Happy New Year, my fellow Simmons students. alumnae, faculty, etc! I simply cannot believe how fast 2008 disappeared. That said, I was looking back the other day on how much I have gone through personally just during this one year. It has been an incredible ride, but most of all, my journey this year has given me the faith to believe that anything is possible.

On December 20th, I celebrate my 24th birthday in the exact same bar where I celebrate my 23rd the year before. I look back at my mental state during that previous party, and remember how I felt like such a professional failure. I had just undergone 4 months of unemployment after being fired from a retail job I was emotionally attached to because it gave me stability and comfort. As an overachiever for most of my life, the idea that I was failing professionally was devastating. I had always been an excellent student extremely passionate about academics, but for some reason I struggled in an office environment. Finally, I started a temporary corporate job on December 2nd, 2008. I needed to pay my rent, and I was attracted to the fact that I got to write a bit (which was my main goal), even if it was copywriting about 400 or so rugs a day. While I enjoyed some aspects of the jobs, I realized the corporate life wasn't exact a good fit for someone as eccentric and outspoken as myself.

I had always struggled with anxiety problems throughout my life, in particular panicking while under pressure. As my dissatisfaction with my job worsened, my anxiety continued to grab ahold of me. I repeatedly went to a doctor claiming I was physically ill, and that there was something wrong with me. Each time, they brushed me off. At that point, I was sleeping with a brown paper bag next to my bed because I was waking up in the middle of the night hyperventilating. Ultimately, these panic attacks sucked the life out of me until I burnt out like a busted lightbulb one night. I was a dead wire, unable to function normally and completely fried. Luckily, I found myself in the hospital for three days where I got much needed rest.

I returned to my corporate job, but still detested it and was doing a piss-poor job. Finally, I was told my "assignment was over." I took multiple nannying jobs because I love children. I was stable, happy, and able to pay my rent. About 4 months ago, I took an extremely challenging job in the work of advertising and media. While it has been exhausting (I even pulled an 18 hour day once!) it has been one of the most worthwhile and challenging experiences of my life.

So as I rung in 2009 with my fellow simmons alumnae a few nights ago, I couldn't help but reflect upon how much my life has changed in a year. I went from the depths of anxiety and feelings of failure to being on my way towards becoming a self-sufficient, assertive individual. For all my fellow recent grads out there, I understand whole heartedly what it's like to despise your job. But please remember, while a year seems like eons in your head, it really is a short amount of time. And within that window, your life can change drastically. Mine did.  

I'm not a fan of new year's resolutions. I rarely achieve what I've resolved in that haze of post-holiday self-reflection, fueled by egg nog and rumballs. Yes, the new year is an exciting fresh and clean slate on which to play out our dreams of our more perfect selves...but it's also another opportunity to eat more rumballs, or indulge in laziness or any other vice that makes us happy. And is any resolution going to truly convince us otherwise?

Anyhow, before I completely undermine all of your well-meaning and wonderful resolutions (really, best of luck, you can do it!!) I suppose I'll share a few reading-resolutions of my own. Reading is something I do anyway, so a reading-resolution doesn't strike me as a terrible idea. I've been trying to read books that I feel embarrassed for not having read. Last year I read Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, which somehow didn't impress me when I was assigned to read it in high school-it wasn't Edgar Allan Poe, you see...But I can cross it off my guilty list now since I've read it and ENJOYED it a great deal. I also read To Kill a Mockingbird, which was never assigned to me to read in school (luckily, because I generally disliked books that were assigned to me-I'm horrible, I admit!). This book was so wonderful and beautiful that it made me cry, profusely, on the bus. Embarrassing. Then I watched the movie with my husband and I thought I might hyperventilate with all of my blubbering, because it brought the book back to me. I generally don't enjoy a good cry-fest as some do, but this book deserved my tears as it was just so beautifully written.

So in 2009...maybe I should read a classic that I've been meaning to read for years: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins? She, by H. Rider Haggard? (Let's take a moment to appreciate how great that name is: H. Rider Haggard. You'd think I would have read the book already, with an author name like that.) If any of you have any suggestions to add to my list, please let me know. While I'm at it I really should read The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub-it's not my type of book really, but it's one that my Dad recommended to me, and as he has been gone for more than ten years now the very least that I can do is catch up on all the books he told me to read. He was right about Poe, after all.

Aside from reading, maybe we should all resolve to do stuff in the new year that we know that we enjoy (as long as it's healthy for mind and body, yes, of course) so that we'll all be happy people. I resolve to listen frequently to David Bowie, which I already do very often. I also resolve to rub the dog's belly, and drink green tea with honey, and watch movies that I love and read good books. I've accomplished some of these things in the new year already. Great success!

As the new year begins, we resume our look at the vital and perennial student question, What can you do with a math degree besides teach?.  

The good news is that mathematical training is valued now as ever! Mathematics is increasingly being used in interdisciplinary settings, particularly in fields where biology and mathematics meet. For example, in the December 4, 2008 article, Ahead-of-the-Curve Careers, U.S. News & World Report identified 13 cutting-edge careers, including these careers for math majors: simulation developer, computational biologist, and data miner.

