JUVILLE G. DARIO-BECKER
Professor of Biology
Central Virginia Community College
3506 Wards Rd.
Lynchburg, VA 24502

I was born in the Philippines many decades ago. I walked to school barefooted, during my first four years of primary schooling, but that was no big deal since that was what everyone else did. My mother made sure that I did well in school by threatening to trade places with me if I did not do so; i.e., she'll take my place in the classroom and I stay home to do the laundry.

After completing 10 years of primary and secondary schools, I was ready for college. I was more than ready to go to the university to learn more about Biology. In the 8th grade, my Biology teacher sent me to the principal's office for asking the impertinent question:"Why are some leaves not sweet when all green leaves produce sugar as they photosynthesize?" I was admitted to the University of the Philippines. That was a thrill not only for me but for my family as well. The University of the Philippines is the school where smart kids supposedly go.

After four years, I completed my Bachelor of Science (Zoology) and was immediately hired as an instructor at the College of Agriculture Campus of the University of the Philippines at Los Banos. For the next 10 years, I grew up with the college, and in the process, I also earned a Master's degree in Applied Zoology. I taught courses in Biology and Zoology, and I also advised undergraduate and graduate thesis students.

Among my early international experience, was a BIOTROP fellowship to study the flea species in the wild rodents of Indonesia. I worked on this project at the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, located inside the Botanical Garden in Bogor, Indonesia. Subsequently, a 9-month Fulbright-Hays Fellowship enabled me to attend Florida State University for "academic enhancement." While at FSU, the Biology Department offered me a graduate teaching assistantship, where I completed a Ph.D. in Biological Science. I worked with Dr. Robert Short, an expert in the cytogenetics of Schistosoma, a parasitic flatworm that lives in the intestinal veins of humans and other vertebrates. 

While still completing graduate school, I was appointed Visiting School Scholar and taught high school Biology for a semester at Astronaut High School in Titusville, Florida.  Upon completion of my graduate degree from FSU, I accepted a one-year non-tenure tract sabbatical replacement position at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colorado where I taught General Biology, Microbiology, Human Anatomy and Physiology, and Biochemistry. I returned to Tallahassee and was Assistant Professor of Biology at Florida A & M University in for three years. I am presently with Central Virginia Community College as a Professor of Biology.

I live in Forest, Virginia with my husband Doug and daughter Evette.