For one day a year, underclassmen are expected to contact someone who works in a field they are interested in attending and shadow for them for a full school day. So far I have shadowed a hospitalist at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas in my freshman year, and several researchers at UCSD's Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences (CASS) i order to gain experience and insight into two fields that I am interested in.
10th Grade- Scientists at UCSD's Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences
Introduction
For my 10th grade career day, I chose to reach out to the director of the UCSD Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences (CASS), Dr. George Fuller, to see if I could come in and talk to him and some of the other researchers about their careers and research. Luckily, he put me in touch with Dana Johnson, the associate director, who was happy to accommodate me! Although most of the other students in my grade were supposed to shadow one person for the whole day, I chose to hop around due to the solitary nature of research. I find physics and astronomy very interesting, in addition to the medical sciences, and so I wanted to see if a job in that field could be right for me. Overall, I had a great time! I got to interview 4 people: Dusan Keres and Alexei Kritsuk, who were full-fledged researchers, Cliff Johnson, who was a post-doc, and Sebastian Tawa, who was a graduate student. Overall, I had an amazing time! I really love to hear about the cutting edge research scientists are working on, and it was just awesome to be able to conversate with someone in the field. I'm definitely going to start teaching myself how to code, as every single astronomer talked about how important of a skill it is, especially because they're working with huge sets of data or running simulations these days. One thing that really intimidates me is the rigor of being a physics major, so I'll be really focusing on improving my math and physics skills before I go off to college. All in all, I find all of the material that they are working with extremely interesting, but I'm not sure if I would be able to work in such a solitary career. There didn't seem to be a lot of collaboration between the scientists, and I work best when I can bounce ideas off of team members (teamwork is highly emphasized at HTH). However, that cuold be a trait unique to UCSd or I could've just caught them on a slow day. Additionally, I really like the prospect of being able to teach and research (as the faculty members were doing). I think I'm definitely consdiering going into astronomy as a career prospect, and I'd definitely like yo study it in college.
Career Day Expectation Questions
Below are some of the questions we had to answer before Career Day about our expectations:
Describe what you think a typical work day is like at this site. I think that a typical work day would be the scientists conducting their research or teaching classes, essentially just working on what they have to work on. I'd also imagine that they would read published papers/work on some that they are writing. Past that, I'm not too sure what to expect. I'm really curious to see if there is collaboration between the researchers or if it is more of a quiet working environment.
What do you think the business's general work policies are? Well, I know that faculty members must teach classes, so I'd imagine that the university would frown upon them missing or not being prepared for them. Additionally, I think that continually working on quality research and providing results is paramount to the scientists keeping their position, as well as staying relevant in academia.
Describe what you think the dress code will be like I don't think it'll be anything too fancy. Probably something along the lines of a collared shirt and jeans would be acceptable (just like at HTHNC).
In what ways do you expect your high school classes and the skills you have learned to apply to this profession? The material we are learning in school is the foundation for more complex topics that the scientists presumably use. For example, the math we are learning right now is the foundation for something more complicated, like calculus, which itself can be built upon to reach a level of mastery that the researchers are it. The same goes to the physics class I took last year. Past that, at HTHNC learning to think critically and how to approach complex issues (learning how to learn) is a core part of the curriculum and the culture. These are skills that would be useful in any profession that involves solving a problem, whether it be a complicated physics issue or anything else.
Interviews
Below are summaries of each of the interviews I did:
Dusan Keres How did you get to where you are now? -Interested in astronomy/physics back when he attended middle and high school in Russia -Went on to pursue it during his higher education.
What is your current research topic? -Studies galaxy formation, evolution, their halos, and the intergalactic medium. -To do this he runs simulations of the formation of structure in the universe.
Do you have any advice for an aspiring scientist? -Exposure to research -More writing and presenting experience
Was there anything that inspired you to take up astrophysics as a career? -Inspired by Haley's comet -Books: Inflationary Universe by Alan Good and First 3 Minutes by Steven Weinberg -Would read astronomy magazines as a kid
Alexei Kritsuk How did you get to where you are now? -From Russia, attended university and got PhD there -Worked in Germany for some time, and then moved here in 2000
What is your current research topic? -Main interest = the Interstellar Medium (ISM) -Trying to solve problems related to turbulence during star formation -Related to one of the Millennium Problems (a set of problems in mathematics which have a prize of $1 million for anyone who can solve one) -Simulations: ppmac.ucsd.edu/Kabir/ Do you have any advice for an aspiring scientist? -Learn to program (Python, C++, C, Fortran) -Learn as much as you can!
