{"id":65791,"date":"2019-05-24T12:02:55","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T16:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/?page_id=65791"},"modified":"2020-08-09T12:23:02","modified_gmt":"2020-08-09T16:23:02","slug":"meet-keshia","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/students\/dei\/65649-2\/meet-keshia\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Keshia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rising Third Year Molecular and Translational Medicine PhD Student<\/em><\/h4>\n
\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Keshia entered the Program in Biomedical Science (PiBS) in the fall of 2017 and then joined the Molecular Translational Medicine program for her dissertation research. She\u2019s from New York, and attended St. John\u2019s University in Queens for her undergraduate education, where she studied biology and worked in an undergraduate research lab centered on DNA nanotechnology, with a focus on a technique known as DNA origami: nanoscale folding of DNA to make two and three-dimensional shapes. She then went on to apply to graduate school, ultimately\u00a0choosing Boston University for her PhD studies.<\/em><\/p>\n

Growing up, what did you want to be and how did that evolve into what you are currently doing?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

I always wanted to be a medical doctor because I liked the idea of helping people. That didn\u2019t change for me until I started to think about applying for the MCAT and worked in the cancer ward of a hospital for four months. I really didn\u2019t like it – I underestimated how emotionally stressful being an MD is. Everyone you\u2019re seeing is sick and might or might not get better, plus having to deal with the family\u2019s understandable but heightened emotions. It was all overstimulating for me and made me reevaluate: \u201cI\u2019m still interested in science, I\u2019m still interested in helping people, but is there a way I can do that that\u2019s less emotionally draining for me?\u201d I hadn\u2019t known what grad school really entailed until I started looking into it and finding out about great opportunities to not only research but to teach if you want to. Realizing there were more options than just industry or academia made me interested.<\/p>\n

What unexpected challenges have you faced as a graduate student and how\u2019d you overcome them?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Imposter syndrome has been the biggest one: worrying about whether or not I belong here or about whether my work is interesting or good enough. Dealing with it means confronting and trying to fix what makes it worse. For example, reconnecting with friends and making sure I\u2019m socializing with people in person or by text every day is important and helps with those feelings. Seeing that I\u2019m excited about their work and they\u2019re excited about mine makes me better feel like I belong here, as well as realizing that not seeing what the committee saw in me to admit me is doing them a disservice.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the most exciting thing that you\u2019ve done as a graduate student, whether it be personally or in the lab?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Getting to know a new crop of people outside of a science context and exploring the city have both been very exciting, especially as Boston is still relatively new for me \u2013 my interview weekend was the first weekend I was here. In the years before grad school I was more isolated and unsure of what I wanted to do with my life, and I hadn\u2019t realized how much I missed having company and being in a vibrant social space until I came here.<\/p>\n

In terms of science, I wasn\u2019t expecting to do cancer research \u2013 I was aiming more for transplant-relevant medicine; it\u2019s what I wrote my personal statement on. I hadn\u2019t realized how complex cancer was or how many different angles there could be to approaching the same problem. Finding my own niche in that space and then trying to connect it to other things I\u2019m interested in like immunology and stem cells has been invigorating for me.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>What advice would you give a first year graduate student who\u2019s just starting the program?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Ask for help! I was so embarrassed whenever I needed help with anything, because it felt like validation to the voice saying \u201cYou don\u2019t belong here. Everyone else is doing perfectly fine and you\u2019re the only one struggling.\u201d That wasn\u2019t true at all: just because other people aren\u2019t vocal about their difficulties doesn\u2019t mean that don\u2019t exist. You shouldn\u2019t feel like the lone failure adrift in a sea of people passing everything with flying colors. This program is very difficult and very intensive, and people recognize that \u2013 you aren\u2019t going to be shamed here for needing academic or emotional help to cope with it. BU is one of the kindest institutions I\u2019ve ever visited or been a part of; everyone\u2019s genuinely interested in making sure that you succeed. Don\u2019t isolate yourself with your feelings until they become too much to handle.<\/p>\n

The other piece of advice I would give is not to compete about anything. I feel like grade obsession is something that you see more in students coming straight from undergrad as opposed to students with more life experience \u2013 getting hung up on GPA and on \u201cwhat did you get on this assignment?\u201d It doesn\u2019t really matter. Don\u2019t fixate on those kind of markers, because understanding the material to later apply it like a scientist is the most important thing. Additionally, a lot of academic culture is highly toxic in making not taking care of yourself a point of competitive pride. You should not feel like you\u2019re not doing enough if you\u2019re getting adequate sleep, and you are not more undeserving of success than your classmates if you make time for hobbies or refuse to pull constant twelve-hour lab days. You\u2019re human. Go take a nap.<\/p>\n

What do you do for fun?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

I\u2019m a huge nerd! I play video games, and I got into Dungeons and Dragons last year. It was a really old-school tabletop game that\u2019s experienced a resurgence in the last 10 years, so there\u2019s a pretty vibrant community around it now. It\u2019s been nice to go out on a weekend, roll some dice, and tell some stories with friends \u2013 decompress and have a good time. If you can find a table of people to play with, I highly recommend it! I also enjoy creative writing.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>What is your favorite restaurant or thing to do in Boston?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

I like the [Boston] Commons in spring \u2013 it\u2019s really soothing to walk through. My favorite restaurant is a tie between two: one is an Italian place called Papa Razzi on Newbury Street. That place is mind-blowing – everything is home made, and the flavors\u2026it\u2019s one of my favorites. The other is a hot pot in Chinatown called Kaze Shabu Shabu. I always get the curry broth!<\/p>\n

Read More DEI Spotlights<\/em><\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rising Third Year Molecular and Translational Medicine PhD Student Keshia entered the Program in Biomedical Science (PiBS) in the fall of 2017 and then joined the Molecular Translational Medicine program for her dissertation research. She\u2019s from New York, and attended St. John\u2019s University in Queens for her undergraduate education, where she studied biology and worked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15151,"featured_media":0,"parent":65649,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65791"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65791"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73991,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65791\/revisions\/73991"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}