Whether it’s for your AP Chemistry’s 8 a.m. lab or your biology class’s pGLO lab, Upper School science lab manager Abigail Petrotta devotes her hours behind the scenes preparing chemicals, instructions, and anything else students need to power their labs.

Besides quiet classroom appearances, most students haven’t had the chance to familiarize themselves with the hidden figure. Among those who have, they call her “Labigail.” The nickname was accidentally invented by Upper School science teacher Jonathan Legendre, who had tried to say “lab” and “Abigail” at the same time but blended them together to create “Labigail.” Though it was a funny slip-up, Labigail still loves the name because it also offers students a less gendered title to call her that’s still relevant to her job.

Labigail loves and surrounds herself with science, a passion she’s pursued from a young age. Her curiosity spilled into many facets of her childhood, from her backpack, which overflowed with science projects and papers, to her home, populated with hermit crabs, fish, and hamsters. Like any other child, she went through various phases and interests, but her focus always remained clear. Even after visiting the Kennedy Space Center (NASA’s primary launch site and space exhibit in Orlando), she continued to explore the cosmos—this time, by watching one of her favorite series, “Star Wars.”

“It wasn’t really ever a question if I was going to do something else,” Labigail said. “It was always in the science field.”

After high school, she attended Northwestern University, focusing initially on biomedical engineering and pre-med, but ultimately choosing to major in biology. Once she graduated, she worked as a Starbucks barista, a career choice influenced by her time spent as CEO of BrewBike, a coffee startup at Northwestern that sold coffee from bicycles. Her love for science ultimately led her to pursue a job in which she could explore her innate passions, and eventually, she stumbled on an opening at Latin.

Not only did the expansive opportunities fascinate her, but the community immediately caught her attention. “You could tell [the science teachers] really loved what they did here and working here,” Labigail said. “It seemed fun, hearing what I would be doing and all the things I love about science.”

Since her arrival in October 2023, she has gained valuable experience from working with both labs and students. With each lab, she adds information to binders she’s created, already brimming with past material, and she has become more comfortable working with students by spending time in the classrooms. Although Labigail confessed that direct classroom collaboration was previously unexplored territory, she still hopes to further involve herself in it.

“Being with high schoolers wasn’t necessarily in my job description,” she said. “I really enjoy it … but it was something I was not expecting to love so much. There are courses where I’m able to get to know students a lot better … but I think it would be amazing to get to work with a smaller group of students.”

Students who have collaborated with her, such as seniors Graham Snyder and Ellie Falk, have noticed how Labigail’s positive attitude transforms a typical lab into a memorable experience. “It’s one thing if you have someone who’s just very serious and telling you to do something, but it’s better if they’re clearly excited about it and having fun, which [she] always is,” Graham said.

In Women in STEM, Ellie, a co-head, noted Labigail’s influence on both herself and other club members. “As soon as she’s excited to do an experiment, [the students] are excited to do it, even if it’s as simple as lighting a tea bag on fire, because the way she talked about it made the students want to participate even more,” Ellie said. “I genuinely do think her enthusiasm [has] forced me to enjoy learning more.”

With such a passion for science and learning, it isn’t hard for Labigail to enjoy every lab. One of her favorites is the pGLO plasmid lab in biology, a protein expression experiment using fluorescent bacteria. “It’s so cool that we get to make these bacteria glow, and I think it’s really cool to see the students be like, ‘Oh my God, I did that,’” she said.

While preparing and conducting labs, her primary goal is always to make learning easier for both students and teachers. “Teachers have this big burden of making sure [students] are learning topics in their course, [so] there’s a lot of busy work that I do because I think it’s good to take that burden off,” Labigail said.

Thus, most of her time is spent in her favorite room on campus: the prep room, an enclave filled with chemical solutions, tanks of critters, and often Labigail herself. “It’s like my zen workplace,” she said.

There, Labigail actively manages the materials used in labs, a task she volunteered to do unprompted because it helps the Science Department conserve resources and time. Occasionally, she even prepares for labs over the weekend, making labs at the crack of dawn possible.

These efforts, in Labigail’s opinion, often go unnoticed. “A lot of my work is behind the scenes,” she said. “It’s important to know that you don’t just come into a lab and things are just magically there. Like, I put a lot of effort into that.”

Students and teachers do, in fact, recognize the hard work she puts in and shared their appreciation for her efforts. Junior Theo Garino recounted a time he ran into an issue during a lab. “[Labigail] had a ton of things in her hands, [but] she dropped all that stuff and came over and helped us look at what was wrong,” Theo said.

Mr. Legendre expressed his gratitude for even the simplest details of Labigail’s work, such as color-coding pipettes and solutions. “Not only does it make it easier as a teacher to see if there’s [issues] going on, but it also makes it easier for students to follow,” he said. “She’s irreplaceable.”

Upper School science teacher Geraldine Schmadeke commented on Labigail’s impact on students year by year. “When I look at my advanced [biology] class this year, they are a group of [seniors] who have experienced Abigail in their lab classes since sophomore year, and this group is probably the most confident in lab that I’ve ever seen,” she said. “I remember recently looking at them in [a] lab and thinking, This is the product of [her] work.”

Labigail’s personality shines through at school—her computer case is covered in vibrant stickers, her arm adorned with tattoos, and her desk filled with personal memorabilia. Outside of Latin, she’s a self-proclaimed nerd. “I love crafting and artsy stuff,” she said. “I do a lot of junk-journaling, I like to knit, and I love reading.”

Ms. Schmadeke mirrored this sentiment, saying, “She’s really quirky, which is a good thing. She always loves doing all of these little puzzles that [Upper School science teacher Josh] Phipps likes to present to the science team, she’s always got a science book in her hand that she’s reading, she’s solving a puzzle, [and] she’s really artistic and creative.”

If there’s one thing about Labigail that’s important to know, it’s that she has genuine care about the work that she does and the people she does it with. “I really love what I do here, and I love science,” she said. “[By] getting to do that with students, I’m kind of bringing my love of that to them.”