The newest connection was established with Shoreline Community College (SCC) students at the 2013 annual Shoreline-wide science fair and STEM Career expo.  UW comparative medicine research scientist, Ray Koelling, organized this event and invited UW SACNAS students to provide a hands-on science activity for the day. Genome Science PhD students, Daniel Chee and William Edelman attended the career expo and displayed live zebrafish and fruit flies for scientific observation. As well as provided an overview of some analytical chemistry techniques used in William’s thesis laboratory at UW. Students in grades 4-12 were instructed to identify variation in the animals’ physical features characteristics and were encouraged to think about how DNA could code for such features. Even if the younger students hadn’t yet formerly learned about genetics, the simple explanation of the molecular players and concepts began to inspire questions like, “do I have DNA, too?” Which usually lead to further curiosity and interest by many of the visitors. Simply engaging the imagination quickly leads students to at least ponder the concept of the observed biological phenomena. Even unassuming parents began to ask questions about the relevance of such knowledge and contemplated biological questions they hadn’t considered since their last formal biology class. William and Daniel lead these demonstrations for dozens of aspiring STEM students.

As a result of the visit to the SCC, UW-SACNAS recently returned to present scientific research to the SCC Undergraduate Science Club. The goal was to provide these students with a glimpse of graduate level work in the life sciences and open the doors for questions about academic research and how they might pursue advanced degrees in science. The chapter wishes to invite the SCC science club to the UW campus for a visit and provide some community to those who wish to transfer to the University in the future.

The UW chapter welcomes more interactions with diverse groups in the greater Seattle area from high schools to colleges, and it will honor its mission to achieve diversity in the sciences.

Keep coming back for more brief updates and photos about student-led activities by SACNAS UW!

“Heritage Month is a time to celebrate the rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and to acknowledge the important contributions of Native people. Heritage Month is also an opportune time to educate the general public about tribes, to raise a general awareness about the unique challenges Native people have faced both historically and in the present, and the ways in which tribal citizens have worked to conquer these challenges. “ - National Congress of American Indians

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, the UW SACNAS Chapter would like to recognize all of its Native American members and our community partners, the Seattle Clear Sky Native Youth Council and the Urban American Indian/Alaskan Native Education Alliance. Their dedication to maintaining cultural values and traditional knowledge while becoming leaders and pursuing education is what makes SACNAS the diverse group that it is.

In this blog, I would like to highlight our Chapter’s history with the Seattle Clear Sky Native Youth Council and their ongoing struggle for the preservation of the Indian Heritage School and advocacy for enhanced Native American education in Seattle Public Schools (SPS). Last week, Clear Sky and UAI/ANEA hosted a meeting between the Native community and the Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Jose Banda/Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn. During this ongoing meeting, community members were able to voice to their opinions on the state of Native education in SPS, funding availability, and the impending closure of the Indian Heritage School. It was a major success that they were able to hold the meeting in the cafeteria of the Indian Heritage School, where Clear Sky meets weekly for cultural and tutoring activities. Clear Sky youth gave testimony and community members tried to convey how we as Native people are intrinsically tied to our ’Place of Power’ at Indian Heritage. There is a long history of Native American values, community, and battles won that binds each person to Indian Heritage.

Meeting between the Native Community and Seattle Public School Superintendent and Seattle Mayor

The Indian Heritage School was founded in 1974 and was Seattle’s only public school dedicated to the educational support of the native learner. The Indian Heritage School blossomed with the support of community members and under the leadership of Principle Bob Eaglestaff. Principle Eaglestaff transformed Indian Heritage from a dark place commonly referred to as “The Last Stop on the way to No Future” to a vibrant community of students with promising futures. Unfortunately, Eaglestaff passed away unexpectedly in 1996, and Indian Heritage never quite recovered from the loss of his leadership and vision for the future. Slowly, enrollments rates dwindled and Indian Heritage was transformed into the Indian Heritage Middle College. Then, earlier this summer, the Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors announced that the Indian Heritage School would be closed and the school buildings demolished. This last decision was effective in removing the core of the remaining program – Native teachers were assigned to different schools, and only the Secretary Donna Dodgen and Principle Cindy Nash remain at Indian Heritage now. Today, Indian Heritage School has no Native focus, no Native instruction, and only a small handful of Native students.

