From hummingbird backpacks to disease prevention

Like so many young people, Jonathan Bristle wasn’t sure what he wanted to do after high school. He jokes that at one point, he aspired to be a professional boxer. “I wanted to be on TV. I wanted to be everywhere.”

“But things changed,” he reflects, acknowledging that hobbies don’t always make for the best professional pursuits. He always recognized the importance of education, and when his English teacher at Ingraham High School required everyone in his class to apply for Seattle Promise, he obliged.

Jonathan graduated high school amidst the chaos and uncertainty of 2020 — the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and the pivot to online learning. He credits Seattle Promise with providing him with structure and space to explore his academic interests without taking on debt.

“Seattle Promise gave me the freedom to actually explore what I wanted, what I like and what I’m interested in,” which ultimately led him down the path to Biology at North Seattle College and later, the University of Washington.

Initially spurred by his high school chemistry class, Jonathan’s interest in STEM cemented once he reached college. In particular, he recalls an independent research course at North taught by Professors Ann Murkowski and Heather Price. In it, he learned about research methods and experimented with different technologies to measure air quality. This exposure piqued his interest in scientific research, building the foundation for his later academic journey. His advisor at North helped lay out his options, guiding him toward the classes and labs he’d need for his goals.

After two years at North, Jonathan took advantage of the (then brand new) Path to UW program, a partnership between Seattle Promise and the University of Washington. With help from a dedicated Path to UW advisor, Lily Peterson, he transferred to UW where he would spend the next two years working towards a biology degree.

The transition was challenging at first — big lecture halls and high-stakes exams were a break from what he was used to at North. But by his second term, he adapted, excelling in his labs and seeking out smaller classes where he could. He leaned on friends and Seattle Promise peers at UW to show him the ropes. Academically, Jonathan says North prepared him very well. “My knowledge base from North was very translatable to the university level. The workload was pretty similar.”

At UW, Jonathan continued to grow his research experience — first in a lab investigating the role of coloration in sexual selection and behavior in hummingbirds and monitoring their movements through tiny backpacks. (!) Eventually, when his focus narrowed to Molecular Biology, he joined a lab that studied aging in yeast cells.

Last spring, four years after he first enrolled at North through Seattle Promise, Jonathan graduated from UW with a B.S. in Biology (above at right). He’s currently working at Viome Life Sciences as a laboratory assistant, where he processes samples and organizes data to aid the research team. It’s good professional experience, but his longer-term plans are to pursue a post-baccalaureate program and then go on to graduate school.

“I want to work in virology and structural biology, mainly for vaccine development. That’s really where my passion lies. I’m playing the long game,” he says, steadily building up his experience so one day he can lead a research team of his own.

Looking back on his undergraduate education, Jonathan expresses gratitude for the role that Seattle Promise played in helping him find his path. “If it weren’t for Promise, I probably wouldn’t have found my interest in research.” And for thousands more Seattle students, Promise opens doors that might otherwise remain closed, offering them the opportunity to explore and pursue their passions through higher education.