Career Considerations
On Wednesday, the program hosted a career panel of graduate students, post-docs and MD/Phds. Before I came to Duke, I always thought I wanted to be a physician. But after trying new classes and spending the summer doing research, I have become more open-minded about all the other wonderful career choices. Pursuing medical research that can be applied to treating/preventing human diseases would fulfill both my aspiration to do hands-on science and help people. I have always found science to tackle intriguing questions that make me want to learn more and that’s what led me to apply to the HHMI research program in the first place. Though I have found research to be a slow process, the idea that I could discover something new and make a contribution to the scientific community makes research all the more worth it. If I continue to be ambitious I might try to get both a Phd and MD like my P.I. To keep up with the clinical aspect, once a week he works in a clinic with pancreatic cancer patients so that he gets to work in the best of both worlds. One postdoc recommended we try working in the biology industry as with the boom in technology it is constantly expanding. In high school, a parent who is an MD and works in a pharmaceutical firm visited to tell us about her career. I found it fascinating that she got to use her understanding of the human body to help create new drugs and test them in clincal trials. What ever career I decide to pursue, I’m sure with the ever expanding field of biology and research, science will be intertwined in it.