Murals painted by Clear Sky youth and artist Andrew Morrison to honor the memory of Principle Bob Eaglestaff.

This announcement, with no consultation from Native parents and the community and in addition to the lack of attention and funding to Native education issues, incensed the Native community. Once again, Indian Heritage was being targeted for closure (as had happened in the past) and the voices of the Native community were being ignored and overlooked. In the past couple years, the remnants of the once vibrant Native community at Indian Heritage had begun reviving through the establishment of the Clear Sky Native Youth Council and communal gatherings held at the location. The school serves as a site where students get tutoring, participate in cultural activities, and play basketball. For two consecutive years, Indian Heritage has hosted the Native Youth Conference. This site has also hosted the University of Washington Annual Powwow and Youth Basketball camps. The building walls of the Indian Heritage School are covered with Native American murals. Artist, Andrew Morrison (Apache-Haida), knew he wanted to draw painting portraits of Chief Seattle and Chief Joseph after seeing the bleak building walls during a basketball game. Now the buildings host an array of beautiful murals portraying Native American icons and the lives of Native Americans. If the Indian Heritage School were demolished, it would leave Clear Sky and the Native-focused education program with no home. Once again, as has been witnessed in the long history of interaction with Native tribes, tactics involving the removal of an important land base to disrupt and destabilize the ability of the Native community to organize and form a cohesive group are being implemented.

The UW SACNAS Chapter has had a long-standing partnership with Clear Sky and UAI/ANEA. Since 2009, we have served as tutors and mentors to the youth throughout the school year during the weekly Clear Sky meetings. Our members have formed meaningful relationships with many of the Clear Sky students, and we see our participation as a means to encourage Native American students to pursue higher education and science degrees. In addition, the UW SACNAS Chapter has had the opportunity to present a yearly workshop at the Native Youth Conference. Through our interactions with Clear Sky and UAI/ANEA members, we recognize that the Indian Heritage School is an integral part of the Native American community. The Native American murals on the walls give us the sense that this is a place of coming together. Even though the cafeteria is not heated and sometimes the doors are locked, every week the Native community comes together at the Indian Heritage. They do this because this is their place; this is their school on the land that belonged to their ancestors. Indian Heritage is where their youth are being trained to become strong leaders and to embrace and be proud of their cultural heritage. It is a space of sharing and encouragement, and only through the support of the community will Indian Heritage be saved.

Thank you to artist Andrew Morrison for providing photographs of the Indian Heritage murals.

Sources:

Native American Heritage Month

Indian Heritage Closes

The Metamorphosis of a Graffiti Delinquent

Eaglestaff’s Death Leaves Void

Sarah Sense-Wilson, Clear Sky parent organizer and UAI/ANEA co-chair, personal correspondence

Katrina Claw is a 5^th year Ph.D. student in the Department of Genome Sciences. She is a member of the Navajo tribe and calls Arizona her home. A more detailed profile of Katrina is located in an earlier blog post on Native American Heritage Month.

Pictured (from left to right): Andy Barr (BS), Daniel Alejandro Haskell (MS), Laurel James (MS), Ruth Sims (MS), Sabrina Bonaparte (PhD), Savannah Benally (MiT)
Officers (left to right): Daniel Hernandez, Natalie Garcia

This edition of the Student Spotlight Series will feature graduates of our chapter. If they were featured (or wrote) a previous blog post this year, it has been linked to their names below. We hope you enjoy meeting the class of 2012!!

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE

Name: Andrew Barr
Department:  Applied Math
Degree: Bachelor of Science
Future Plans: going to UC Merced for Graduate School in Applied Math next Fall.

Name: Jose Pineda
Department: Neuroscience
Degree: Bachelor of Science

MASTER OF SCIENCE/ARTS/TEACHING

Name: Savannah Benally
Department:  Education: Secondary General Science
Degree:  Masters in Teaching, Secondary Science Teaching Certification
Future Plans:  Work at a middle school that serves underrepresented youth in STEM.

Name:  Daniel Alejandro Haskell
Department: Environmental Engineering
Degree: Master of Science
Future Plans:  Working at the Environmental Protection Agency

Name: Laurel James
Department: Forest Resources
Degree: Master of Science
Future Plans:  Continuing on to a PhD program in Forest Resources at the University of Washington.

