Lahdaisha Thomas

Background

About Lahdaisha Thomas

One thing about me is I’m curious! I am an agriculture plant and soil science major and growing up, I’ve always wanted to do something science related. At some point I wanted to be a chemist and another, I wanted to go into forensic science. However, I never expected to go into a field so foreign to me. I did not grow up in the countryside and my parents didn’t study agriculture. I’ve always lived in a city or suburban area. But coming to Prairie View, I got to experience a whole new world and learned about the science in my environment. I enrolled in August 2020, when the campus was on shut down. It was hard learning and adjusting to virtual learning, especially in an area with service isn’t the best. Not only was it tough on me but also the instructors. But when school began to take place in person, I got hands on experience in our schools farm and labs almost immediately! I may specialize in plant and soil science but since my time at the school, I’ve been involved in research regarding early childhood obesity, gut microbiota, and bioenergy using perennial grasses. During an internship I did out of state in South Carolina, I got to do research involving radiochemistry and carbon sequestration which caught my curiosity. I not only got to about various careers and fields within environmental science, but I got to experience it all first hand. Traveling for hours to collect water samples, then bringing them to the lab for analysis was an exciting and challenging experience. In the beginning it was difficult but after talking and working with my team, the work got easier, and seeing the change in efficiency was satisfying. As curious as I am, I always want to be a good team player and work good with other people.