Was there anything that inspired you to take up astrophysics as a career? -Good teachers -Pictures of space
Sebastian Tawa How did you get to where you are now? -Took 6 years off after high school (wasn't sure what to pursue, didn't want to waste money) -Tried going to art school, didn't enjoy it -Eventually chose physics and received a degree from the University of Colorado -Currently attending graduate school at UCSD, working under Dr. Fuller
What is your current research topic? -Studies the effects of neutrino bursts during the collapse of supermassive stars and their connection to the formation of heavy elements -Trying to figure out whether heavy elements form during supernovae or during neutron star collisions (or a bit of both)
Do you have any advice for an aspiring scientists? -Be open to new ideas and opinions -Learn all you can during college, take advantage of all of the knowledge available -Be careful with the quarter system, it may make it difficult to deeply understand the material
Was there anything that inspired you to take up astrophysics as a career? -Just took an astronomy class and found it interesting -Further reading on research: The Evolution of Radiation-Dominated Stars I. Nonrotating Supermassive Stars by G.M. Fuller & S.E. Woosley, Equation of State in the Gravitational Collapse of Stars -Philosophy
Cliff Johnson How did you get to where you are now? -Did undergrad at Colby College, went to University of Washington for grad school -Was initially conflicted between psychology and astronomy, chose astronomy -Is at UCSD to complete his postdoc, which is like being a part of the faculty, but without the responsibility of teaching
What is your current research topic? -Did PhD on Star Cluster Formation in Andromeda Galaxy -Used Hubble to look at individual stars in the nearby galaxy, created the largest photo Hubble as ever taken, called the PHAT mosaic -Took three years to achieve the full image -Created a citizen science project (andromedaproject.org) to help find a classify star clusters to learn about their age and mass distribution -Transitioning to star clusters in the Magellenic Clouds now
Do you have any advice for an aspiring scientist? -Get exposed to coding/computer science -Learn what you can, work hard
Was there anything that inspired you to take up astrophysics as a career? -Backyard telescope
9th Grade- Hospitalist (Scripps Encinitas)
For my first career day, I was lucky enough to shadow Dr. Mahlum, a Hospitalist at Scripps Encinitas hospital. A Hospitalist is basically a general Physician who works primarily in a hospital, mainly dealing with chronic diseases. Being a Hospitalist is a profession that greatly interests me as I'm interested in the medical sciences but I don't want to go into a job that would be super high stress. Overall, I'm really happy with my first career day. I got so see 14 patients which was absolutely amazing.
Below you can see some reflection questions:
Describe what you think a typical work day is like at this site. From what I could surmise from my experience, Dr. Mahlum spends the first couple hours of her days doing rounds, which is basically when she checks up on all her patients to see how they’re doing, evaluate their condition, & see what they need. After that she’ll see specialty patients (she said she gets a lot of Cardiology ones) and mainly does paperwork when she’s not seeing patients.
What do you think the business's general work policies are (tardiness, absence, etc.)? Well a hospital is made up of a lot of working parts, so if I was working there and had to miss a day, as long as someone was notified I’m sure it would be okay. However, tardiness could be worse. As I said before, the first thing Dr. Mahlum does when she gets to the hospital are round, and the rounds are comprised of a team of 4 people, so if she was late they wold all be waiting for her which would just be a waste of time. More or less, the policies would be very similar to any other workplace.
Describe what you think the dress code will be like at this site. Hospital attire, so something like scrubs or a white coat.
In what ways do you expect your high school classes and the skills you have learned to apply to this profession? Well an interesting thing about the medical sciences is that it isn’t really taught in the regular school system, so a lot of what I’d apply to it wouldn’t be the raw material I’m learning, but rather the critical thinking and problem solving skills. Please write a reflection which describes what you are expecting for Career Day. What kind of tasks or activities do you expect to see people doing? In other words, what do you expect the professional world to be like? (minimum 2 paragraphs, 5-8 sentences each) Well, going in I expected what everyone expects of a hospital. Really busy, lots of things happening at once, but an order to it. Like everyone know where they’re going, what they’re doing, and why they’re doing it but they have to get there fast. I also expected most of the patients’ severity to be medium, as a Hospitalist generally treats patients with chronic diseases that don’t require urgent care (although I did see one patient who was transferred in from the ICU). I don’t know, I didn’t really expect the typical “professional world” As far as the whole “order in chaos” thing goes I was right about that, people were constantly moving and talking. There was a lot of jargon when the nurses were explaining what was wrong with a patient, but luckily Dr. Mahlum was pretty good at putting it into layman terms. I also got what I expected with the severity of the patients, but I underestimated how interesting they could be. For example, we had one patient who was using the hospital to get pain medication and claimed that she had Crohn’s (a chronic gastrointestinal disease). I had expected most of the cases to be mainly medical, but there were some colorful characters there. Overall, I had an amazing time, it was an awesome experience that I’m very glad I had.