Name: Katie McDonald
Department: Environmental Toxicology
Degree: Master of Science
Future Plans: Will work for the Department of Energy Bonneville Power Administration in Portland, OR.

Name: Patricia Montano
Department: Museology
Degree: Master of Arts
Future Plans: Moving to DC to pursue career plans

Name: Ruth Sims
Department: Electrical Engineering
Degree:  Master of Science
Future Plans:  Continuing to a PhD program in Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Name: Sabrina Bonaparte 
Department: Sociology
Degree: PhD
Future Plans: Working tirelessly to increase the number of minority students in STEM fields.

Name: Maria Zavala
Department: Mathematics Education
Degree: PhD
Future Plans: Faculty Position at San Francisco State University

Congrats, Class of 2012!!

About the Author “UW SACNAS Student Chapter”:  I (Sabrina Bonaparte, AKA, “Cyber SACNAS”) am signing off for good, now that I have graduated! I will probably be back for guest blogs here and there in the future but the blog will be left in good hands. It’s been fun exploring the world of science blogging with all of you and I will continue at my own personal blog site in the future! Thanks for the many guest blog posts, comments and suggestions you’ve all given me over this past year. Happy blogging! 

Reblogged from Ben Young Landis:

This month’s Diversity in Science Carnival is dedicated to Asian-Pacific Heritage Month. We’ll talk about strong Asian-Pacific women, Asian-Americans in education, and at the end there is an entire section dedicated to educators who would like to incorporate more information about Asian-Pacific Americans into their classroom.

For demographic facts on the Asian-Pacific Islander population, see the US Census Bureau’s Press Release on Asian-Pacific Heritage Month. Some highlights of the report are that there are 17 million Asians living in the United States; 5.6% of the population.  Asians excel in educational attainment; 50% of adults aged 25 and over possess a college degree. This is compared to only 25% of the overall American population over age 25. Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders account for 0.4% of the population, number 1.2 million people.

A recent report by the Economic Policy Institute found that despite their higher levels of educational attainment, Asian Americans continued to suffer long-term unemployment in 2011. They concluded that the patterns of unemployment were a result of nativity (a high number of foreign-born Asians), racial bias, and the high number of Asians that reside in California, a state which has struggled in the economic crisis. It is unknown if these same unemployment rates are also within STEM fields, which seemingly have no shortage of jobs. Within STEM fields, 6% of undergraduate (2008) and graduate (2009) students are of Asian-Pacific Islander descent.

The Asian-Pacific Islander population contribute to the rich cultural diversity of the United States. The Pacific Island National Park blog featured photos and videos from Pacific Islander Heritage Day on May 11, 2012 at Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site in Hawaii.  Participants in this event had the opportunity to experience traditional demonstrations and activities related to Native Hawaiian culture and the cultures of other areas of the Pacific.

Professionally, the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE) exists to advance Asian heritage scientists and engineers in education and employment. Andrea Stith blogged about the first annual meeting of SASE which occurred on the weekend of September 30, 2011. The second annual  meeting will occur from October 11-13th, 2012 in Baltimore, Maryland. If you’re interested in following SASE, they have their own blog as well.

Asian-Pacific Women 

At the UW SACNAS Chapter Blog, Dr. Amber Caracol talks about her lineage of strong women, stemming back to her family history in Korea and the Philippines.

Dr. Amber Caracol and Mama Caracol (her grandmother) at Mama Caracol’s 75th birthday celebration

Amber, who is the former president of the UW SACNAS Chapter and now teaches Anatomy and Physiology and Biology at North Seattle Community College, decided to host her students as guest bloggers on her personal site. She talks about Celebrating Diversity in her course, Biology 100 and how her class honored Asian-Pacific Heritage Month through blogging. The posts are about a variety of topics from teaching children about science, what diversity means to Tomoko Okada and how she has developed more confidence in her identity as a result, one person’s story of personal growth after attending a non-Christian school for the first time in their life, Raphael Davis’ experiences traveling in Asia in the Navy and his experiences living on the diverse ship, the USS Kitty Hawk,  the science behind the life of Jonathon Franz, who works as a firefighter and paramedic in Tacoma and traveled to Haiti in 2011, and Rebecca Y’s experience working with Earth Corps. While not all of these posts are directly related to Asian-Pacific Heritage month, they highlight the diverse experiences of Asian-Pacific (and non-Asian-Pacific) scientists at the community college level.

