07/07/2024
Uncertainties
As a McNair scholar at the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire, I am on track to apply for PhD programs in the fall. A PhD has been my objective for nearly a decade since I first learned that I loved math and wanted to do it for the rest of my life. But as the 2023-2024 academic year was drawing closer to an end, I started to have some very serious doubts. When I am not in class, I am self-employed as a Licensed Massage Therapist. Health and wellness have been interests of mine since I was a teenager. What I love about doing Massage Therapy is that it is also a problem solving exercise, but when you get the problem right, you have the power to profoundly increase someone's quality of life.
Increasingly, living in a world of theoretical mathematics was feeling isolating to me. I began to feel that maybe doing work which has a real world impact was more important to me than I had thought. Perhaps I was forcing myself into the role of a theorist because I was not sure what else I ought to do with my passion for mathematics. I had many conversations with my McNair program directors about my growing feelings of discontent, and with their encouragement, I allowed myself to think for a second what else I might do if not be a mathematician.
It was through some Google searching of fields that related mathematics to other physical sciences that I learned about the field of biostatistics. The human population is an extremely varied one, and for that reason, working with human data requires many unique statistical considerations. Biostatistics is the field that uses specialized statistical methods to answer questions in health research. In my initial research into what working in Biostatistics entails, it seemed to require a culmination of all the skills I have been cultivating for the past several years. Additionally, I learned that there is an ongoing national shortage of biostatisticians. Healthcare needs are growing, and medical researchers do not often have the statistical expertise required to properly handle and analyze their data. To solve this problem, the National Institute of Health funds several Summer Institute in Biostatistics (SIB) programs. I found one at the University of Iowa. One question on the application asked whether or not you were a McNair scholar. It was near enough to home that I could drive, and they clearly valued my unique experience as a McNair scholar, so I decided to submit an application.
Iowa Summer Institute in Biostatistics
To my delight, I was accepted to the Iowa SIBS program. After completing three weeks of didactic training virtually, I arrived at the University of Iowa in late June to begin the research portion of the program which lasts four weeks. During my time here so far, this year's cohort has had the opportunity to meet with and learn from many professors from the Biostatisics department at the College of Public Health. They have given all of us participating an inside look at what a workday looks like for a Biostatistician. There are faculty who do consulting for other researchers within the university, faculty who work on clinical trials research, faculty who do research in a specialized health area like cancer or genetics, and faculty who do more theoretical and methods based research. I have been very surprised by the variety that exists within the field and how collaborative the research is in the Biostatistics department. There is a large human element to the research done that extends from the research itself to the workflow of how it is ultimately executed and completed, which is something I view now as essential to my happiness in a career. Effects of this research span from health interventions to public health policy.
The College of Public Health at the University of Iowa
We have also had many opportunities to get to know the current graudate students in the department, and to learn from their experiences. What stands out about the Biostatistics department at the University of Iowa is their emphasis on the apprenticeship aspect of a graduate program. That is, almost all of their gradute students, masters students included, are funded through research assistantships. Graduate students have the opportunity to work on several research projects before moving on to writing their disseration. Prior to coming to the University of Iowa, I did not understand how essential the research assistantship component was to training and career preparedness in an applied field such as Biostatistics.
The longer I spend in Iowa in the SIBS program, the more I feel that Biostatistics is the right path for me. It has been a very impactful summer for my life trajectory and my development as a researcher. I now feel prepared to identify Biostatistics programs that will be a good fit for me when it comes time to begin graduate program applications in the fall. I am very greatful to Dr. Wonder and Dr. Orser at the McNair program for encouraging me explore my interests fully, and to try something which was outside of my comfort zone.
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