Young Alumna Shares Career Tips for Students Interested in Genetic Counseling
Skype session with young alumna helps students zero in on next steps
by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson
There’s nothing quite like getting helpful career tips straight from Dickinsonians at the top of their fields. But for students at the beginning stages of career exploration, it’s also helpful—and a little less daunting—to learn about the first steps of career decision-making from younger alumni, who know exactly what it's like to be a student in the 21st century and still vividly recall what it was like to be in their shoes.
One of these near-peer alums is Kayla Muirhead ’15, a Young Alumni Trustee, Stanford graduate student and former research training fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), who recently set aside an hour of her day to talk via Skype with students interested in learning how to best prepare for a grad program in the burgeoning field of genetic counseling. The lunchtime session was just one of many small-group career-exploration events hosted by Dickinson’s Center for Advising, Internships & Lifelong Career Development throughout the year, bringing students in touch with professionals across a spectrum of fields.
The first in her family to attend college, Muirhead began her career search in earnest during her first year at Dickinson, when she job-shadowed a physician. After junior year, she took part in a 10-week undergraduate research program in the University of Chicago’s molecular genetics and cell biology department, and after graduation she embarked on a two-year NIH postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Fellowship, shadowing a virologist and volunteering in the surgical department.
She discovered her passion while shadowing a genetic counselor, and an assistantship at a genetic-counseling clinic followed. Muirhead is now pursuing her master’s degree in that field at Stanford, where, as part of her assistantship, she serves 9-5 days at the university, attending class, shadowing professionals and gaining an up-close view of day-to-day life in different facets of the field.
During her Dickinson Skype session, Muirhead offered an overview of genetic-counseling job options and described common issues she's observed in the workplace. She also outlined the undergraduate courses that best prepare students for a graduate program in the field (biology, chemistry/biochemistry, psychology and statistics), answered questions about what major is best to declare (“I can tell you there’s no wrong answer”) and shared her secret to securing an assistantship (“Dickinson prepares you really well to be a good writer—I feel that helped me to get that position”). Asked for advice, Muirhead recommended that students take a thoughtful approach to career exploration.
“If you have a new experience, make a point to stop along the way and think about what you liked and why,” she offered. “If you start that as a first-year, you will be very thankful down the road.”
It was a fruitful lunch hour for Kellyn Madden ’19 (biochemistry & molecular biology)—who’s considering a genetic-counseling career and appreciated a chance to get a detailed description of a typical day on the job—and also for Franklin Saeteros ’22, who came to the session to learn about a field he previously knew nothing about.
“Especially as a first-year student, it’s great to network and learn about different paths in the medical field,” he said. “And it’s empowering to hear what Dickinson alumni are out there doing, as I figure out what direction I want to go.”
TAKE THE NEXT STEPS
Published November 14, 2018