Our Story

We met our first day of undergrad at the INSPIRE Orientation. As we were huge nerds in high school, Esther and I signed up for a research program sight-unseen. We had no idea what we were getting into. We ended up with more labs than we could count: Organic Chemistry lab, Biology lab, and then, before we knew it, research lab. Esther soon became the lady of the lab rats. Shahein made friends with yeast. Because of the requirements of pre-health and INSPIRE, we ended up having more than 75% of our classes together. Esther enjoyed poking him when he fell asleep in class—even in the front row! From organic chemistry and microbiology to fencing and intro to music, we suffered through some of the worst classes and celebrated the best of the Emory experience together.

After many years of being friends, we started to date our senior year of college. We shared many great experiences of our INSPIRE camping trips, one a many study sessions for our Evolution of Biology, and late nights working under deadline for Hybrid Vigor. We were fortunate to end up in the same city for graduate school, and the rest, they say, is history.