Bailey grew up in Maynard, a small town in northeast Iowa, with her parents, older brother, and many different animals (dogs, cats, bunnies, guinea pigs, and hamsters). She may not have grown up out in the country but often describes herself as a “village girl”, because she was not a farm girl or a city kid, but somewhere in between.
She attended school starting in kindergarten at West Central. Her school was kindergarten through 12th grade all in one building and included two other neighboring towns and the surrounding farms. Her graduating class was only 32 kids and that was large for her school. Being in such a small school she did not have many opportunities outside of the classroom or school activities. However, Bailey did find her passion in class.
Sophomores at West Central almost always take biology as their science class. Bailey at the time thought she was going to go into engineering or maybe teaching. After a few weeks in class she was in love with biology. Her enjoyment of biology continued on for the rest of her high school career. This led passion her to attend the University of Iowa for biology. At first she wanted to go to medical school but quickly realized that it was not for her. Then she bounced around with what part of biology she wanted to study but something always stayed the same. She loved to do research and be hands on with her learning.
Bailey joined the Nieman lab in the spring of her sophomore year and has been there ever since. In her lab Bailey helps on projects that use a tiny New Zealand mudsnail. The main goal of her research is to study how sex evolved in the wild. Other projects include the growth and behavior of the snails. Recently Bailey has taken on the role of caring for the snails and spends most of her time filling tanks with water, cleaning up messes around the lab, and feeding the snails.
In Fall 2020 Bailey hopes to attend graduate school where she will continue doing research and learn more about biology.
Gold S.T.A.R.S. 