Persistence Not Perfection

Thi s blog is dedicated to encouraging and empowering students, particularly students pursing careers in STEM ( science, technology, engineering and mathematics )  fields.   Students can sometimes have the impression that a single bad grade, or even a single less than perfect test score, dashes their hopes for a career in the sciences.  That is simply not true.  It is not true even if you have done fairly poorly in school during decent chunk of  your  education.  This can easily happen for those of us who have had other life challenges and lots of non-academic responsibilities during our education.  Or just those of us who didn't find school a good fit early on.   STEM needs you, needs your perspective, your experience, your resilience, and your persistence.   Those  of us who have contributed our stories here are all successful scientists who didn't have perfect grades (or even who had  abysmal  grades) at some point in o...

  Name: Toran D. MacLeod, PT, MPT, PhD, MS Profession: Tenured-Faculty Current and Previous Titles: Associate Professor   I am hungry.   Now in middle school, I am hungry for food. Being tall and big for my age, bullies often want to get in fights. I frequently felt hungry as I went to bed at night. I need mentorship.   I am in high school, confused and lonely. I play sports, exercise is my medicine. I don’t understand that learning HOW to learn is the most important for me to learn. A teacher found me, mentors me, shows me a human skeleton that I can memorize all the parts.   Unsure of what the future holds but loving all the information that I get to decide for myself, I am in a junior college. I do not understand that grades really do matter for my future, my grade point average is a 2.5. I learn that earning good grades can pay for school and my education.   I transfer to a public university, to earn a degree in Kinesiology...

  Name: Lizabeth Bowen, PhD Profession: Wildlife Ecologist, Eco-immunology, Eco-toxicology, Marine Current and Previous Titles: Research Ecologist, Principal Investigator, Sea Lion Hugger,  Athlete, Mom Well there was high school. I earned almost all As (1 B in band which was generous). I played three varsity sports and won the scholar athlete award at graduation. I had worked very hard to achieve this and put a ton of pressure on myself. My parents honestly never pressured me about anything really – it was all from within. Then there was college. I went to UC Santa Cruz (when the mascot was still the sea lion – long time ago). I specifically chose Santa Cruz because they did not have grades (at that time). I was so burned out from high school that I just wanted to go somewhere where I could focus on learning, not achieving. My first two years were probably two of the most difficult years in my life. I took all of the required classes and did very well. I still felt ...