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Today, Rachelle Berks is a chemistry professor at St. Edwards University, or, as she says

in her Twitter bio, hashtag chemistryblackademic in the ivory tower.

But way back when, I wanted to be a lawyer when I was little.

Little grade school Rachelle wasn't that interested in science.

I was like a little Alex P. Keaton kid, being a case, little ribbon around the neck, you know,

blouse.

And I used to go to the library every Saturday and read law books.

I was a really fun kid.

Yeah, it sounds like it.

But then, on an eighth grade school trip to Washington, DC, some folks from the FBI introduced

Rachelle to a field of science she had never heard of before, forensic science.

And all of a sudden, science seemed like a pretty good idea.

And as I saw, it could be useful.

But it could be applied.

I just had made that connection before and be used to solve crimes and things.

Then I just became like a whole, you know, forensic science crime chemistry just not.

Yeah.

So that's kind of really what got me into it is that, that school trip.

The power of school trips people?

After that trip, she talked with her grandmother and her mom.

And the introduced Rachelle to a super fun genre, one that combined her love of forensic

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