from patient charts to perform statistical analyses and develop abstracts centered on specific topics. To date, Carol has authored an abstract on hiatal hernia recurrence and is currently working on a manuscript with the goal of publication.

> Best Thing About Your Job?:

Carol says she always wants to learn as much as possible. Being a Pre-Med student while also being involved in research gives her the opportunity to learn about medicine in new and abstract ways.