Deepa is a postdoc in the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at UC Berkeley. She is interested in understanding how prior experiences and contextual influences modulate sensory coding and behavior. She is currently studying the neural circuit mechanisms by which recent experience guides focused selective attention to the whiskers in mice. As an undergraduate, receiving a Pell Grant enabled Deepa to go to college at Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU), a teaching-centered institution in the Bay Area. Her interest in neuroethology led her to seek out research lab experience, and she was fortunate to find a position as an undergrad researcher in a great lab at Stanford, which allowed her to begin her journey in science. After graduating with a BS in Biology from NDNU, she continued working as a research technician for a year before joining the Neuroscience Graduate Program at UC Davis. At UC Davis, she received an NSF GRFP award which funded her PhD research on compensatory neural plasticity of whisker touch following sensory loss during early development. She hopes to use the perspective she has gained from navigating the academic system to demystify the graduate school application process and make it more accessible to individuals from diverse backgrounds.