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Long before he stepped into a lab, Andrew Farinha 17 was drawn to animals and to science.
Growing up in Fall River, Massachusetts, the son of Portuguese immigrants, Farinha was surrounded by pets, family stories of raising goats and chickens, and an early fascination with biology. For a long time, I actually wanted to be a marine biologist, he said. But when it came time to choose a college, veterinary medicine seemed like a more practical path. That led him to 51a choice that would chart the course of his career.
I didnt want to go to a huge university where I might just be a number, Farinha recalled. At Emmanuel, the small classes and personal relationships with professors really stood out. On his campus visit, he met faculty and explored the labs where he would soon spend long hours conducting research. It just felt like the right fit.
It was more than the right fitit was a career-defining decision.
The Power of Mentorship
The Emmanuel experience is built on personal attention and community, and for Farinha, that meant professors who took an active role in guiding himboth academically and professionally. His first major turning point came courtesy of Dr. Padraig Deighan, Associate Professor of Biology and the Dean of the School of Science and Health.
My wife, Dominique, who I met at Emmanuel, told me I had to take his microbiology class. She was rightit was amazing, Farinha said. Deighan class introduced him to the world of bacteria and viruses, a world that would eventually pull him away from veterinary medicine and into research.
When internship opportunities in veterinary clinics proved scarce, Deighan offered Farinha a spot on his research team. That summer project studying phage genes toxic to bacteria related to tuberculosis became the foundation for the Paul Shannahan Wenger CURE Laboratory, a course-based undergraduate research experience now offered to all first-year biology majors at Emmanuel. We designed protocols that could be used by students with no prior lab experience. It pretty cool to know that piece of my work is still being used, Farinha said.
But perhaps more importantly, it also planted a seed: that a career in research could be just as fulfilling as one in clinical practice. Working with Padraig really changed my career trajectory, Farinha said. He became a true mentor and friend. One class with him essentially launched my entire career.
The research wasnt limited to Deighan lab. Farinha credits Emmanuel entire biology faculty with helping him build the technical skills that would carry him through years of graduate study. In Experimental Biology with Dr. Jason Kuehner, Associate Professor of Biology, he learned PCR cloning, transformation, and aseptic techniqueskills he would later rely on heavily in his Ph.D. program.