Sarai Sherfield
Week 2 Student of the Week!
After completing only her first year at Norfolk State University in Virginia, Sarai Sherfield cannot see herself doing anything other than engineering. Sherfield’s first encounter with engineering was in high school when she participated in “Girls Exploring Tomorrow’s Technology,” an event for middle and high school girls to learn about all the opportunities technology careers can offer to women. She explains an experience she had as a young girl, in which she was offered the opportunity to participate in a cosmetology program or an engineering program. Curious, she chose both, soon discovering what little interest she had in cosmetology, and how good she was at math and engineering.
“We made a simple circuit that made a light bulb glow, and I was hooked.” Sherfield confesses that she still has that circuit in her room at home. Since then, every summer has been dedicated to engineering. The summer before entering her junior year in high school, Sarai flew to South Africa to study engineering at the University of Cape Town. She has also taken computer science classes at the University of California, Berkeley.
“I am very thankful to my mom, who paid for all of the different programs I did. Those are not cheap, but she always encouraged me to do what I loved and what I was good at.”
Aside from math and science, Sarai is also skilled in vocals and music. She has been in choirs and acappella groups ever since she was young.
“I even brought my keyboard with me [to Boston]!” Sarai said.
She hopes to 
join a music group on campus when she returns to Norfolk State in September.
“They were a group of inquisitive kids,” Sarai said, but as we have learned from our REU participants, a little inquisitiveness and some determination can bring you quite a long way. Sarai hopes to continue with research after she graduates, and to take what she learns here at Boston University, and apply it to her future career.Since being an REU, working in Bennett Goldberg’s lab, Sarai has stood in front of a group of middle school students and showed them the scattering properties of light with a laser she has been using in the lab. She was proud to say that she felt like she really understood what she was talking about, and was able to explain everything to the students.
Learn why Sarai chose REU this summer!
See what Sarai is working on in lab with Prof. Goldberg.