Current Position: Operations Engineer 1 at Ginkgo Bioworks Current Location: Boston, MA Majors: Biology, Environmental Studies
what were some of the opportunities you took advantage of while at hws?
A very important opportunity that HWS offered was their internships, which helped prepare me for my current job today. My junior to senior year summer, right after Covid-19, the school allowed students to participate once again in their summer research programs. This is where I researched Harmful Algal Blooms for the Finger Lakes Institute. This internship taught me many skills, such as organization, resilience, data analysis, research design, and patience, that I bring to the table at my current job today.
I also found that office hours with my professors were the saving grace for my academic career. Getting to sit down with your professor and either go over material or even just socialize is something very special and not common at other schools.
where did you find community at hws?
Coming into HWS as a committed ice hockey player I knew that I would have people immediately in my court, but little did I know that meeting others to further build my own community outside of hockey was just as easy. Especially when it came to HWS, the community wanted to lift you up and succeed. I found this type of community in Teaching Fellow Hours when our TFs would stay past their time slot trying to help solve organic chemistry problems. I found this community during my Intro to Drawing class where students would show up for Professor of Art and Architecture Phillia Yi’s additional night class to listen to music and absorb as much technical skills as we could. I found this community in dorms, bonding with my roommates and making memories that can only come from freshman dorm living.
was there a particular professor or other hws mentor who was essential to your path?
In this case, this is where HWS is so special in their community because I would say most of the professors and mentors I had played such an important role in my path. My biology professor and advisor, Professor of Biology Kristy Kenyon, not only taught me in many difficult biology classes, but mentored me through the ever adapting world that is a career in STEM. And to that reassuring and calm frame of mind I am forever grateful. To my other advisor Professor of Art and Architecture Phillia Yi, who taught me my newfound love of silkscreen printmaking and what I do when I am not working my full time job. She taught me the love of the process and seeing in a new, abstract way. To Director of Introductory Biology Laboratories Susan Cushman, who I helped TA her Intro to Biology lab for a full year where we saw every season collecting stream data.
how did hws prepare you for your current role?
I left HWS feeling comforted by the new home I had cultivated and stable that I would be able to handle the job I was starting a month after graduating. With the skills that I had learned from pursuing a double major, with a minor in studio art as well as being a winter season athlete, time management was my forte. I understood the grind and was excited to begin this new chapter knowing a had a place I could return to for guidance and community.
