For all of us, life is a series of choices.
And UNC Greensboro senior Colby Borges has had to make many in these last five years.
Biology or chemistry? Start a fashion business or pursue medical school? Rugby or lacrosse? Work in an emergency room or in the field as a paramedic? Music or poetry?
Spoiler alert: Borges found ways to do all that stuff and more, making decisions that allowed him to pack a whole lot of living into his time at the G. Now his undergraduate journey comes to an end, as he will graduate with honors in a few short days with a major in biology and minors in both chemistry and psychology.
How would he describe his UNCG experience?
“It’s been a roller-coaster, but not about highs and lows,” Borges says. “It’s been more of an unobscured path to where I’m going. I’m not sure what that next twist is going to be like, or how I’m going to feel when I get there. But I am so looking forward to when I do get there. I’m super excited for the next turn, the next bend, the next climb, the next rush. And that’s what UNCG has been like for me. I’ve definitely found my way to do what I want, to be who I want to be.”
A SCIENTIST’S MIND
Borges grew up in Massachusetts, living in the Boston suburbs of Framingham and Milford. As a high school kid, one of his role models was his pediatrician, and Borges decided on a pre-med route that brought him south.
He knew a little about UNCG because his father, Louie, was a soccer player for coach Mike Berticelli’s 1982 and ’83 Spartans who won back-to-back NCAA Division III national championships.
“My dad and my uncle both played, so I played soccer, too. I loved it, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do for a career,” Borges says. “My family wanted to play professionally. That was their journey. My journey was different. I love soccer, but I knew I wanted to do other things.”
Borges thinks with a scientist’s mind. He always has.
Biology felt natural, but the research he did for Dr. Amy Adamson lit a fire within Borges that could only be stoked by more and more knowledge. It led to his two minors, particularly chemistry.
“I took on chemistry research for my McNair Scholars program,” Borges says. “As part of that program, there’s a requirement to take on research. I had worked in a biology research lab before that, part of Dr. Adamson’s cancer research, which studies intracellular virus host interactions. They’re currently working with Epstein-Barr Virus and influenza. They’re exploring how EBV is involved in neurodegenerative diseases now, too, which is really cool.”
Borges transitioned to chemistry research once COVID-19 restrictions eased and the summer research program reopened, and he began working with Dr. Nadja Cech.
“She is wonderful,” Borges says. “She runs a natural products chemistry lab that discovers active phytochemicals in plants to aid in the discovery of new antibiotics. We’re using biochemometrics, a multivariate statistical analysis to pair metabalomic data, or its chemical profile, with biological activity, the biological profile, to identify active constituents in natural products that can aid in the discovery of novel antibiotics.”
Got all that? No?
Here’s the deal: They’re looking for ways to make effective drugs out of stuff found in nature.
Stuff like cinnamon. Borges’ research tested a theory that the spice could help treat nasty staph infections such as MRSA.
“As a child, I dealt with a skin infection on my foot for two-and-a-half years before any treatment worked,” Borges says. “So this was a huge interest to me, to find treatments through a more natural holistic way using plants, rather than through chemical engineering.”
Borges finds a sense of purpose in the lab.
“The idea is to see how the compounds in plants interact with our bodies, and to see if they interact differently than prescription medication,” Borges says. “I thought cinnamon was cinnamon, you know? I never knew there was an assortment of species until joining the lab and hopping on this project. But all of these cinnamon species have different chemical profiles. They contain different compounds and chemical makeups. That means they might have different health benefits.”
Borges dives into explaining those differences. Even if you don’t understand it, you know he does. His eyes light up and his hands move to illustrate points. He’s like a little kid tearing wrapping paper off packages. But instead of gifts, Borges is finding answers to questions he never thought to ask.
The work will remain even after he leaves UNCG, and that excites Borges, too.
“It’s a lot of trial and error, over and over,” Borges says. “Some projects go on for quite some time. So you’re just a piece of a puzzle. Maybe your work ends at some point and another lab picks up where you left off.
“Maybe one lab tests to see how it modulates cancer or some other disease. Maybe another lab sees if it can help with insulin sensitivity for diabetes. But since we know it wasn’t active against a skin disease like MRSA, that doesn’t mean cinnamon is useful for something else, right? We just didn’t test those things. So we collaborate, and maybe some other lab notices something different from our data and they try something else. Either way, we’ve given someone else a head start, right?”
IN THE FIELD
Outside the classroom, Borges got his own head start.
