Access to Advancement, Part II: Jennifer
Allison Dunne: Jennifer is a doctoral candidate in biomedical engineering at Columbia University in New York City. It's a path different from the one suggested by a former academic advisor.
Jennifer: That was somebody who knew that I was at the top of my program there, at the time, and I had a 4.0, and yet still advised me to become a housewife after I finished college. He said to me, 'How are you ever supposed to get a job if you can't wake up early. Maybe you should just use engineering school to meet a husband.' So, I didn't take his advice. And, later on, when I was interviewing for the valedictorian of the entire school, I walked into a room with the committee of interviewers, and I saw him there, and it was just...it was good in the sense that I could show him that I was still determined to succeed in a career in biomedical engineering, but it also meant that I certainly wasn't going to become the valedictorian of the college.
Allison Dunne: She says the advisor's advice was not based on gender, rather, on disability, and the accommodations and flexibility she would need as a result. Jennifer has a rare form of epilepsy, and is highly sensitive to bright light, especially fluorescent lighting, which can trigger her seizures.
It was during her junior year, she says not only a summer research internship, but the process of applying, proved to be turning points.
Jennifer: I was just searching online for whatever seemed interesting to me, and I came across a link that said, "if you have a disability, click here". And I didn't ever before that consider myself to have a disability. I just thought I had challenges, like everybody has challenges. So, I thought, though, according to my health insurance, they consider me disabled. I thought, well, if they consider me disabled, let me at least click on this link and see what it's all about. And I found the Entry Point! program, which is an internship program for students with disabilities. So I applied to it, but I did so with hesitation because I really didn't consider myself ever to have a disability. I thought people with disabilities were either wheelchair bound, blind, or deaf, because that's the cookie-cutter image, the stereotype, and that's just what I thought, like most people probably think.
Allison Dunne: She was accepted to a few internships, and did choose the one via Entry Point!, a program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She interned at California's Stanford University, where she worked for the Center on Polymer Interfaces and Macromolecular Assemblies, or CPIMA. Jennifer says a woman she met at Stanford provided her with inspiration.
Jennifer: I met a woman who was in charge of the program who was an inspiration to me because she had a severe form of cerebral palsy, but she never let it stop her. And she actually had a Ph.D. from Berkeley [University of California, Berkeley] in material science, and she did that with this severe disability. So, she was just this inspiration to me, plus she believed in me. If I wasn't feeling well, and I sort of said, oh, I need to come in late one day because I need extra sleep or something, she, it was fine, it was not a big deal, whereas I considered it a big deal because I thought I was getting in the way, or I didn't like taking, having any accommodations ever made for me. But she just made me realize it wasn't a big deal. I realized during that time, I guess, that by asking for little accommodations like that, I was just putting myself at less of a disadvantage. I wasn't asking for any accommodations that would put me at an advantage above other students. I was just sort of trying to put myself closer to where they were at in terms of a starting point.
Allison Dunne: And her starting point, when it came to what to pursue in college, was her brain surgery for epilepsy. She said the technology used during her surgery interested her immensely, and helped to hone her focus academically.
Jennifer: I knew I didn't want to go into medical school and become a doctor, but I thought it was fascinating that they had this technology available. So I looked into who were the people that developed these kinds of tools, and found out, through a lot of Internet searching, that these were biomedical engineers.
Allison Dunne: She has a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering from City College, part of The City University of New York, and recently earned her biomedical engineering master's degree from Columbia University. The master's program led to her current enrollment in Columbia's doctoral program, performing brain research in an engineering lab.
Before her brain surgery though, and before City College's biomedical engineering program, Jennifer had given college a try, but, because of her severe seizures, could not get through it. After surgery, she thought all was well, and she returned to school, albeit a different one, for architecture, and had to stop again, because she said she had pushed herself too hard, with a full load of 17 credits.
Jennifer: It was incredibly frustrating cause I thought everything's back, and took some time off, and then just went back to school part-time, non-matriculated, just took classes I wanted to take - physics, math, all the fun stuff, and then realized it was time after a year of that to decide really what my focus should be, what I should major in, and what I wanted to do with my life. And I had to think about what was most exciting to me.
Allison Dunne: And most exciting to her was biomedical engineering.
By the way, in addition to leading to a career path, brain surgery did help Jennifer health-wise.
Jennifer: It's a little easier to get by now because I can be up in the daytime hours since my surgery as long as I'm careful and I wear sunglasses and hats and minimize my exposure to bright lights, particularly fluorescent lighting - I try to avoid at all costs. I order things online instead of shopping and skip a lot of classes if I'm not feeling well because of the fluorescent lighting.
Allison Dunne: Sunglasses, hats, and avoiding fluorescent lighting were not enough to help stave off the seizures before her surgery, and Jennifer says she spent about two years essentially cut off from the functioning world.
Jennifer: Instead I needed to sleep all through the daylight hours and then just stay awake at night. I could just tolerate at night some incandescent lighting at my parents' house. And because I had this reverse schedule, I lost contact with pretty much all my friends, except for one - one good friend I still have today, 15 years later, something, almost. And I saw my parents, I guess, when I was waking up and they were getting home from work, for a few hours. And that's about it. That was my human contact.
Allison Dunne: Now her human contact includes a mentor, her advisor in the Ph.D. program, who Jennifer describes as accommodating.
Jennifer: He was willing to replace all the fluorescent lighting in the lab with halogen lighting. And, in the end, the Office of Disability Services actually offered to pay for all of that on their own. So I've had a lot of support there.
Allison: Jennifer says she hopes to become a professor and perform brain research within academia. She says the flexibility afforded by such a career choice suits her well.
When Jennifer is not in the lab, doing Ph.D.-related work, she's looking to relieve some of her academic-related stress.
Jennifer: A balance is a must. As an undergrad I just overstressed myself - school all the time, constantly. All I cared about was, oh, good grades, so I could get into grad school. And, as a grad student, I've found more of a balance. And I do that, a lot of the time, with exercise. I mean I really like to do gymnastics, when I can, although that's tricky with the lighting a little bit, and I recently started jogging in the park, also I gotta wear the sunglasses and the hat, but, it's a lot of fun. And, other things like baking, and just trying new restaurants, and things like that.
Allison Dunne: I spoke with Jennifer at Hunter College, where she had given a talk to students participating in a new program called MIND Alliance, funded by a National Science Foundation grant. MIND Alliance is: Minority students with disabilities in science, technology, engineering, and math, and the alliance is between Hunter College in Manhattan, part of the City University of New York, and Southern University of Baton Rouge in Louisiana. MIND Alliance aims to increase the numbers of minority students with disabilities in the sciences, in part, by holding summer institutes on both the college and high-school levels, as well as pairing students with mentors.
Jennifer said she agreed to give the talk because she feels any amount of support helps. She said showing the little steps she has taken that have gotten her somewhere might help others get to where they want. She told the students not to be afraid to ask for accommodations, and she advised:
(Speaking to students during her presentation for MIND Alliance)
Jennifer: ...Don't let your challenges hold you back. Live, live smartly, know your limitations, but live to the fullest within your limitations. That's basically it, but if you have questions, just ask. (applause)
Allison Dunne: That was Jennifer, New York City resident and a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering at Columbia University.
For 51%, I'm Allison Dunne
Access to Advancement is made possible by the National Science Foundation Research in Disabilities Education Program.