About a year and a half ago, I was working as a lab assistant in a professor’s lab at Keck science. One friday afternoon, we were about to start our weekly lab meeting, a time normally utilized to debrief and discuss our lab’s projects and goals for the coming months. However, on this particular day, we had a visitor drop by our meeting. She was a senior student who was just putting the finishing touches on her thesis project. She had asked my professor if she could stop in on our meeting to practice presenting her poster to all of us. As we all listened attentively to her presentation, I noticed something intriguing about the content of her project. It seemed as though she had worked in a hospital in between her academic semesters and had gathered research alongside a clinical mentor about the head sizes of pre-mature babies under specific conditions. As you can probably guess, I was immediately taken aback by the structure of her project. Since the beginning of that semester, I had begun to feel uninspired by the research I was conducting at my lab bench and this type of project was exactly the wake up call I needed. I became inspired by the work of this singular individual (whose name I can’t even remember…) to completely change the direction of my efforts.

Now I know thesis is can be an extremely stressful time of year for many students. But, to tell you the truth, right now I’m quite excited for it. The shear number of possibilities that can stem from the vague and multidirectional prompt of “thesis” is exciting, though a tad overwhelming. Because of this, I began seeing Jill Jones, the incredible pre-med counselor at Keck and she slowly began coaching me in the art of clinical exploration. She showed me how to aim for positions within my interests and skill set, while also encouraging me not settle because of my age or degree. She advised that I find unique, alternative experiences that would really help to expose me to my career goals and that would inspire me to perform excellent research. So I began searching everywhere! I called up every clinical profession within a 10 mile radius of campus, scouring for opportunities. I asked professors and administrators for advice and possible connections. I would actively wait every Sunday for CP&R’s Career Courier email for any applications or position openings I could find! You can maybe now understand why I was so thankful when I was contacted by a long time family friend who wanted to help me in my search. As a geneticist, she was not only interested in recruiting me for volunteer research, she also had a wide range of connections with doctors and professionals doing active research, people who I never would have been able to get a hold on on my own.

What I think I’m trying to say is that when it comes to thesis, and many other academic endeavors, exploring new and unlikely paths may just get you to exactly where you’re going. The inspiration, advice, and aid I’ve received for each of the women in my journey has been instrumental in igniting my thesis drive and, as a rising senior, I just can’t wait to get started.