Jaiyana “Jay” King is set to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and biotechnology this semester and has plans to ultimately pursue a PhD in oncologic research. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

People all over the world found themselves out of sorts and looking for safety as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe in 2020.

It was an even more unsettling time for Jaiyana “Jay” King, who graduated from Charleston High School in Southeast Missouri that spring and seven days later saw her mother die after a battle with breast cancer.

King spent that summer with her grandparents in Chicago as she waited to start college at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, unsure what the immediate and long-term future would bring.

“It was really, really hard navigating my mom’s death and then COVID and then finally, starting college,” she said, reflecting on that period of her life more than four years later. “But I made it.”

She has little doubt the people she met at UMSL helped her get through it – whether it was resident advisor Alaina Dorsey, who looked after her during that first year living in Oak Hall; the friends she made around campus, including through her involvement in the University Program Board; or the faculty members who helped her find her way into biochemistry and biotechnology and then encouraged her to engage in undergraduate research, including a summer internship in a Washington University lab focused on cancer research.

Next month, King will graduate with her bachelor’s degree, and she has plans to enroll in a post-baccalaureate program before ultimately pursuing her PhD in oncologic research.

“UMSL definitely has been an amazing choice for me,” she said. “I’ve made so many amazing friends here. I’ve had so many amazing opportunities. I got to be involved on campus. I got to be the person that I really want to be and have grown into the woman I am, and I really thank UMSL for that.”

Finding a home

King had grown up in Chicago but moved to Charleston, a town of about 5,000 people in Missouri’s Bootheel, when she was about 12 years old. She said her mother, a single parent, wanted a change from city life.

Jay King talks about the University Program Board and gives away prizes to senior computer science majors Abdisis Abrahim and Mahabu Matin during January’s Spring Involvement Jamboree in the MIllennium Student Center. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

She was less enthusiastic about the move but managed to adjust, excelling academically and graduating as the salutatorian of her high school class.

King wanted to get back to a more urban environment and started exploring more than a dozen colleges, including UMSL.

“At the time, I wanted to be a forensic scientist, and they had a really good criminology program,” said King, who was also drawn to the suite-style dorm rooms in Oak Hall. “I was like, ‘Oh, UMSL would probably be a really good choice.’”

Fall 2020 would’ve been a strange time to start college even if she weren’t still processing and grieving the loss of her mother. But she quickly made friends during her first-day experience.

“A lot of people decided not to come to college because of COVID, so it was quiet and kind of barren,” she said. “But I made a really nice group of friends, and we made our own fun during freshman year.”

It also made her that much more determined to help inject energy back into campus as restrictions lifted and everyday life shifted to a new normal. She got involved in residential life, working first as a desk assistant and then as an RA, and at the end of her sophomore year, she was also invited to join the University Program Board, which organizes and promotes dozens of events on campus each semester.

Graduate student Jalen Walker-Wright, now a graduate intern in the Office of Student Involvement, joined UPB at the same time while still an undergraduate.

“What really stood out for me about Jay in UPB was her enthusiasm for events that nobody really thought were possible,” he said.

Jay King reacts after being named homecoming royalty last February during halftime of an UMSL basketball game. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

He pointed to Breakaway Bliss, which drew a crowd of more than 100 people to the Quad last December to take out some stress by smashing some dishes, and a bonfire night that brought students together on the patio of the Millennium Student Center.

“Everybody was thinking, ‘Oh, it may not happen, it may not happen,’” Walker-Wright said. “But Jay was persistent. She said, ‘This is an event that I want to do.’”

King took the lead at organizing at least 20 events during her two years on the University Program Board and wasn’t content to simply post them on UPB’s social media sites or the campus calendar. She made sure to engage in personal outreach to get people to show up and be involved.

She worked with Walker-Wright to plan last spring’s Mirthweek Carnival, which attracted more than 800 students.

“I’ve just enjoyed seeing the smile on people’s faces when they come to events,” King said. “I just love seeing the crowd. I love being the cause of getting people to have fun. I also just love seeing the university pushing itself to do more interesting events and fun things on campus because I missed it.”

The right fit for her future

As King got involved on campus during her early years at UMSL, she was also sorting through the direction she really wanted to take her education and career. She initially planned to major in chemistry with a minor in criminology as a path into forensic science, but she decided early on to switch to biochemistry because it had fewer upper-level math requirements.

As she got into biochemistry, she quickly became fascinated by the technology and engineering reshaping the field.

“One of the main things I love about it most is using this research to help people and find new and amazing and creative ways to use science for the advancement of humanity,” King said.

Jay King works with other students in the lab of Washington University Assistant Professor Jessica Silva-Fisher. (Photo courtesy of Jessica Silva-Fisher)

She’s connected with a number of faculty members, including Teaching Professor Mark Spingola and Associate Teaching Professor Trey Kidd in the Department of Biology and Professor James Bashkin in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Bashkin gave King her first opportunity to participate in undergraduate research, working on cell biology projects related to the lab’s ongoing efforts to develop polyamide drugs that can combat human papilloma virus, which is linked to cervical cancer.

“Jay is a very bright student,” Bashkin said. “She showed great promise in the lab. Jay is also extremely personable, and she is enthusiastic about her studies and biomedical research. I expect her to go far in her chosen career path.”

King has also been involved in the Missouri Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, or MOLSAMP, an alliance of nine higher-education institutions across the state with a shared aim to increase the number of underrepresented minority students who complete undergraduate and advanced degrees in STEM fields. Participating students gain access to mentors, undergraduate research opportunities and internships.

Both Bashkin and Jamillah Boyd, an associate teaching professor of information systems and technology and the faculty advisor for the MOLSAMP program, encouraged King to pursue an internship opportunity last summer at Washington University’s School of Medicine.

She wound up getting hired as an intern in the lab of Jessica Silva-Fisher, an assistant professor in the Division of Oncology who specializes in researching how RNAs can regulate the genome in aggressive forms of cancer, including multiple myeloma, colon cancer and breast cancer.

“I was so excited to just learn everything that I could,” King said of her experience.

She received training in techniques for isolating RNA from cells and ways to grow and take care of cell cultures as well as how to run quantitative polymerase chain reactions, or qPCRs, for analyzing proteins.

“It was a great pleasure to have Jay join our lab this summer,” Silva-Fisher said. “I was extremely impressed with her independence in the lab as she learned many advanced techniques.”

King’s work earned her inclusion on a manuscript Silva-Fisher and her team have in preprint, and Silva-Fisher said King also had opportunities to present at several conferences, including at Siteman Cancer Center, the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists, and the National Science Foundation’s LSAMP PI/PD Meeting.

“I felt proud of myself for finally being in a setting that I actually want to be in,” King said. “It made me realize that I love research so much. I would love to be a researcher, and it made me realize that I want to pursue my PhD.”

Next month’s commencement ceremony will mark the next step in that direction.