Some of the best parts of the summer, without a doubt, were the guest speaker seminars several mornings a week. We had a huge range of people come in to talk about their lives of work within the biomedical field. I loved the chance to hear from different points of view about the different paths they’d taken.
One consistent theme in many of the talks was that these scientists (often leading minds in their respective fields) often had no intention of going into a research career. A lot of the time it was a core requirement science class which they fell in love with and led them onto grad school. This was them finding, as Dr. Lefkowitz said, their “calling.” He outlined the difference between a a job, a career and a genuine calling, something I long to find in my life at some point.
I also enjoyed the panel of graduate students who came and told us about their ongoing education. The idea of going to school for even more time is scary, but also exciting because it opens up the rest of your academic life. The students pointed out how, while it seems like you might be specializing and narrowing your field, a PhD is actually a way of preparing yourself for a wider variety of careers.
