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**Melissa Moy**

Senior in Biology

Hometown: Aurora, IL

Genotyping Production Scientist Intern at Monsanto

**Getting an Early Start**

Melissa began her time at Iowa State while she was still in high school. She “had the opportunity to perform research here in high school as part of the George Washington Carver Summer Internship” and “fell in love with the research opportunities possible here and the campus itself.” Melissa had even decided on her major before arriving at Iowa State. According to Melissa, “I became interested in Biology at a young age when I saw people around me impacted by diseases I hope to perform research on and study one day.” With such an early start, Melissa was bound for success.

**A Plethora of Opportunities**

“I have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of opportunities that I have been provided through participating in various activities”, said Melissa. She has been a Community Advisor, Ambassador for the LAS College, and First Year Honors program leader, an NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholar, and a Legacy of Heroines Scholar. She mentioned that “There have definitely been many opportunities available to me that I would not have even thought possible before coming here.” With so many research and leadership opportunities, Melissa was a great candidate for many positions. However, she had a little help getting ready for the professional world.

**Preparing for Success at the Career Fair **

Melissa began her internship search by looking into companies on CyHire. She made sure to look at all applicable opportunities, even those outside of the LAS College career fairs. Melissa found an interesting internship opportunity with Monsanto. She planned to speak with Monsanto representatives at the Agriculture and Life Sciences Career Fair. In order to prepare for this meeting she researched the company “trying to identify what kinds of research they work on and what their company culture might be like.” Then, with knowledge of the company, she put together her resume. She utilized the LAS Career Services resume review to ensure that her resume was polished. Melissa stated that CyHire, the career fair, and the LAS Career Services resume review “were all very helpful resources in aiding me to obtain this internship opportunity.”

All this preparation led to Melissa having an interview with Monsanto the day after talking with a representative at the career fair. Later that month, she was offered the position of Genotyping Production Scientist Intern. Melissa “would like to be a research scientist in the field of genetics and this internship is allowing me to perform genetics based research.” “Although I am interested in performing animal or human research, I still look forward to this opportunity to perform research on crops because it will allow me to perform research on how to improve crop yield with the overall impact of helping sustain the human race (because we need food to survive). To even be able to play a small role in helping sustain humanity, I will feel like I have done some good.”