When Brendon Coats graduated high school, he did not have a clear plan for what came next. Today, he is an undergraduate biology student at UNC Charlotte, a Research Technician in the Smith Lab at the UNC Nutrition Research Institute (NRI), and a recipient of the First-Generation Student Research Award—an honor recognizing both academic achievement and research excellence. His path into science did not begin in a classroom. It began during a gap year, when a connection led him to an internship at the NRI’s Clinical Research Center.