A post by an Indian field biologist who discusses her experiences balancing work and home and comparing US and Indian graduate school and research traditions.  If you are a mother doing field work, she provides great advice on how to take your child with you.

Continuing with the amazing female Asian-Pacific American scientist theme, Hyphen Magazine, which is dedicated to Asian American culture,  featured Jane Luu for women’s history month. Dr. Luu is a Vietnamese-American astronomer who co-discovered the Kuiper Belt while still in graduate school!

The STEMinist blog recently featured Materials & Process Engineer Michelle Hsia, who got to work on a Forumla SAE race car as an undergraduate. The blog itself was founded by Ann Hoang, an Asian-American Software Engineer at the University of Oregon.

Looking for a way to inspire more girls to get involved in math and science? Three engineering students think they have a way to do this by exposing young girls to STEM using toys. Their project was featured as a Kickstarter of the Week and you can help them bring this to fruition.

Asian-Americans in Education

As mentioned earlier, data support the notion that Asian-Americans are successful in academia. Some attribute Asian-American success to the cultural values passed from parents on to their children. On the other hand, the high levels of success lead to stereotypes of Asian-Americans being the “model minority” or the assumption that all Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders are monolithically successful.

The National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education (CARE) at New York University conducts research on this very topic.  A book specific to Asian-Americans in education is Asians in the Ivory Tower: Dilemmas of Racial Inequality in American Higher Education by Robert T. Teranishi. One review of the book noted that Teranishi addressed issues in data collection and data quality when examining the Asian-Pacific Islander American community and another addresses the Asian American male experience in higher education.

There are several notable college presidents who are Asian-American or Pacific Islander. To name a few:

Jim Yong Kim, M.D., Ph.D. (Anthropology)
President, Dartmouth College
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~president/bio/
next president of the World Bank

Mark Mitsui (Educational Leadership and Policy)
President, North Seattle Community College
https://people.northseattle.edu/users/mmitsui

Bob H. Suzuki, Ph.D. (Aerospace Engineering)
President Emeritus of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
http://www.csupomona.edu/~ahimsacenter/ahimsa_advisory.shtml#suzuki

Leslie E. Wong, Ph.D. (Educational Psychology)
President, Northern Michigan University
http://web.archive.org/web/20100527092544/http://www.nmu.edu/president/bio.htm
now President, San Francisco State University
http://www.sfsu.edu/~news/2012/spring/71.html

Henry T. Yang, Ph.D. (Mechanical Engineering)
Chancellor, University of California, Santa Barbara
https://chancellor.ucsb.edu/about/

Phyllis Wise, Ph.D. (Biology)
Chancellor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
http://oc.illinois.edu/bio.html

For Educators

For educators interested in teaching students about Asian-Pacific American scientists, you can track the contributions of Asian-Pacific American scientists using this timeline that goes back to 1901!  Also, there is a book that profiles Asian-American scientists for grades 6 and up. If you’d like to teach your students about the most brilliant Asian Americans of all time, this website has you covered! You can also teach about Asian American innovators

Speaking of younger students, the Angry Asian Man Blog highlighted two remarkable high school scientists: Angela Zhang, who won a $100,000 scholarship for her innovative cancer research and Li Boynton, who was invited to sit in with Michelle Obama during the President’s State of the Union Address.

Just for fun, why not teach your students about the science behind the wok? Or how about an entertaining discussion on Asian earwax?

For college students and those who are of drinking age, you can discuss the biology behind the “Asian Flush”, which may be caused by rice. Amasian offers both the most specific and the most entertaining scientific approach to the “Asian Glow” (or the “Asian Flush”) resulting from the buildup of acetaldehyde. He also discusses the emasculation of Asian American men in popular culture and provides the perfect mix of humor and science to illustrate his points.

Amasian provides a scientific approach to the “Asian Glow” and also uses humor to illustrate his findings

Why not teach about all of the Asian-Americans who won a Nobel Prize? You could start by focusing on Steven Chu, a quantum mechanic who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997.

