MaryGracy Arakkal Antony

Science Enthusiast; 2nd year Masters Student in the CoDE (coding to understand disease evolution) Lab @ SFSU

[Travis Akers 🇺🇸 @travisakers]

A message from a Kindergarten teacher:

After forty years in the classroom, my career ended with one small sentence from a six-year-old:

“My dad says people like you don’t matter anymore.”

No sneer. No malice. Just quiet honesty — the kind that cuts deeper because it’s innocent. He blinked, then added, “You don’t even have a TikTok.”

My name is Mrs. Clara Holt, and for four decades, I taught kindergarten in a small Denver suburb. Today, I stacked the last box on my desk and locked the door behind me.

When I started teaching in the early 1980s, it felt like a promise — a shared belief that what we did mattered. We weren’t rich, but we were valued. Parents brought warm cookies to parent nights. Kids gave you handmade cards with hearts that didn’t quite line up. Watching a child sound out their first sentence felt like magic.

But that world slowly slipped away. The job I once knew has been replaced by exhaustion, red tape, and a kind of loneliness I can’t quite describe.

My evenings used to be filled with construction paper, glitter, and glue sticks. Now they’re spent filling out digital reports to protect myself from angry emails or lawsuits. I’ve been yelled at by parents in front of twenty-five children — one filming me with his phone while I tried to calm another child mid-meltdown.

And the kids… they’ve changed too. Not by choice.

They arrive tired, anxious, overstimulated. Their tiny fingers know how to swipe a screen before they can hold a crayon. Some can’t make eye contact or wait in line. We’re expected to fix all of it — to patch the gaps, heal the trauma, teach the curriculum, and document every move — in six hours a day, with resources that barely fill a drawer.

The little reading corner I once built, full of soft beanbags and paper stars, was replaced by data charts and “learning metrics.” A young principal once told me, “Clara, maybe you’re too nurturing. The district wants measurable results.”

As if kindness were a weakness.

Still, I stayed. Because of the small, holy moments that no spreadsheet could measure —
a whisper of, “You remind me of my grandma.”
a shaky note that read, “I feel safe here.”
a quiet boy finally meeting my eyes and saying, “I read the whole page.”

Those tiny sparks were my reason to keep showing up.

But this last year broke something in me.

The aggression grew sharper. The laughter in the staff room turned to silence. The light went out of so many eyes. I watched brilliant teachers — my friends — vanish under the weight of burnout, their joy replaced by survival.

I felt myself fading too, like chalk on a board that’s been wiped one too many times.

So today, I began my goodbye. I pulled faded art off the walls and tucked thirty years of handmade cards into a single box. In the back of a drawer, I found a letter from a student from 1998:

“Thank you for loving me when I was hard to love.”

I sat on the floor and cried.

No party. No applause. Just a handshake from a young principal who called me “Ma’am” while checking his notifications.

I left my rocking chair behind, and my sticker box too. What I carried with me were the memories — the faces of hundreds of children who once trusted me enough to reach out their hands and learn. That can’t be uploaded. It can’t be measured. It can’t be replaced.

I miss when teachers were partners, not targets. When parents and educators worked side by side, not in opposition. When schools cared more about wonder than numbers.

So if you know a teacher — any teacher — thank them. Not with a mug or a gift card, but with your words. With your respect. With your understanding that behind every test score is a heart that cared enough to try.

Because in a world that often overlooks them, teachers are the ones who never forget our children.

[Kieran Samuk @ksamuk]

Hi all, my lab at UC Riverside is recruiting PhD students for Fall 2025! These positions will be fully funded and include NIH-funded projects on recombination rate evolution and chromosomal inversions. Get in touch with me at [email protected], and please RT!

[The Struggling Scientists @TheStrugglingS4]

Gandalf is actually on track to finish early 😅

[The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize]

The first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize, the first individual to be awarded two Nobel Prizes and still today the only individual with two Nobel Prizes in two different scientific categories: Marie Skłodowska Curie.

Learn more: https://t.co/Da1EINZJE9

[MaryGracy Arakkal Antony @Researcher_Biol]

@EcoEvoGal Happy Birthday Sarah!!
Hope you had a great day as wonderful as youuuu!!

[MaryGracy Arakkal Antony @Researcher_Biol]

@monkeyingwords Congrats!! 🥳🥳

[MaryGracy Arakkal Antony @Researcher_Biol]

@CorrynKnapp @SFSU Thanks Corryn! Hope you are doing well <3

[MaryGracy Arakkal Antony @Researcher_Biol]

Yayyy CoDE Lab @SFSU #bestlabever

[Dr Pleuni Pennings #BlackLivesMatter @pleunipennings]

Sharing some of the good news from the lab. I know I am repeating my self. But gee, @SFSU students are just the best! @SFStateBIO @sfsupinc
https://t.co/8IEPlzU2Y0

[Sketching Science @sketchscience]

I hated doing PCRs 🧬 as an undergraduate… Now, as a postdoc, I’ve done thousands of PCRs 🧬… Here are 10 tips to do perfect PCRs:

[MaryGracy Arakkal Antony @Researcher_Biol]

@angiens21 Someone a psychic 🙌🏽☺️

[MaryGracy Arakkal Antony @Researcher_Biol]

@angiens21 PERIODDD

[bioRxiv Evobio @biorxiv_evobio]

A phylogenetic approach to studying the roles of within-host evolution and between-host transmission of resistance for clinical ... https://t.co/xePTLlwuKi #biorxiv_evobio

[Dr Pleuni Pennings #BlackLivesMatter @pleunipennings]

So excited that this one is posted! It describes new ideas about studying within-host evolution and transmission of resistance. With Florentine van Nouhuijs, Faye Orcales, @Evol_Researcher, Landen Gozashti, Scott Roy and @big_data_kane, @SFStateBIO

[MaryGracy Arakkal Antony @Researcher_Biol]

@EcoEvoGal @big_data_kane @yale_eeb @pleunipennings Congrats Sarah!!

[Sarah Renee Phillips, Ph.D. 🕯️✨🌎 @EcoEvoGal]

🎄🎅 Happy Holidays from the Pennings' Lab 🎅🎄

Incredible group of humans & scientists here doing top-tier #computationalbiology, #bioinformatics, & #machinelearning research in #virology and #antibioticresistiance. @pleunipennings lab holiday photo.

[MaryGracy Arakkal Antony @Researcher_Biol]

@arunsethuraman Cold Heart is so so good!

[Evan Ho @EleSci550]

First full day at @ABRCMS done ✅. It's really empowering to see so many brilliant scientists from such diverse backgrounds. It helps me fight feelings of imposter syndrome, and solidify the idea that anyone can do great things in science! #ABRCMS2022

[Aalayna || she/her @aalayna23]

Sometimes I get so jazzed about being a PhD student. Like I get paid to read?? to study my never-ending list of questions?? to drink my little drinks and to (try) and change the world?? Amazing.

[MaryGracy Arakkal Antony @Researcher_Biol]

@LizMathiasen Samee 👀