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Series 1, “Now What?” Episode 3: Tania Hossain Caravella

Tania Hossain Caravella ’96 graduated from Trinity with a dual major in biology and history. But that wide range of study did not leave her feeling ready for anything; she instead felt almost clueless about what to do next. Things have worked out extremely well, and has a job she loves in research: “I ended up doing exactly what I’m meant to be doing.” How’d she get there? Take a listen.

Transcript:

SERIES ONE, EPISODE 3: Tania Hossain Caravella

TRACK
I’m Scott Huler and this is The Devils’ Share — a podcast of Duke Magazine

Series One: Now What?

[music]

ACTUALITY
And it was just kind of a crapshoot when I graduated

TRACK
Sound familiar?

ACTUALITY
You know I never expected to be successful. Just because I had no clue what I was doing when I was 22 years old. I really didn’t know what my future was going to look like.

TRACK
We’ve been talking with Duke alumni about how they have met — and dealt with — those life-defining moments when you realize you’re in the wrong job, or the job you wanted wasn’t what you thought it was, or in some other way life taught you — maybe even while you were still at school — that plans for after graduation are just plans.

ACTUALITY
You know I realized while I was at Duke that I had no clue what I was doing.

TRACK
It turns out that’s no impediment to getting where you need to go.

ACTUALITY
My name is Tania Hossain Caravelle, I graduated from Trinity my majors were bio and history iI was having a really hard time I actually was struggling quite a bit trying to figure out what I wanted to do.

TRACK
So then what?

ACTUALITY
I took a year to go home and live with my parents and take my first job in infec disease i worked on an antib study

That was the first time i realized that this was something i could actually pursue

And at that point i decided to go to pub health school and i focused on epidemiology and biostatistics in pub health school my masters degree

TRACK
Graduate school cures all ills. Right?

ACTUALITY
Even at that time i didn’t know you know exactly where I was going to go with that i kind of wanted to to into international research but it’s not that easy to get a job in international research as soon as you get out

And so I kind of feel a little bit like a pinball I’ve definitely jumped around quite a bit

And lo and behold somehow I ended up doing exactly what i’m meant to be doing

I work at UNC and I’ve been there 15 years

I work on all kinds of research projects including HIV studies tuburculosis malaria ebola zika and I get to travel to malawi zambia viet nam, south africa hopefully im going to china in the fall

And it’s really funny bc when i grad 22 y a i had no idea my life was going to look like this

TRACK
And that Duke degree has helped, but it has its own costs.

ACTUALITY
Oh you know duke can be an intense place. Everybody there was at the top of their class at one point and then suddenly half of you are at the bottom

And so it’s a lot of competiotion and it’s tough to find your way sometimes

But you know i’ll tell you after these 20 years it actually did happen

And to have finally gotten to this point where i can say yeah i am doing important work that’s making a difference it’s a dream come true

As cheesy as that sounds that’s ac very true

I finally feel that i’m where i would like to be

TRACK
And so, lessons learned?

ACTUALITY
Relax and enjoy the experience and everything you learn is gonna build and take you to the next thing and you can’t rush it you can’t force it. And every exp you have is valuable whether you realize it or not. I wish someone had said that to me.

TRACK
Next on The Devils’ Share

ACTUALITY
I was like, I want to grow one of these things to be bigger and bigger and he was like, “No, Reed, you’re the early stage guy.”

TRACK
Thanks for listening to The Devils’ Share