Here is a list of several other notable Asian-Pacific researchers and their fields:

Nobel Prize Winners in Physics
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Steven Chu
Chen Ning Yang
Tsung Dao Lee
Samuel Chao Chung Ting

Nuclear physicist (experiments proved Lee/Yang theory)
Chien-shiung Wu

Nobel laureates in medicine
Har Gobind Khorana
Susumu Tonegawa

AIDS researchers
Flossie Wong-Staal
David Da-i Ho

Information Specialist in Computer Security
Tsutomo Shimomura

Expert on Superconductivity Technology
Paul Ching-wu Chu

Sickle-Cell Disease Researcher
Constance Tom Noguchi

Stay Tuned and Keep Blogging!

Thanks for reading. Special thanks to Dr. Danielle Lee of The Urban Scientist and Dr. Alberto Roca of MinorityPostdoc.org for contributing materials to this month’s edition.  The next Diversity in Science Carnival in June will honor Pride Month. Stay tuned for the next host…

Sabrina Bonaparte is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Washington (for one more week!) She is the manager of the UW SACNAS Student Chapter blog.  

Since I strongly believe in the importance of STEM education, I had the opportunity to represent UW SACNAS and the University of Washington as I taught to young students about plasma science and rocket science. My outreach efforts were conducted at the Denise Louie Education Center, the Concord YMCA, and the Center for Linguistic and Cultural Democracy.

Denise Louie Education Center (DLEC): April 3, 2012

I had the distinct privilege of spending some time with the students, staff, and educators at the Denise Louie Education Center (DLEC) located in the International District. The overall mission of DLEC is to promote school and life readiness by providing multi-cultural early learning services to needy families and their children. I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of teaching science to a class of 3 to 5 years old from very diverse backgrounds. Since some of these students were learning English for the first time, it meant that my words had to be concise, clear, and straightforward. With the help of lead teacher Brandon Blake, “master facilitator as I called him”, we were able to facilitate information about plasma science and advanced rocketry. Specifically, our discussion was about the substance of stars that fuels rockets. Brandon, also from Florida, had already familiarized his class about space and rocketry prior to my arrival. Since rocketry had been formally introduced, we focused primarily on understanding plasmas.

Structure:

I taught the lesson primarily on PowerPoint using only still images and videos. I made sure to ask questions that would require the students to critically think. I always reiterated that there were no wrong answers so that everyone felt included in the process as we were all learning.

We started out with a discussion about what are the different types of substances (e.g. solid, liquid, gas, and plasma). A slide of us discussing the different substances was shown in the photo below. From this slide, everyone recognized these images and gained an understanding about the different states of matter. Most of the students were able to identify ice cubes, water, and boiling water based on their sight and touch perceptions. The students recognized the sun, but didn’t know that it was the fourth state of matter i.e. plasma.

In order to understand more about our sun being plasma, the class engaged in a series of conversations about our sun, why it is plasma, and what plasma looks like in real time using videos from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). In the videos, one of which was shown in the photo below, Brandon and I asked the students what they saw and why they thought a particular phenomenon occurred. Based on their observations, the students were able to identify spots and loops on the sun which represented sunspots and the magnetic coronal loops.

After going through a series of videos from SDO, I wanted the class to evaluate whether or not using plasma as fuel would be more efficient than traditional chemical rockets. Brandon and I had mentioned to the class that the first three states of matter have been traditionally used for chemical rockets. A video was shown where we asked the students who would win the race. Before the start of the video, we took a tally. Half of the students chose chemical rockets and the other half chose plasma rockets. Who do you think one the race? Some of the students soon realized that it was similar to the tortoise and the hare race. The class was so filled with excitement (Brandon and I alike) that we watched it again to make sure everyone understood why the plasma rocket won the race.

Since the plasma rocket won the race, we wanted to show the class what a future mission to Mars and deep space would look like. Our young scientists at the end of the presentation felt that if they stayed interested in science then they could contribute to the development of advanced rockets. We had a number of them saying that they wanted to become astronauts and go to Mars. Here was a pretty cool photo of the group with the hands held high and all smiles.

At the end of the presentation, I wanted the class to put into practice what they had learned. The class participated in two activities displaying their knowledge from the lesson. The two activities were playing with a plasma globe and building their own suns using sugar cookies.

