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The Scientist Part 1

April 23, 2011 by Alissa D'Gama | 1 comment

This is my last week of class! I can’t believe it, and although I’m really excited for what comes next I’m also sad to be leaving. Hopefully, those of you coming to Harvard College next year (class of 2015!!!) will find these series of posts useful if you are considering medical school, graduate school, or a combination.

When I arrived in Harvard Yard four years ago, I thought medicine and science were pretty cool. Like many of you, I had volunteered in a hospital in high school, and I felt at home there (I also didn’t faint when observing surgeries and enjoyed watching my blood get drawn as a child, strange as that sounds). I had the opportunity to work in a biophysics lab at the end of high school, and was excited to join a lab in the MCB Department when I got to Harvard (which meant I didn’t have to ride the M2 shuttle back and forth between my dorm and Longwood like many of my friends!) And yes, I had taken some AP science classes in high school, but my freshman fall I didn’t even know what an MD/PhD was (you can get both degrees? And the NIH pays you?!)

I took Life Sciences 1a and 1b–like many of you will, edited lots of drafts in Expos, and spent quality time in Lamont Library (open 24 hours!) Yet probably the two most formative experiences were getting to know my lab and being matched with my physician mentor. From my PI and the postdoctoral fellow who mentored me (for all four years!) I learned not only about PCR and how to run a gel, but slowly but surely, how to design experiments and think like a scientist. Along the way, I tried to figure out how to balance classes, extracurriculars, lab, and the rest of my life. My first summer, I was able to participate in PRISE—the Program for Research in Science and Engineering — along with a community of like-minded undergraduates, which you can read about here on the blog I wrote for the Office of Career Services. Looking back, I made some of my closest friends that summer, and many will be continuing on with me to medical school or graduate school. My physician mentor was incredible, and took the time to take me on rounds at the NICU and teach me about data collection and clinical research and what it means to be a physician. Spending time in the hospital with him strengthened my desire to go into pediatrics and learn more about how humans develop and how we get diseases when things go wrong. Little by little, I realized I wanted to pursue an MD/PhD, and I started looking into how I might spend the next eight or so years of my life.

To be continued!

Beyond the College: Taking Classes at the Graduate Schools

April 12, 2011 by Punit Shah | Permalink

Last week, I helped launch a campaign for President of the United States. I’m a blogger and foreign policy advisor, and we already have a multitude of other advisors, a campaign manager, press secretary, and even an embedded reporter.

Okay, so this isn’t exactly a real campaign. Instead, it’s a simulated presidential election for a class I’m taking at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) on political communication. Instead of just learning how campaigns are run and how to deliver messages to voters, we actually give speeches, write press releases, and then help our candidate prepare for the debate that serves as the capstone to the course. Throughout, we’re receiving feedback and lectures by the professor, who is an active political consultant and manager on actual presidential campaigns.

Taking courses at Harvard’s graduate school is one of the lesser-used treasures of Harvard. If the 1000+ courses offered through the College and the Faculty of Arts and Science aren’t enough, there are 1000s of additional courses available through Harvard’s graduate schools. Are you deeply interested in policy making and politics? Take a class at the Kennedy School. Want to revolutionize education? Try out the Graduate School of Education (GSE). Interested in the legal issues surround tech companies? Cross register at Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School. Cross registering is simple: just get permission of the professor, get a form signed, and then you’re in. Many concentrations (such as mine, Social Studies) even offer concentration credit for a number of the courses.

While I took the political communication class on a whim, having the Graduate School of Education has both inspired me to write on education for my senior thesis and learn more about my specific topic, education technology, before I begin my research this summer. I took the course “Education Policy Analysis and Research in Comparative Perspective” last semester where I learned to think about how to implement programs and policies in practice, considering economic, political, and physical constraints. While the College’s strength is in liberal arts, providing a strong foundation in theory, this shift in thought forced me to think in new ways.

