Vanya Kovacheva CCBC international student   What are your academic and professional goals? I’m planning to transfer to Towson University. I would like to go on for a master’s degree. Ultimately, I want to do biomedical research. With biotechnology, you can design prescription medicines. You can do gene therapy, like AIDS gene therapy, cancer gene therapy, many, many different things that would be really helpful to people. Why is CCBC the right fit for you, personally? First of all, I saw that it had the biotechnology program. I was a biology major [at the University of Zurich] before I came here, and I was looking for the same thing. Other friends told me that CCBC has high quality classes, so I decided to go for it. In Switzerland, the Swiss students were kind of distant, to tell you the truth. I really like it here, and I don’t have any such problems with American students. I really love CCBC because I can work with my professors so closely. It’s an invaluable opportunity because they get to know you, they can appreciate your work. If you need recommendations, they can give them to you and state your true characteristics. CCBC has really high quality classes. When you have a small class, you have the opportunity to have a discussion-based classroom. It allows you to use your imagination in how you answer questions. CCBC also has an Honors program, which is really important for students who are above the average. Another thing about CCBC is that it helps students to find jobs. In my program, one of the last courses is direct research or internships. This is a really great opportunity for the students to look for a job, decide if they like it, and if they’re good at the job, they maybe will get a contract with the company.