Actually, in an effort to attract undergraduates to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), three major mathematical societies in the U.S. - the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), the American Mathematical Society (AMS), and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) - have collaborated to develop a web resource, called the Sloan Career Cornerstone Center, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This web site is a rich and growing resource of career profiles, salary information, educational requirements, plus a monthly newsletter for all those who are interested in learning about career opportunities in STEM as well as healthcare fields.

Beyond its contributions to the Sloan Career Cornerstone website, SIAM has just updated its publication, Careers in Math, which identifies the following "emerging career opportunities" for current math majors: Computational Biology or Bioinformatics (mentioned above); Computer Animation and Digital Imaging; Finance and Economics; Ecology, Epidemiology, and Environmental Issues; Climatology, Data Mining, and Material Science.  

 

This month you will meet a Simmons alumna, Estella Kanevsky, Class of 2007, who works in one of the hottest fields where mathematics and biology powerfully intersect: biostatistics.

Estella Kanevsky, B.S. in Mathematics and Economics, 2007; Candidate for the Masters of Public Health in Biostatistics

 

• How are things going, Estella? What you been doing since we spoke a year ago?

My second year at Yale is great! I can't believe that I'm so close to being done. I'm currently working on my thesis. I'm analyzing a study between the association of breastfeeding and ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), which is a non-invasive breast cancer. It's a case-control study that one of my professors is in charge of. She wants me to publish it. It's really exciting!

 

 

• Did you arrive at Simmons knowing you wanted to major in math? 
  
  I think I always liked math. In high school I always made sure to take the most advanced courses offered. When I got to college, I didn't know what I wanted to major in, so I kept taking math. Eventually I fell in love with it!
  
  
•  What did you think you wanted to do with math?
  
  I really wanted to be a teacher. But, along the way I found that I didn't want to teach at the elementary or secondary level. Instead, I wanted to teach at the college level. I wanted to be a professor.
  
  
• What have you been doing since leaving Simmons? How does the math you learned at Simmons impact you on a daily?
  
  My thesis topic is in the area of cancer epidemiology. I use regression analysis, logistic regression survival, and basic descriptive statistics. Chi square tests come up a lot.
  
  

Also, in my job at Yale School of Medicine, I'm working on a meningioma study, The Meningioma Consortium Study, to identify their causes and effects. Meningioma are relatively common brain tumors, usually benign, which most often occur in middle-aged or elderly women. My supervisor is Elizabeth Claus, M.D., Ph.D., who also does surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital. I interview patients and controls. They're identified from a registry and the controls are selected by random digital dialing. Dr. Klaus's study is being funded by the National Institutes of Health. It's the first national meningioma study. It involves patients from 5 states: CA, TX, NC, MA, and CT.

 

•  Where do you see yourself in five years?
  
  I'd like to work for a company where I can pursue my interests in infectious diseases and continue to learn about surveillance, AIDS, cancer, and chronic diseases.
  
  
• Do you have any advice for alums?
  
  I think that learning who you are and what you want to do is most important. Loving what you do will get you far!

 

For a wonderful, in-depth article that describes the field of biostatistics as well as career opportunities, we recommend a beautiful article, Analyse This, which appeared in the science journal, Nature. Meanwhile, should you have questions for Estella or me on this blog, please write. Happy New Year!!

If you are looking for some humorous science to read, check out the Chirstmas issue of the British Journal of Medicine. Normally the BMJ is a very difficult journal to publish in. Only the top papers get published there. But every year, the issue published closest to Christmas is filled with fun and humorous articles and research reports. The methodology of the research is still very good so science is not compromised, but the way the studies were conducted, or the topic itself, is often very funny.

For this year's issue, please go to:
http://www.bmj.com/content/vol337/issue7684/

Access is free. Enjoy! And do remember to breathe even when you are laughing.

In the previous post, I mentioned that certain works of art take up residency in our minds so that years later, we still experience the same emotions we felt when we first encountered them.

The title pretty much sums up my life through the calendar or academic year.  I suspect some other professors may have similar "yearly rhythm".

When classes are in session, there is very little time to do research. So once classes is over, like winter break and summer, that is my prime research time. So for the next month or so, research is moved to the front burner and teaching to the back burner.

So what am I doing over winter break? Besides trying to crunch out some research work, I need to prepare for next semester's classes. I will be teaching Medical Nutrition Therapy, and since clinical practice changes, I have to update my teaching materials. I am also preparing 2 talks, one for the regional meeting of the American Culinary Federation (the professional organization for chefs) and the other for the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Dietetic Association (the Massachusetts chapter of the professional organization for Registered Dietitians). There is also work for the committees that I serve at Simmons.

On top of that, I'll accompany (on the piano) a short children's concert, then play organ for 3 services straight on Christmas Eve.  It'll be exciting, but I need to schedule in some practice time. When I was a kid, I didn't like to practice. My parents had to sit next to the piano to make sure I practiced.  But now as an adult, I actually enjoy it.

In short, I'll be really busy, but it will be rewarding. I am looking forward to the work. Hope you will have a good holiday season!