Beyond the course, taking classes at the graduate schools also offers a number of prospectives from people outside of academia. The GSE course included a number of guest lectures from educational entrepreneurs, heads of international aid agencies, World Bank economists, and more. Through the Kennedy School course, I’ve even heard from one of Obama’s current speech writers. Having taken the courses, I have been able to meet the students at the respective graduate schools, who are experienced in their respective disciplines and can provide perspective on what it’s like to actually work in the field in the real world. Finally, you’re able to build out a network of professors in subjects you’d like to get to more involved in; in fact, my GSE professor is actually helping me with my thesis over the coming year.

While the College offers plenty of courses, exploring the graduate schools is yet another way to learn about subjects in greater depth and try something new!

Getting to know your professors

March 31, 2011 by Punit Shah | Permalink

First off, congratulations to all of the newly admitted students! Students on campus are really eager to meet all of you for Visitas, Harvard’s prefrosh weekend.

There’s been a good amount of discussion around a recent article from US News & World Report (and a rebuttal published as a staff editorial in The Crimson representing the opinion of many students on campus). The debate surrounds the issue of student and faculty interaction at Harvard. I remember having questions on this myself before coming to Harvard, having heard both sides of the debate then. Thus, I thought I’d provide my perspective on the question, “Do Harvard students and faculty interact?”

The Good:

There are plenty of opportunities for student-faculty interaction, hands down. Just last night, six students and I invited the three professors of my Computer Science course on Privacy and Technology to my house’s faculty dinner: FAS Dean Michael Smith, Prof. James Waldo, and Prof. Latanya Sweeney. The course is just 30 students, and with three professors, we’ve been able to really get to know the professors and vice versa; in such a small setting, they get to know us by name. Over dinner, we talked about the work they’ve done in research and their career; for example, Prof. Waldo was involved in the creation of the Java programming language while Prof. Sweeney has been involved in a number breakthroughs in demonstrating holes and privacy issues surround common security practices in technology and biometrics. They also got to know us and our interests.

Beyond faculty dinners, there are also plenty of opportunities to get to know faculty members. We can take any faculty member to the dining hall at no charge for any meal. Almost all hold office hours just for students to get to know them. There are plenty of small classes after the introductory courses, which give you more opportunities to meet faculty; my research tutorial this semester has just ten students. Of course not all course are small, but there are plenty to choose from for those who are interests including plenty taught by senior faculty and about 130 Freshman Seminars just for first-years (mine was On the Origin of Morality, Rights, and Law with renowned Prof. Alan Dershowitz). Research and departmental jobs on campus also provide opportunities to interact with faculty in an alternate setting. And finally, every senior is offered the opportunity to write a thesis of original research (or creative work in some departments) under the close supervision of a faculty members; my concentration, Social Studies, actually requires this and is one reason why I’m excited for next year.

The Challenge:

I came from a small, nurturing high school. My largest class was about 20 students. It was hard not to get to know the faculty members just because of the close environment. Harvard, like any university of its size, is certainly different.

Instead of having teachers come to me, at Harvard I had to take the initiative to go seek out professors during their office hours or make a consorted effort to get to know them. As a freshman, this was certainly intimidating; it’s natural to question why someone who won a Nobel Prize or who worked as the President’s top economic adviser would want to take time to speak to an undergraduate who certainly knows very little on their subject of expertise. But once I realized that they’re at here in part because they want to work with students and it’s part of their job, it became easier. Last semester, I took a course on econometrics with about 200 students. I met the professor for lunch a few times, went to his office hours, asked for his advice on my post-graduation plans and on research, and by the end of the course felt we got to know each other. I would feel comfortable going to his office hours in the future to just chat, and I could say this for all the professors I’ve had for larger lecture courses where I made an effort to meet them outside of class and for all the professors I’ve had for smaller courses and seminars.

