RANGE: Amanda’s collection of creative pursuits

Hi there. I'm Amanda, and I love STEM.

At the same time, I’ve always gravitated towards art and design: when I was younger, I loved ceramics and sculpture, took pastel, drawing, watercolor, and oil lessons, played the piano and violin, loved to paint my nails and style my hair, and was convinced I’d be a fashion designer when I grew up.

The natural world is so special, and has always inspired me. Gardening, actually, led me down the academic path of genetics, but I see it as both scientific and creative: the artistry of how humans and plants fill and arrange space together.

I have degrees in biology, data science, and the wonderfully vague “Space Studies,” and took plenty of classes that were totally unrelated to those subjects, too. Now, I sometimes feel like a “jack of all trades, but master of none…”

I’m very inspired by David Epstein’s Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World and this YouTube video from the channel UnordinaryMind that I resonated with deeply.

This collection brings together proof that I love to create. I’ve titled this page "RANGE" to remind myself that creative pursuits are a strength.

In the stu