Revolution
Hmm, I haven't updated in a long time. I guess the biggest piece of news is that I passed my qualifier at the end of august, which is good because I'm still a grad student, but bad because I'm still a grad student! My committee was very impressed with my presentation and knowledge on the subject, and therefore so was my advisor. Speaking of my advisor, she was actually quite helpful in the few weeks leading up to the grand finale. She did insist on reviewing and having me practice my presentation over and over again--but that paid off in the end--and was understanding when last-minute experiments fell through. Hmm.
After that enormous burden was lifted, I sort of flaked out for about a month, still working in the lab but mentally on vacation. I'm slowly working my way out of that slump in productivity. Got some experiments in the works--and I actually have some good data. So maybe my years-long losing streak is finally coming to an end. I'm not going to get too excited about it, because the science god giveth, and he taketh away. I'm still not in the clear yet.
In other news, I started working out and dancing again, trying to regain the level of fitness that I used to have. For a long time dancing has been more rewarding--and less ego deflating--than grad school. As with school, I'm feeling more and more like a senior person, although there is still much more to learn.
The other big thing is that a group of us students are forming a long-overdue biomedical student organization. The idea started when we were chosen to interview dean candidates for the school of medicine, asking each candidate about his/her vision and voicing our concerns. As the process went on, a few key issues emerged. The focus of this new group will be to unite biomed grad students and promote our quality of life and career development.
In many other training programs, career goals are at the forefront, but here we're sort of pushed into the lab and forgotten about until we graduate and look for that elusive job. Our field sucks right now, whether your goal is academia or industry or something else entirely. I think the main problem is that the nature of our training--a very narrow focus on a very narrow area of study--is out of step with the changing job market, in which jobs require interdisciplinary knowledge and skills. We have career-oriented seminars every now and then, but I think we can do better than that, perhaps with an annual career fair just for us or a career symposia with speakers and other actitivies. That will be the focus of the career development committee. Another committee will explore MD-PhD interaction, promoting social get-togethers (not that I really care about that!) and possibly more opportunities for interdisciplinary training.
Currently we don't have representatives in each department or volunteers. I'm not sure where we are on meetings and these other organizational things. I used to be laid back, but grad school has engendered in me a certain go-getterness, an anal retentitude for organization and getting things done. But in an undertaking like this, I have to be a team player, let other people do what they need to do on their own time, let things evolve. Usually someone steps up and does a better job than me. Heather, Crystal and I worked on the web site--but Crystal made it her own and has done a great job. My project is the newsletter, which will probably be issued bi-monthly. I'm editor-in-chief, but since I'm presently the only staffer, I've written a lot of content for the first issue myself. I need underlings...err, colleages!
After that enormous burden was lifted, I sort of flaked out for about a month, still working in the lab but mentally on vacation. I'm slowly working my way out of that slump in productivity. Got some experiments in the works--and I actually have some good data. So maybe my years-long losing streak is finally coming to an end. I'm not going to get too excited about it, because the science god giveth, and he taketh away. I'm still not in the clear yet.
In other news, I started working out and dancing again, trying to regain the level of fitness that I used to have. For a long time dancing has been more rewarding--and less ego deflating--than grad school. As with school, I'm feeling more and more like a senior person, although there is still much more to learn.
The other big thing is that a group of us students are forming a long-overdue biomedical student organization. The idea started when we were chosen to interview dean candidates for the school of medicine, asking each candidate about his/her vision and voicing our concerns. As the process went on, a few key issues emerged. The focus of this new group will be to unite biomed grad students and promote our quality of life and career development.
In many other training programs, career goals are at the forefront, but here we're sort of pushed into the lab and forgotten about until we graduate and look for that elusive job. Our field sucks right now, whether your goal is academia or industry or something else entirely. I think the main problem is that the nature of our training--a very narrow focus on a very narrow area of study--is out of step with the changing job market, in which jobs require interdisciplinary knowledge and skills. We have career-oriented seminars every now and then, but I think we can do better than that, perhaps with an annual career fair just for us or a career symposia with speakers and other actitivies. That will be the focus of the career development committee. Another committee will explore MD-PhD interaction, promoting social get-togethers (not that I really care about that!) and possibly more opportunities for interdisciplinary training.
Currently we don't have representatives in each department or volunteers. I'm not sure where we are on meetings and these other organizational things. I used to be laid back, but grad school has engendered in me a certain go-getterness, an anal retentitude for organization and getting things done. But in an undertaking like this, I have to be a team player, let other people do what they need to do on their own time, let things evolve. Usually someone steps up and does a better job than me. Heather, Crystal and I worked on the web site--but Crystal made it her own and has done a great job. My project is the newsletter, which will probably be issued bi-monthly. I'm editor-in-chief, but since I'm presently the only staffer, I've written a lot of content for the first issue myself. I need underlings...err, colleages!