Certainly, it’s hard to meet every single one of of your professors between course work, extracurricular activities, and other time constraints; not all students necessarily see this as a priority amongst the other on-campus opportunities. However, if you make an effort to get to know at least one or two faculty members a semester as I was advised freshman year and have tried to do, you have the opportunity to see inside some of the brightest minds and gain access to ideas, opportunities, and friendship from a set of people who really care about students.

The One (My thesis)

March 28, 2011 by Alissa D'Gama | Permalink

I have mentioned in previous posts that I have been spending a lot of time this semester working on my senior thesis (!)  I am happy to report that I turned it in last Monday and am excited for the rest of senior spring! Because I am a Molecular and Cellular Biology concentrator, the bulk of my thesis involved experiments in lab that I performed during my junior and senior years, and during the summer before senior year. This past semester, I then spent most of my time writing up my experiments and making figures (and doing a lot of editing!)

One of the things I realized as I finished up my thesis during Spring Break is that things generally take longer than you expect—which makes time management crucial to college (and most periods in life!). For example, on Sunday afternoon, I sat down to do a final read-through of my thesis. I expected it to take about an hour since I was just looking for spelling errors. Six hours later, I finally converted my Word document to a PDF and headed to Kinko’s to print out five copies. Two hours later, I had printed out five black and white copies, reprinted and inserted all the color figures, and had the copies spiral bound. It was awesome to see my thesis put together and ready to turn in!

The next morning, I headed to the MCB office to officially hand my copies to Tom Torello, the Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies for MCB and CPB. Every concentration generally has a celebration when seniors turn in their thesis. MCB/CPB had lots of yummy drinks (including mimosas!) and homebaked cookies!

Although I forgot to take a picture with Tom, Eric ’11, and I (with Eric and I looking a bit tired…) here are somewhat representative pictures of the final stages of the senior thesis:

(1) Printing and binding the thesis!!! (My thesis!)

(2) Turning in the thesis!!! (Kevin ’11 with the Neurobiology Advisors Tamily and Ryan)

(3) The aftermath – my roommate Emma ’11 surrounded by (some of) the books she used in her thesis


Secrets

January 23, 2011 by Alissa D'Gama | 4 comments

My last semester of college starts tomorrow (crazy!) and I like to think I have become a little wiser over the past four years. From my first trip to Nochs and my first all-nighter to writing my thesis and applying to MD/PhD programs, I have learned some useful do’s and don’t’s during the past four years.

1. Make sure to take classes you really like. Sure, most concentrations require introductory and mid-level courses that you may or may not love, but when you are choosing upper level courses and electives, take time to shop classes, read syllabi, and pick courses that you will enjoy taking. I have found that I learn the most when I am taking a course with subject matter that I am really interested in, and am pretty lucky to be taking classes this semester that I will really enjoy and that will be useful for the next couple years of my life.

2. Find a place on campus where you can study effectively, whether with your friends or with yourself. Freshman year, I lived in a six-person suite and studied in Lamont Library, where you can always find a fellow study-er. Sophomore through senior years I studied in my beautiful Mather single, although many of my friends cannot study in their rooms or they are at a high (around 90%) risk of falling asleep.

3. Take a break sometimes. Everyone I know at Harvard is involved in some combination of classes, research, extracurricular activities, community service – you name it, and someone is probably doing it! Every once in a while, if you feel stressed out, or have been sleeping less than you want to, take a break. Sleep and don’t set your alarm, catch up on your favorite TV show, go watch the BSO or one of Harvard’s many music and theater groups, eat a two hour dinner with friends, or go for a walk in Boston (assuming it isn’t -4 outside like right now). You will thank yourself later. (Also, learn to take naps. They are awesome. The red couches in the basement of Northwest Labs are particularly effective for this.)

4. Don’t focus on competition. Focus on yourself. This can be said for when you are applying to college, when you are in college, and when you are applying to fellowships, med school, law school, you name it. If you compete, compete with yourself. I find this quote by Eric Burns particularly apt: “Greatness is more than potential. It is the execution of that potential. Beyond the raw talent. You need the appropriate training. You need the discipline. You need the inspiration. You need the drive.”

