Hello! My name is Emily Fehrman (she/her); I am a UC Davis GDB graduate, Class of 2019. I entered college knowing that I loved science, but that I was not interested in going to medical school. I struggled a bit to find my academic niche because of this, but felt immediately at home when I found and declared the GBD major. In my Sophomore year at Davis, in GBD90, I met Dr. Barbara Shacklett and was immediately taken by her work in HIV research. I had the honor of then working as an assistant in her lab for 2 years while at Davis, researching adaptive immune response to HIV in the blood and gut. This work cemented my passion for infectious disease research, and I found myself motivated to pursue it as a career. After graduating, I went on to work as a Clinical Research Coordinator at UCSF in the Division of HIV, Infectious Disease, and Global Medicine. There, I utilized the multidisciplinary approach that GDB had instilled in me, and led clinical studies and trials for HIV cure, and later COVID-19 treatment. After two years in my role, I decided to pursue more specialized training, and attended UCLA to earn my MPH in Community Health Sciences. Bolstered with knowledge of study design, implementation, and analysis, I was then rehired at UCSF as a Program Manager. I now lead our team's Long COVID program, overseeing a large observational cohort as well as the conduct of multiple intensive Long COVID clinical trials and tissue collection studies. I can say with the utmost confidence that the GDB major was integral in igniting my passions, and equipped me with the knowledge and experience to secure my dream jobs post-grad. GDB is such a unique and well designed major, and I cannot recommend it enough to those looking to find their own passions in the field.