Plasma Globe:

A plasma globe is a device that contains a mixture of gases that display an array of light illuminated when electrical power is supplied. All of the students had the opportunity to play with the plasma globe and make observations once they touched it.

Solar Cookies:

For the solar cookie activity, each student recreated the dynamics seen on the surface of the sun. Each student was given licorice, skittles, vanilla frosting, sprinkles, and a sugar cookie. In the bottom left photo, the students were hard at work creating their own suns. Each student did an amazing job remembering the information we had discussed. A recreation of the sun can be shown from the student in the bottom right photo.

After completing the activities, we decided to take a group photo of all the scientists. Special thanks to Brandon Blake and the DLEC for helping me put on a successful lesson.

Concord YMCA: April 18, 2012

I talked with about twenty elementary students at the YMCA\Concord Elementary in West Seattle. I did a similar presentation as I had done with the DLEC, except this time I introduced more about rocket science with these students. The race between the chemical rocket and the plasma rocket was a major hit with these students as well. Based on my experience working with the preschoolers, I decided to come up with a more interactive activity session using the plasma globe. I brought in props such as fluorescent light bulbs and asked the students what they thought would happen. Applying what they learned from the lesson, the students told me that the light bulbs should light up when placed close to the plasma globe. Some of the students mentioned that the gas inside the bulbs would be excited when approaching the globe. I was really impressed. My main objective was to empower these students to think critically and after one lesson with them I witnessed the transformation.

Center for Linguistic & Cultural Democracy (CLCD): April 18, 2012

I talked with home-schooled 8 year olds at the CLCD located in South Seattle about plasma science and rocket science. Since this was a smaller group, I had the opportunity to also discuss general science and engineering topics. I also interacted with the parents and discussed topics to consider when educating their children.

I would like to give a special thanks to Dr. Sharon Cronin for helping me coordinate the events at the Concord YMCA and the CLCD.

Name: 

After completing my Bachelor’s degree at New Mexico State University, I came to the University of Washington to continue studying biochemistry in the Molecular and Cellular Biology graduate program. As I pursued my degree, working with community organizations to engage middle school students in science motivated my interest to teach general science. Upon completing a master’s degree in science, I began a teacher’s education program to become a middle school science teacher. I am excited to work with middle school students in tribal schools to encourage their pursuit of STEM careers.

According to the website on Asian-Pacific month, “Asian-Pacific” refers to “all of the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island).” This is a rather broad definition that represents many different cultures and ethnicities, and we hope to represent as many as possible for this carnival.

We seek submissions written by Asian-Pacific scientists and/or profiles of Asian-Pacific scientists, innovators, mentors, teachers, students, parents, or anyone else who contributes to our scientific community. This carnival is open to all: science bloggers, education bloggers, history/political science bloggers, and personal blogs. Please use the Diversity in Science Blog Carnival Submissions form or reply to this post or any other post on the UW SACNAS Chapter Blog with your link. The deadline is Friday, May 25th, 2012.  

If you have not had a chance, please read April’s Diversity in Science Carnival on the Imposter Syndrome, hosted by Scicurious.

As a student chapter of SACNAS in the Pacific Northwest, we have a large Asian-Pacific membership base and we are thrilled to have the opportunity of hosting this month’s carnival. We look forward to reading your submissions!

Name:

What carries cellular functions and processes? What can relay information to the nucleus of a cell and says, “hey! your environment is changing, access this or that gene and make more of me or my counterparts!” Why, proteins and their modifications of course! These are the aspects of proteomics Billy is most interested in. His research focuses on these aspects of oxidative stress in the baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and in aging-related disease. Although Billy loves his science, he does enjoy mentoring other students, cycling dozens of miles at a time into the countryside surrounding Seattle and. He is a native Ecuadorean, former New Yorker and an enchanted New Mexican at heart.

William’s CV is located below:

The Seed Of Doubt:

I vividly remember waking up to a phone call I received a few years ago. Startled and disoriented I answered the phone expecting the usual deactivation threat from the good people at AT&T. Instead, I heard a pleasant voice from the University of Washington inviting me for an interview to potentially pursue my Ph.D.

