My Mentor
Upon interviewing my postdoc mentor, I found that she had taken a straightforward approach to getting where she is. College with undergrad research, grad school (at UNC, explaining the occasional derogatory Duke remark), and a couple of jobs as a postdoc. What I was fascinated, and sort of relieved by, was Julie’s explanation that medical school never interested her in the least. Having a father who’s the CEO of my hometown’s small hospital, I hear every night about all of the feuding between doctors and patient complaints about doctors and doctors’ being on call every waking hour for a week. I understand the huge rewards that can come with being a doctor, but I think laboratory research can have farther-reaching rewards given time and dedication. Coming into Duke, I thought and hoped that I would find multitudes of scientists, students hoping to pursue the field for the sake of furthering current knowledge. But instead, I found pre-meds. I’m taking physics… because it’s a pre-med requirement to struggle through? No, because it’s an interesting, useful course, believe it or not. If I tell someone I’m a chemistry major, I’m automatically asked if I’m pre-med. It seemed that scientist and pre-med were synonomous around here. Making matters worse, I feel like the underachiever in this situation only because I’m opting not to go to med school. I feel like I could get accepted somewhere and do moderately well in med school, but I simply don’t won’t to be a medical doctor. I like school, and hope to continue taking classes as long as I can possibly get away with it, just not with the expectation to end up as an M.D. Anyway, hearing that my mentor was never tempted by society’s seemingly high profile career as an M.D. was welcome news to my ears. I just needed to know that there are others out there who can dedicate their lives to science and feel entirely fulfilled with what they do.
June 20th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
GOOD FOR YOU JULIE! Seriously, I LOVED this post. I often feel the same way. I’m not exactly sure what I want to do but I am thinking about getting a masters in public health right after undergrad or even a PhD in epidemiology (I would love to do a joint degree program in med school if I am lucky enough). I admire you so much for having the goal of pursuing what YOU want to pursue. I think there are a lot more people out there like you…it just doesn’t seem like it. I very much hate it when people equate science major with pre-med or when people you just met ask you if you’re pre-med. Why do people need to disclose their career goals to someone they just met? If anything, you are an overachiever for entering the field of biomedical research…without researchers, there would be no drugs, treatment, or cures of any kind. You guys find NEW knowledge; doctors simply use it. Best of luck to you!- Trisha
June 21st, 2007 at 8:38 am
Yes Julie! I’m currently in my 5th year as a graduate student in Biology, and I can tell you I never had any desire to be a doctor of humans. Because of this I felt like the odd woman out in my Biology classes as an undergrad. But I’m here to tell you that there is a whole community of people out here who are devoted to science for the sake of science, and it’s fun! To begin it’s good to find like minded scientists just so you don’t become totally isolated, or paranoid, and it sounds like you are well on your way. For me it was a matter of finding natural-history nerds who can appreciate biodiversity and cryptic life, and then want to study the science behind it. The societal assumptions didn’t end here though. People, friends, relatives, complete strangers, once they understand that I’m a scientist, they still try to define what I do in relation to human health. I find at times like these it’s important to keep in focus the importance of my research in helping us understand how life works in general, whether it’s human or not. Studying budding yeast is interesting and important on its own, yet has advanced our understanding of human health issues in surprising and tremendous ways, for example. I hope you have a great summer of research in the lab! Suzanne