Week 3: Dr. Janice Leeby Rabeea Ahmed Recently I had the opportunity to speak to Dr. Janice Lee – an astronomer at the STScI (Space Telescope Science Institute) – about her ventures into astronomy and why she chose a career in science. Most of our discussion was based on her journey into astronomy. The most important aspect of the discussion was Janice's emphasis on exploring different career paths before settling down with one. I found this quite similar to my undergraduate exploration of courses because I studied a very wide selection of courses and participated in a plethora of different activities until I finally realized that my ultimate fascination was with astrophysics and computer science. Although Janice had been an undergraduate student of Mathematics, she was also deeply interested in education policy. She worked for the Secretary of Education and also spent some time teaching physics to high school students. From her experiences, she gleaned that although she loved education policy, she was more inclined towards a career as an astronomer. Throughout my discussion with her, she emphasized the need to explore different avenues of interest at an in-depth level in college and beyond to be certain that the final field of one’s choosing was truly what the person wanted to be a part of. Another aspect of our discussion that I found incredibly fruitful was Janice’s description of her foray into astrophysics. As she had been a Math major in college, she had not taken many advanced level Physics courses. By the time she realized that she was more interested in being a scientist than a policy maker, she was about to begin her senior year. However, she found out that certain liberal arts schools in the country offer master’s programs in astronomy that allow students to take higher level physics courses while preparing them for PhD programs. I found this illumination to be very heart-warming because I realize that preparation for higher-level scientific research does not need to end at the undergraduate level and that interests can be explored even further in a master’s program. About the Blogger
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
The Lab JournalWelcome to the summer internship series of 2012! Follow 9 Scientista bloggers through their summer internships to catch a glimpse of what it is like to be a scientista^TM. By Title- India Presents: A "New World Symphony"
- Through The Lens: The Intricacies Of Diabetes - Do Nanoparticles Glow? - Using Unusual Animals to Study Human Disease - Using the Hubble Telescope - You Think What You Eat - Experimenting With the Life of a Scientist(a) - 18.085: My Summer at MIT - Science Heals: A Summer of Global Health Research By BloggerRabeea Ahmed
Riana Balahadia Shaira Bhanji Nzuekoh Nchinda Amy Beth Prager Natalie Punt Juliet Snyder Pin-Wen Wang Stephanie Wang Archives |
The Scientista Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved © 2011-2021 | Based in NY | contact@scientistafoundation.org
The Network for Pre-Professional Women in Science and Engineering
The Scientista Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) -- Donate!
The Network for Pre-Professional Women in Science and Engineering
The Scientista Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) -- Donate!