Episode 4 - Don't Quit. Push Through.
- Jun 7, 2020
- 1 min read
Updated: Jun 17, 2020
For this episode, we have another biology major. In episode 2 with Jake Cecala, we explored academia and the research world from a PhD perspective. My guest this week is Monica Saavedra. She is a research associate at UCLA in an infectious disease lab – normally, they’re primary area of study is HIV, but with the Corona Virus outbreak, they have switched to COVID-19 data collection. During our conversation she explained how the projects are picked, designed, samples are taken and stored, and offered a glimpse into research from the data collection perspective.
The job itself is interesting, but I also enjoyed hearing Monica’s journey to get to where she is. She started college as a business major, wanted to try biology, but she struggled with the possibility of switching majors for a myriad of reasons: “What will my parents think?” “What if it’s too hard?” “Does it really make sense to start over?”
While these are important questions, she learned a very important lesson that has carried over into her career: Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Friends, co-workers, professors – you might be surprised to find that most people want to see you succeed, even if for no other reason than the fact that you have a shared struggle. There will be failures. There will be bumps in the road. But don’t quit. Push through. If you stop at the first sign of resistance, you will miss out on so much opportunity.
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