This blog post is about: Similar to most children, Dr. Avery August performed his first makeshift experiments at home. This is when he came to the simple yet life-changing realization that you can observe and draw conclusions to explain what happens in the natural world. This happened when he noticed a red bean he planted sprouted and grew towards the light source. Ever since this realization, he began to put down his own roots down in science. Growing up as a child in Belize, he credits many influences in his journey through science including a marine biologist/Peace Corp volunteer/biology teacher for ushering him towards this path. Today, August’s passions in science can be divided into two themes: the excitement of discoveries and the love of mentoring students.