A Thrilling Life of Service and Adventure: Why I’m Finally Ready to Call the Research Lab Home

April 13, 2026

I’m in my thirties, finishing my second bachelor’s degree, and I have traveled a windy road to get here.

After high school, I was certain about one thing: I wanted to serve. I earned a spot at the United States Military Academy at West Point and knew I had a long-term plan. But two years later, I realized the Army wasn’t my forever, so I pivoted and enlisted in the Coast Guard. I trained as a flight mechanic and spent six years flying search-and-rescue missions over the Hawaiian Islands.

Peace Corps assignment in Bathurst, Sierra Leone: Distributing thousands of insecticide-treated bed nets to combat the transmission of malaria. I was assigned to support the nurses (women in the green vests).

Skydiver Morgan Tucker was part of Project 19, a historic Women’s Skydiving Network initiative commemorating the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment (granting women the right to vote). On November 25, 2022, Tucker joined elite skydivers in Eloy, Arizona, to shatter the previous 65-way record. Falling at 160 mph from 19,000 feet, the team successfully built an 80-way formation in just 80 seconds, setting a new Vertical World Record .

During that time, I found many passions, including jumping out of planes for fun. I spent time as a skydiving instructor and even broke some state skydiving records, such as the Texas, Wyoming and Florida Vertical Head-down Formation records. Knowing I still wanted to finish college, I continued to chip away at credits on the side.

After the Coast Guard, the Peace Corps represented another opportunity to serve, explore and learn. I traveled to Sierra Leone where I worked in a clinic treating malaria patients as a community health promoter. I felt genuinely passionate about this work which inspired plans to study nursing at the University of Utah.

One Med-Surg shift later (as a CNA), I had doubts nursing was a long-term fit. The prerequisite nursing classes introduced me to biology and eventually to research. From learning about parasites and pathogens to studying genetics and poop-sniffing dogs used in whale research—ask anyone in my orbit—biology, especially the weird stuff, lights me up.

Since then I’ve served as a learning assistant for genetics and worked in two research labs, including Jessica Brown’s investigating how C. neoformans travels from the lungs to the brain. In biology, I feel as if I’ve found my people.

By the time I landed at the U, I’d studied at West Point, Arizona State University and University of California San Diego. Along the way I completed my first degree in art history.

Adventures come with learning, and I’m not done yet. Next stop: a doctorate in either biology, microbiology and immunology, or infectious diseases and possibly a master’s degree in history (just for fun).

My path may have been a windy one, but each curve helped ensure I can spend my life doing something I’m passionate about.

Morgan Tucker, graduating senior in biology, from Katy, Texas