5. Get involved in activities you are truly passionate about. Again, this can be said for high school, college, even (and maybe most importantly) your career. Try things out and find out what you like the best. Don’t do something just because it will look good. Do something because you will have fun doing it, and when you look back on the experience, you would do it all over again without hesitation.

I’ll Be There For You

November 30, 2010 by Alissa D'Gama | 6 comments

A few Sundays ago, my friend John ’11 and I sat ourselves down at au bon pain with some chai tea (my favorite kind! I actually don’t drink coffee, so tea is my 24-hour staple) and had a marathon study session for our midterm in American Health Care Policy. It was interrupted briefly by our two hour student study network for Life Sciences 1a—we’re both facilitators, which means we staff classrooms in the Science Center on Sunday night and help freshman with their problem sets.  Going through the sets of slides and taking turns explaining the concepts to each other, I started thinking about how awesome it was to be able to ask him what adverse selection meant and why moral hazard led to a welfare loss (things I can now explain and did explain on my midterm!) The morning of the midterm, he texted me asking a question and I later emailed him with my last-minute confusions. Since we became friends last year, I’ve known I can count on him.

That’s what I love about the students at Harvard. When I held the intro meeting for the Harvard Premedical Society during freshman week and our ice cream social during April Visiting Weekend, I got asked the same questions over and over again: Is Harvard competitive? Are all the students cutthroat? Coming to Harvard, I didn’t know what to expect, and listening to these students voice their concerns, I realized that for many, the atmosphere they encountered during April Visiting Weekend was an important factor in their decision to come to Harvard for college. So, what’s the truth? What are we like?

From my experience, Harvard students are the opposite of cutthroat. My friend John ’11 would always take time out of his studying to answer my questions about health care, even about things he already understood. When I went to a volunteering shift at Brigham and Women’s Hospital my freshman year and suddenly realized my problem set was due in 10 minutes, I called my roommate, who not only woke up, but found my problem set in the pile of papers on my desk, changed, and walked to the Science Center to drop it off for me in my Teaching Fellow’s box. Sophomore year, I remember having my blockmate Jeremy ’11 explain confusing concepts to me as we sat eating breakfast before our Molecular Biology midterm. Junior year, I asked countless MCAT questions to my friends Kevin ’11 and Eric ‘11—and since we took the MCAT on three consecutive Saturdays, we all went to Pinocchio’s, a local pizza place, for a late night dinner when the person taking the test got back from the testing center Saturday night as a mini-celebration. And now, senior year, my friends and I who are applying to medical school or MD/PhD programs are always there for each other—whether through text messages after a difficult interview, email encouragement, or interview prep the night before. We have each other’s back—that’s what matters, and that’s what it means to be a Harvard student.

It’s What I Go To School For

November 9, 2010 by Alissa D'Gama | Permalink

This fall brought the first of the lasts: my last first day of fall semester, my last move-in to my beautiful single in Mather House, my last Activities Fair. It was bittersweet, and I can’t believe I am already a senior!

Every semester at Harvard since my freshman fall, I have taken four classes, which is pretty normal. This year, one of my classes is Molecular and Cellular Biology 99, a full-year indivisible class for my Honors Thesis (most classes, however, are a semester long). Taking MCB 99 means that I am expected to go into my lab for at least 15-20 hours a week (in reality, a lot more) and take three other classes each semester. Having a lighter course load allows me to devote plenty of time and energy to my thesis project! At the end of our first semester in December, we are graded on the introduction and outline of our thesis, and at the end of spring semester, on the actual thesis! It’s pretty exciting to know that in March my thesis will be submitted J

As you can see from my course schedule below, my life looks pretty empty. However, lots of that time is spent in lab or extracurriculars, so it fills up pretty fast! Actually, I have very few hours of actual class time this year compared to previous years. As a science concentrator, many of the introductory and mid-level classes have lecture, section, and lab, which meant that freshman through junior year I could have as much as 25 hours of class a week.

