Mrs. Hester attended RBA from fifth through eighth grade. She graduated in 2007 as the salutatorian of the first graduating class.

Background

After graduating from RBA, I attended school at Southeastern Early College High School (currently named Columbus Career and College Academy) where I obtained my Associate in Arts degree and high school diploma. I then transferred to UNC Pembroke where I earned my Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and a Minor in Geology.

I then went on to earn the Analytical Chemistry Award for the university in 2013. This helped me finalize my chosen career path as an analytical chemist.

Post-graduation, I entered the workforce as an entry-level chemist for AAI Pharma (now known as Alcami) in Wilmington, which is a CDMO for Pharma and Biotech Companies. After almost four years of testing pharmaceuticals with Alcami, I decided to try my hand

at cosmetics and I was hired on as a chemist for Burt’s Bees in Morrisville, NC. After a year of living in the Raleigh area, I discovered that eastern North Carolina was where my heart resided and moved back home closer to family.

What are you doing now?

I transitioned outside of the laboratory and I am currently working as a Quality Assurance Assistant Manager with Quality Chemical Laboratories in Wilmington. I love my current position as it allows me to build upon my scientific writing and communication skills and be a leader in company-wide process improvements; while also still applying all of my previous, hard-earned laboratory experience. Having a non-laboratory position has also allowed me to finally start a family with my wonderful husband (who I met while attending UNCP). We have a beautiful little boy named Logan.

How did your time at The Roger Bacon Academy prepare you for your endeavors?

I owe much of my academic success to my experience at RBA. The type of structured environment that RBA offered helped tune out all of the unnecessary distraction that is found in your typical public school and really allowed me to focus on learning key skills that carried over into my college years. I distinctly remember struggling in my Organic Chemistry courses and thinking back to the study techniques my eighth grade teachers taught me. I had to strip everything down and go back to the extreme basics of how to study, and that foundation came from my time at RBA.

There isn’t one subject or activity that propelled me forward (though seventh grade science was my favorite class); it was the way information was presented, taught, and practiced that provided the core fundamentals that outlasted my time at RBA.

How has your Roger Bacon Academy education shaped who you are as a person and in your career?

As I previously mentioned, it was my seventh grade science class that fueled my passion for science. I remember bringing in a new astronomy book my mother bought for me at Books-A-Million and Mrs. Beamer sat patiently with a grin while I gushed about how crazy our universe is. While I didn’t enjoy math enough to become the astrophysicist I spoke to her about, my time in her class helped me keep that passion alive and gave me the courage to stay in the field.

One of the main aspects in working in the pharmaceutical industry is having integrity, which means doing what is right even when no one is looking. Because we test products that may ultimately be consumed by humans or animals, we always have to do our best to maintain this integrity as it could have serious implications on the health of the population. At RBA, integrity is one of the most important and outlasting character-building lessons that are taught. This along with being trustworthy, disciplined, respectful, and motivated are acquired traits that I am still applying in my life today.