Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Arinton Davis has been raised in a single-parent household that highlights the ethic of hard work and the importance of education and intellectual curiosity. From a child he was taught that if you don’t know yourself and what you believe in, you will not succeed in life. He was also taught the importance of community and his responsibility to make a contribution to his community.
Arinton was born and raised in Louisiana but moved to Alabama at the age of seven and to North Carolina two years later. There, he has taken advantage of several educational opportunities made available to high-achieving students. While attending middle school, he enrolled in two online courses, Algebra I and Honors Geometry, offered by North Carolina Virtual Public School. His enjoyment of online learning and intellectual curiosity led to his enrollment in a Duke University MOOC entitled Introduction to Genetics and Evolution and to him successfully pursuing admission into the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) Online Program. His NCSSM concentration in computational science has resulted in him wanting to combine his interest in genetics with the skills he has learned online. As a NCSSM student, Arinton completed his own genetics research through the NCSSM Summer Accelerator program. His research was entitled RNAi of ERK Substrates in the RAS-RAF-ERK Pathway of C. elegans and was presented at the State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium (SNCURCS).
He was also selected to participate in the 2015-2016 MIT Online Science, Technology and Engineering Community (MOSTEC) program and learned how to be a successful science writer and mobile app developer. He attended the MOSTEC conference at MIT and took advantage of the opportunity to meet professors and students and to participate in molecular genetics and synthetic biology workshops.
One of his greatest community service projects is being the Lead Tutor of the nationally known North Carolina Virtual Public School Peer Tutoring Center (NCVPS PTC). He has served as a NCVPS peer tutor since eighth grade. As a result of his commitment to peer tutoring, leadership and academic achievements, Arinton has been invited to speak at the 2016 North Carolina Collaborative Conference of Student Achievement.
Even though science is an important part of his life, Arinton will never stray far from his interests in music and sports. As a musician, Arinton plays the electric violin, cymbals, marimba, and synthesizer in his school’s marching band and is a member of the drumline. He is also Concertmaster in his school’s orchestra and has participated in the North Carolina All-State Honors Orchestra, the Western Regional Honors Orchestra, and the All-County Honors Orchestra. Classical music is how he relaxes with Antonio Vivaldi being his favorite composer. Arinton has run track since he was a child and is now experimenting with being a hurdler. His main events are the 400m, 200m and long jump.
