Welcome, friends and strangers! I am an MS student in Forest Resources and Conservation studying genomics and transcriptomics of bark and ambrosia beetles and their fungi in the Forest Entomology Lab at the University of Florida. I started my undergraduate studies as a microbiology major at Rutgers University, but, in joining the Rutgers Center for Vector Biology, I developed a passion for learning about how microorganisms and insects interact with each other and their environment. I continued to nurture this interest as a microbiology and entomology double major, serving as president of both the Rutgers' microbiology and entomology student organizations, presenting at multiple Entomological Society of America meetings, and winning an Outstanding Senior Thesis Award for "Living the Fly Life: Genomic Analyses of Mosquito Gut Bacteria and Host Colonization". I graduated as salutatorian of the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences class of 2023 and started my graduate study at the University of Florida's School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics that fall. Doing a master's degree in this department has given me valuable opportunities to interact with and learn from the next generation of field professionals, as well as colleagues around the globe, and has changed my perspective on serving the needs of my community and natural systems through research, teaching, and extension. Though ambrosia beetles and their fungi are very different from mosquitoes and ticks, I continue to work at a fascinating intersection between entomology and microbiology and apply my knowledge of both fields to study how both insects and microbes shape each other and the world we live in.