So, the last 3 weeks of the program, I was working 10-14 hour days and working on the weekend and I fell behind on the last two weeks of blogging. Not complaining; I loved the work. Just wanted to give an explanation. Now that I’m home, I finally had the time to finish them up. This is week 7.
While hearing about each guest speaker’s research was interesting, I thought hearing about their life and career paths was the most valuable part of the lectures. The truth is that the Duke undergraduate academic mentality is learn to earn. Most students think in one-dimensional professional career paths and already have their entire lives planned out. I think this is boring and the only reason it is so popular at Duke is because a lot of our undergrads come from privileged backgrounds and have never dealt with failure, so they are afraid to take risks. I am not saying all undergrads are like this, but I am saying that the number of Duke pre-med students is sizably larger than the number of Duke students that genuinely care about medicine. And I know this isn’t a problem unique to Duke, but I do think it is a bigger problem at Duke relative to other universities. Anyways, it was great to hear from some people whose career journeys were a series of unique twists and turns. I want to have a dynamic career like that.
(Futile rant complete)
One of the talks I enjoyed the most was Dr. Ginsberg’s. I was very intrigued by how he talked about the versatility and breadth a career in science can have. As Dr. Ginsberg said, he has “reinvented himself three or four times”. This was appealing to me, because I like the idea that there are many different career paths in science, whereas sometimes people give off the impression that aside from medicine, academia is the only other option. A portion of Dr. Ginsberg’s talk also focused on how a career in science can also be about the relation between science and the impact it has on society, such as in policy making. I think that is really important and something that isn’t talked about enough.
This week’s (PCR themed) science memes:
