What inspired you to want to be a TA? When I was a student in Mechanisms I felt very motivated to get into a very competitive program and I met a lot of people that were very inspirational. I wanted to be a TA to help people out like how my previous mentors had helped me. I wanted to take care of others who are going through the same things I went through. I felt like being a mentor would help shape the futures of younger generations.
What was your favorite part about being a TA? I would say my favorite part of being a TA was getting to meet the you guys (the students) and working with you guys. I liked how you all were very motivated to spend a summer conducting research and writing a disease paper even though nobody was making you do it. I was very impressed because it is not something that's easy to do. Another thing that I felt was beneficial being a TA was presenting my research to you guys because it really helped me understand my research a lot better when I had to actually teach it to people.
What do you think was the most challenging part about being a TA? I think the most challenging part would probably be the small age gap. Because I am only a couple years older than you guys so its hard to be professional. Sometimes I can't believe that people are actually listening to me and respect my opinion and advice. I am still getting used to the feeling of being an authority but with that also comes a lot of responsibility. I think that after I became a TA I realized that you really have to think a lot about your students and do what is best for them.
What made you motivated to do research? I have always been interested in medicine. But medicine and research goes hand in hand and research is becoming more important in the field of medicine. It would also be a good way to make contributions to the world of medicine. When I was in Mechanisms, I chose to conduct research on oral cancer because I was interested in researching about cancer. I was interested in cancer because the cancer lectures from the Mechanisms classes made me want to understand it more. Also, there are a lot of different cancer research opportunities at OSU.
What do you imagine your life will be like in 5 years? I would hopefully be in medical school and hopefully be in a college somewhere that I like. I think it's hard to think about what your future is going to be like right now because a lot of decisions you make about your future are based on your experiences, and right now I need more experience doing research to determine if I would go down the PhD route or the MD route.