My class schedule for senior fall

Psychology 16: Developmental Psychology is taught with the Graduate School of Education. We get to learn about how children develop from birth—how they attach to their mother, how they learn language, how they express emotions, and how they learn to lie! We have readings before lecture each week and have to write three papers throughout the semester, which isn’t too bad. Since I’m a Psychology secondary field, the class counts as one of my three electives for my secondary.

Psychology 1861: Developmental Psychopathology—you may have noticed a trend—I’m really interested in child development! This class looks at psychological problems and mental disorders in childhood and adolescence; for example, we have studied depression, anxiety ADHD, and autism. It is by far one of the best classes I have taken at Harvard, even though it’s four hours straight every Thursday (an hour of section followed by three hours of lecture!) What’s really nice about upper level classes is their size—this class has about 20 people, so we get to know each other and the Professor and Teaching Fellow really well. Although three hours seems like a long time, it goes by pretty fast—we normally cover lecture slides, several student presentations, and often have a guest speaker or get to Skype with one of the researchers we read about!

United States in the World 11: American Health Care Policy is, not surprisingly, about health care in America. It is a General Education class, and like many Gen Ed classes, meets twice a week for one and a half hours with a one-hour section once a week. Since I don’t have a background in health policy, it is really interesting to gain some understanding of our health care system and what the recent reform actually means!

Life Sciences 1a: An Integrated Introduction to the Life Sciences: Chemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology—I’m not actually taking this class (I took it freshman fall) but like I mentioned in my previous post, I’m one of the upperclass facilitators, so I have to either attend lecture or watch the lecture videos and read the notes to prepare for the student study networks where students can ask us about the class and get help on their weekly problem sets.

Wake Up in the Morning Feeling Like…

November 2, 2010 by Alissa D'Gama | Permalink

So what do Harvard students actually spend their time doing? Although I can’t speak for everyone, here is what my typical day was like as a freshman, and, in the next blog entry, now, as a senior. Freshman year I relied on my Harvard planner, but since those aren’t being given out anymore :(, I am an avid user of Google Calendar. The ability to color-code my life makes running from classes to lab to meetings much more fun, although if my gmail decides to be temporarily unavailable I am in trouble.

Here is a typical week in my life, as seen from my gcal:

I’ve been told that the background makes my calendar much more confusing, but I love polka dots! Also, my Saturday looks deceivingly empty, but it is actually the day when I get most of my studying done—I try not to schedule any other meetings on Saturday so I can be as productive as possible.

My life wasn’t so exciting (or crazy) freshman fall, when I was just getting a feeling for what college in Boston was like after coming from a public high school in Tucson.

Alissa’s Day (Fall 2007)

5 a.m. My first alarm goes off. I set multiple alarms at least an hour apart so that I’m fully awake by the last one. (I also got up extremely early freshman and sophomore year.)

6 a.m. My second alarm goes off. I turn it off.

6:15 a.m. My third alarm goes off. I actually get out of bed in my double in Weld, one of the freshman dorms in Harvard Yard.

6:20-7:00 I go on a run around Harvard Square—if I’m not awake yet, the chilly air definitely does the trick.

7-7:30: I eat my yummy hot breakfast at Annenberg, the freshman dining hall that is basically a castle. Sundays are my favorite because I get to make Veritaffles! (otherwise known as waffles with the Harvard crest on them)

7:30-9:30: I catch up on reading. My productivity was at an all-time high fall of freshman year.

10:00-2:00: Lots of class! Depending on the day, I head to Life Sciences 1a, the gateway class for all the life science concentrations, First Nights, an amazing General Education class that studies five pieces of music, Math 19a, a math class about modeling for the life sciences, or Expos, the required expository writing class for freshman.