Maybe they got my phone number mixed up with someone else’s? I couldn’t entertain the idea that I could “possibly” receive training from a top 5 ranked research institution. I kept thinking, “What luck? Why me?” This is when it all started:

My mom didn’t exactly put my GRE score on the refrigerator. My GPA was decent, but not spectacular and my research experience was, lets just say “untraditional.” So why did UW Medicine end up giving me a chance? I started reflecting on reasons why an institution so great would want an individual as “ordinary” as myself. Was it because my letters of recommendation were stellar? If that was the case, then this was based on someone else’s overinflated depiction of me and my achievements. I did obtain a fellowship at the NIH but that was only because I worked my way through the backdoor and started as an intern. I graduated with a bachelor of arts with high honors, but I studied anthropology not biochemistry, pre-medicine, or computer science. Real doubt consumed my subconscious when I realized: It must be because I am a minority student who grew up in a single family home, and attended a high school where it was common place to double your lunch money playing spades on the bathroom floor. UW must have felt sorry for me or at the very least they needed to meet the diversity statement on their homepage.

Say it with me “I am not a fraud”

“Impostor Syndrome” is the name given to the stream of consciousness I just described. I am two years into graduate school at UW and I am still worried about being “exposed.” Impostor syndrome is alive and well in all types of successful people: graduate students, professors, men and women, white and black, gay and straight. It’s real, and it’s not going anywhere. On the contrary, the more you achieve, the more you will feel like an impostor.

According to psychotherapy experts, Impostor Syndrome, “is a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments.” “…Despite external evidence of their competence, those with the syndrome remain convinced that they are frauds and don’t deserve the success they have achieved.” We impostors chalk our successes up to a fluke of chance or just simply being lucky, and we are always in over our heads.

Only Diamonds Can Sharpen Diamonds:

If you can identify with my musings you are not alone. Everyone feels this way at some point when they are internalizing the successes in their life. There are several ways to cope with Impostor Syndrome, and consequently internalize your success:

Communicate. Misery loves company, so surround yourself with successful people because they are likely to feel like impostors too. Sharing your feelings with your peers is okay. This is the only way you can discover that your peers feel exactly like you do. I have to admit it’s immensely therapeutic to hear people that I believe are leagues more intelligent than me say, “I feel the same way.”

Under Sell, Over Deliver:

From what little success I have accumulated I can provide some advice. My first year of graduate school was one of the hardest transitions in my life. When you enter a new professional environment its very difficult to assess your progress, especially in graduate school. Moving forward and accumulating further success is a huge challenge. Comparing yourself and your accomplishments to others in your cohort is a natural yet toxic consequence of interacting with your peers. Comparing your experiences, strengths, and weaknesses to that of your peers is impossible and fruitless. Everyone’s path to success is different and you should use this as an opportunity to learn from your peers rather than compete with them.

Having an accurate pulse on your performance and progression in the work place is of great importance. Creating weekly lists and accomplishing them is something that works for me. I regularly set goals and share them with my advisor. If those goals are not accomplished in the time allocated we both leave our weekly meetings disappointed. That disappointment serves as motivation because I realize that I did not meet the goals we agreed on and this motivates me to work significantly harder the following week.

Doubt is Healthy, Fear is Paralyzing:

I am preparing to take my general exam this summer. This is not something I am looking forward to yet I know its necessary for me to progress from graduate student to Ph.D. candidate. My greatest fear is that I will fail my exam and not achieve a goal I have set for myself. However, I will not let that fear paralyze me. I will let that seed of doubt motivate me to work hard and communicate with my mentors when I am floundering. I will surround myself with people who encourage me to succeed. There’s a chance that I will make excuses about approaching and passing another milestone in my life. Ultimately, this milestone will serve as just another notch on my belt reenforcing my new train of thought. Because when I do pass my general exam it will be because I am legitimate not lucky. In the words of Thomas Jefferson “I’m a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”

References:

1. Langford, Joe; Clance, Pauline Rose (1993). ”The Impostor Phenomenon: Recent Research Findings Regarding Dynamics, Personality and Family Patterns and Their Implications for Treatment” (PDF). Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training30 (3): 495–501.
2. Lucas Laursen (2008) “No, You’re Not an Impostor.” United Kingdom. Science Careers.  Science Magazine.

Keolu Fox is a graduate student in the department of genome sciences. His research interests include human genome sequencing technology, and human genetic variation.