A Future in Science?
As I am sitting here making my poster, I realized that I have not yet blogged about career considerations. Coming to Duke, I was (and still am) pre-med and very much interested in the biological sciences. I had always been pretty certain that I was going to medical school and hoped to somehow find out if I would like pediatric oncology or pediatric neurology/neurosurgery. My first lab research experience was the summer after my junior year through Boston University High School Summer Research Internship Program where I conducted neural stem cell research. It was a great introduction to the life of a research scientist and I realized there were so many different fields to choose from based on your own intellectual curiosity. This Howard Hughes Research Fellowship reminded me again that I do enjoy going into lab to find the answer to my project. Especially now towards the end, I am getting results and compiling data, which makes it all the more exciting. One thing I realized during this program is that research is a slow process full of errors and days of troubleshooting, which can be frustrating. But the excitement when you finally do get data is well worth the effort. This has prompted me to definitely consider an MD/PhD program. I still have time to decide whether an MD/PhD is for me- a decision I know many people in this program are considering- but I know that I will pursue a career in the sciences. For now, I definitely intend to continue science research throughout my undergraduate career. But as for the near future, I must go work on my poster, which I have to admit is a lot of fun to put together. Wow, eight weeks really is a lot shorter than I had expected.