2:00-300: Time for lunch—meals are definitely one of the best parts of the day, especially when you eat with friends and get to hear everyone’s stories. In fact, one of my best friends just informed me that he might as well be a goldfish because he will “basically just eat until he dies.”

3:00-6:00: I would often head to The Crimson because I was comping the News Board and learning how to write and edit news stories. Once I started working in a lab, I would head over to my bench and do experiments. Although I haven’t made any exciting discovery yet, I have learned a lot about how the brain works and how to do basic science.

6:00-7:00: Food again, this time dinner.

7:00-9:00: Actual homework time! I would often do my problem set for Math 19a or revise yet another draft of my Expos essay while catching up with my roommates.

9:00-10:00 Hot shower and procrastinating until I go to bed (ie. checking my email, crossing off things in my planner, and checking my email again)

Today, as a senior, I’ve hopefully become a little bit wiser, and my circadian clock has shifted a few hours forward.

Alissa’s Day (Fall 2010)

7:00 a.m. First alarm. I generally ignore it and go back to sleep.

8:00 a.m. Second alarm. I wake up and turn it off.

9:00 a.m. Third alarm, and I get up! I then grab my glasses, pick up my Macbook from next to my bed, and check my email.

9:30-10:00 Shower to wake me up, check my email one more time, grab a toasted bagel with cream cheese from Mather House Dining Hall, and catch the Mather Express Shuttle to the Yard.

10:00-11:30 a.m. I head over to the Graduate School of Education for my Developmental Psychology class. I’m getting a secondary field in psychology, and I think it’s really cool to learn about how babies develop!

11:30-1:00 p.m. I make my way to the new Northwest Lab Building, where my lab moved the summer of 2008, drop off my backpack in the undergraduate room, and do some cool science at my bench—here’s my bench in a low entropy (surprisingly clean) state the week after we moved in. There are now a lot more bottles and tubes!

1:00-2:30 p.m. I head over to the Science Center to sit in on the Life Sciences 1a lecture with my bagged lunch from FlyBy (I eat a lot of PBJ sandwiches). Yes, I took the class freshman year, but I’m now a facilitator, which means I help freshman in the class with their problem sets and teach them how to draw amino acids like proline.

2:30-5:00 p.m. Back to lab. As a senior concentrating in Molecular and Cellular Biology, my fourth class is research for my senior thesis, so I end up being in lab 7 days a week taking care of my cells. Luckily, two of my blockmates John ’11 and Jeremy ’11 work in the same building so I always have a friend there! John ’11 is doing cool stuff with stem cells and Jeremy ’11 gets to go to Costa Rica to catch monarch butterflies.

5:00-6:00 p.m. Dinner with my friends Kevin ’11 and Eric ’11, both also board members of the UAC! We think of ideas for our spring break trip after our theses are turned in (theoretically) and try to figure out why our experiments aren’t working.

6:00-9:00 p.m. I head over to the Crimson, where I am one of the Senior Night Editors (SNEs) for the next day’s paper. I edit three different stories and then walk down Plympton St. to Quincy House

9:00-10:00 p.m. I hold the Harvard Premedical Society’s weekly board meeting as current President, and the board members update everyone on events like our surgery simulation and our volunteering and mentoring program.

10:00-11:00 p.m. Kevin ’11, Eric ’11, and I get some bubble tea from Boston Tea Stop and talk about our medical school interviews and the hardest questions we’ve gotten from interviewers. We hope we get in somewhere soon!

11:00-1:00 a.m. We head to one of our rooms and do work for a couple of hours. On any night, Kevin ’11 might be doing a literature search for his thesis introduction, I’m doing readings for my other psychology class, Developmental Psychopathology—which is awesome!—and Eric ’11 is redesigning a website.

1:00 a.m. I set my alarm for the next morning, rinse and repeat.

I actually get most of my work done on the weekends, and as you can see above, spend my weekdays between class, lab, and extracurriculars. It works for me, but everyone balances their college commitments in different ways. It’s busy, but it’s ridiculously fun and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

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