Coming into the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Catherine Koterba was a pre-med student with a passion for astronomy. Three years later, she is a microbiologist studying thermophilic archaea from the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park. On the surface, this appears to be quite the career shift. Yet, for Catherine, this transition was simply the product of a deep-rooted drive to try new things and a relentless persistence to get involved with the topics that generated the most interest.