The G has felt like home from Day One of his freshman year at Ashby Residential College. And the friendships forged since then have led to real-world experiences.
“I had the ambition and the drive to just keep my head down and geared towards medical school,” Borges says. “And that’s led me to abundant opportunities for research collaborations. And I met so many people here at UNCG through my classes that led to other things.”
Things like working for three years as a chief scribe at Rockingham County’s Morehead Memorial Hospital in Eden, and transitioning to work as an Emergency Medical Technician on advice from mentor Dr. Robert Cannon in the biology department.
The scribe role in a rural hospital’s emergency room changed his outlook.
“I started, and right away it’s, ‘Whoa, this is crazy.’ I’ve never seen so much action before,” Borges says. “I fell in love with the fast pace and the variety. I’m a high-energy guy. I love moving. I love talking. I’m an outgoing specimen.”
As a scribe, Borges worked alongside doctors and nurses in the ER, taking notes and documentation for patients.
“You work right next to the physician, and that gives you a real understanding of clinical experience and backgrounds, plus decision-making,” Borges says. “You get to see the work, see case management. What led the doctor to believe the patient had this disorder? What brought you down this road? Why did you order the things you ordered? Why did you get these medications? Why did you start an IV? Why did you do this? Why do that?”
It’s deductive reasoning to solve a human puzzle, the core science of emergency medicine.
Experience as both a scribe and an EMT give Borges a balance as he moves on.
“As an EMT, you’re out there in the field, not in the emergency room,” Borges says. “You have an understanding of working with patients, but you might not have an understanding of how the hospitals work. You’re dropping the patient off and giving a quick description of what’s going on. You don’t see what happens to the patient following that. So there’s a beauty to experiencing both worlds.”
FORM AND FASHION
Borges’ experiences aren’t all school and work.
He has a scientist’s mind, indeed, but also the soul of an artist.
He loves music and writes poetry, making the time to read his poems on open-mic nights at Common Grounds, the cozy coffee house on South Elam Avenue, not far from his place on Spring Garden Street.
Borges played club-team rugby and started a lacrosse club at UNCG. He’s also works as a lifeguard, rides a vintage bicycle and does yoga three days a week.
And he and a friend, UNCG alum Rebecca Mathewson, started their own small clothing business, “Better Than Your Last Vintage.”
It’s an online vintage clothing store found on Depop, Instagram, and eBay, with some sales in-person at the Rumors boutiques in Chapel Hill and Durham.
“I’ve always had a passion for clothing, and UNCG helped me express that because the university is so diverse,” Borges says. “That translates to different shapes and forms and colors, but also many creative minds.”
Borges is still involved, but Mathewson has taken the lead role in the business.
“Clothing is a form of self-expression,” Borges says. “There are social norms we see with clothing – what you should wear and what you shouldn’t. Breaking those barriers is kind of the purpose of Better Than Your Last. We recreate vintage clothing. We’ll use scraps of clothing, clothing nobody wants anymore, clothing that’s at Goodwill or even in the dumpster. There’s still beauty and life in it, and we repurpose it. We’re using old products to create new products, and that eliminates waste.”
ONE GOOD CHOICE LEADS TO ANOTHER
Clothing is a choice – like so many other choices Borges made on his journey to this moment on the cusp of commencement.
He chose things he loves. Science. Poetry. Sports. Music.
Above all: people.
“You meet the right people and you find mentors, and they help you navigate,” Borges says. “If I didn’t have conversations with the people around me, I wouldn’t have gotten where I am right now.”
And in this moment, Colby Borges’ choices have put him exactly where he’s supposed to be.
“You take it all in, and you determine what you want to do, where you want to be, how you want to get there,” Borges says. “I take wisdom from the emergency room to the research lab to my own business to my life. Wisdom flows in all directions, and it has allowed me to develop as a person. And UNCG has been a center point for me in doing all those things.”
Story by Jeff Mills, University Communications
Photography by Martin W. Kane, University Communications and Lynn Hey
#UNCGGrad, celebrate with us!
Graduates are invited to share their accomplishments on social media by using related “digital swag,” tagging posts #UNCGGrad, and using Commencement-themed Instagram AR and Snapchat filters at the Greensboro Coliseum. The University will display #UNCGGrad-tagged Instagram and Twitter posts live before the ceremony. Graduates are also encouraged to use the Commencement 2022 persona in the UNCG Mobile App.
