"What Do You Want To be When You Grow Up?"

As you mature and experience new things, your goals for the future often change. Looking back, I have changed my mind a number of times about my career plans for the future. Yet, many of my choices related to science in some way.

This is probably due to some of my early childhood memories with my Grandpa McCarthy. He taught my brother and me about astronomy with his telescope, watched the original Star Wars with us thousands of times let us mess around with his radio, and took us on trips to the Air Force Museum. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the time we spent together helped spark my interest in science.

 

Here are my previous and current science-related career goals:

Preschool

I loved Snow White (which I also watched with my Grandpa many times). At that time, I wanted to be the Wicked Queen when I grew up. Even though she was the villain, I thought she was cool. She had a “lab” where her “chemistry experiments” resulted in magic potions.

Kindergarten

I remember dressing up as a medical doctor for a “what do you want to be when you grow up?” day in kindergarten, since I liked helping my “sick” baby dolls and stuffed animals with my toy medical kit.

Y2K

When I was 11 years old, I saw Coyote Ugly with my friend Casey. We decided we were going to start our own bar like in the movie. Bartenders often use scientific techniques to make creative cocktails and mixology uses physics and chemistry to understand the properties and interactions of different drink ingredients. Read more about this in "Physics in the Mix: Bartending Gets Scientific."

Jr. High

At this time, I enjoyed math and science. I liked learning about algebra, learning about marine biology in the Bahamas, and studying wildlife on camping trips. I also liked working in groups and helping tutor other students. Thus, I decided that I wanted to be a math or science teacher.

High School

With my interests in math, science, and helping others, I started to consider healthcare professions. After job shadowing an optometrist, I considered going to optometry school. It was interesting to learn about the different things involved in this field, from vision testing, caring for patients with eye diseases, examining the eye using special cameras, and more In this profession, I could use biology and physics to help people with vision problems.  

College

Although I started college with a goal of getting into a post-graduate optometry program, I changed my mind after working in a biochemistry laboratory. I realized that I liked doing research and experiments, and my favorite courses were biochemistry, molecular biology, and organic chemistry. With encouragement from my mentors, I applied to graduate programs in biomedical research to pursue a career as a scientist.

Graduate School

While I was doing my thesis research, I realized that I didn’t want to become a principal investigator and run my own lab. I found what I enjoyed the most was writing about my work and creating scientific presentations. Additionally, I took a course called “Careers in Science Communication,” and realized that this field integrated my interest in scientific knowledge and passion for writing. As I finished up my graduate work, I decided to pursue a career as a science writer.

Current Position as a Science Writing Fellow

I am continuing to work towards my goal of becoming a science writer by gaining experience in science communication. I love the work that I am doing as a fellow, such as writing blogs, drafting tweets, interviewing scientists, and more. If you want to learn more about my fellowship program, go the National Cancer Institute Health Communications Internship Program (HCIP) Website.