Alessandra Constantini, Oklahoma State University: The journey of a math major through college education usually starts with a calculus course. It is usually harder to predict where it ends, as several factors might affect each student’s trajectory. In this talk, I’ll tell you how my educational journey brought me to a Ph.D. thesis on Rees algebras, and how my experience, those of my classmates and those of my students has shaped how I view higher education and how I choose to teach mathematics.