CAREER REACTIONS
what a future environmental scientist or teacher might take . Meanwhile , career readiness served as the guiding principle for the program ’ s redesign process .
“ Careers have become so specialized in the past 10 years ,” Burkett says . Thus , the program offers flexibility in what courses students need to take . This versatility allows faculty to teach one major that can get students ready for a career in the private sector , government , or education , all while serving as advisors who regularly check in with students , asking the question , “ What ’ s next for you ?”
PROFESSIONAL PATHWAYS Alex Bull graduated with a B . S . in Chemistry from Stevenson in 2018 . For the past four years , he has worked for W . R . Grace , a specialty chemicals and materials company in Columbia , Md . As a senior technician specialist in this private-sector organization , Bull tests catalysts for performance . He says his experience as a Stevenson chemistry student helped prepare him for his professional work now by encouraging him to think outside the box .
“ Problem solving was a big thing ,” Bull remembers . “ Professors left room for error and thought . They allowed students to believe they can find the answers .” Burkett agrees that problem solving and working through failure are crucial to the Stevenson Chemistry and Biochemistry programs :
“ It ’ s about creating a truly authentic experience such as they will have after college , and that includes failure .”
Yes , failure ! Scientific research and laboratory work entail the experience of failure — many failed hypotheses , experiments , and unexpected results — on the way to a deeper understanding of processes that can ultimately lead to solutions and innovations . Propose a hypothesis , design an experiment , make it , test it , and hit repeat . Two classes that were particularly impactful to him , Bull says , were Instrumental Analysis with
Professor Tracy Mason and the Integrative lab with Professors Burkett and Timothy Dwyer .
In the Integrative lab , Bull worked on trying to develop a simplistic cancer drug . As part of the project , he went through all the research steps and cost analysis . “ This gave me a realistic approach to how things are done in the real world ,” he says . The
Instrumental Analysis class focused on forms of analysis geared toward lab setup related to food and petrochemicals , which Bull uses in his work at W . R . Grace today .
Besides his course load at Stevenson , Bull valued the outside-the-classroom experiences , such as Cookies with Chemists , and the accessibility of faculty at SU . He says one of his strongest memories of his time as a Stevenson Chemistry student is feeling comfortable going into his professors ’ offices to simply talk about life . They weren ’ t just professors , he says , “ they were life coaches .”
Like Bull , Andrew McGregor , who graduated from Stevenson with a B . S . in Chemistry in 2015 and M . S . in Forensic Science in 2016 , took advantage of all the opportunities and support that the program offered him .
“ Throughout my five-year education at Stevenson ,” McGregor says , “ I was given a multitude of opportunities to give tours , speak at open houses , and discuss projects with faculty . This helped craft an ability to discuss complex scientific problems among a community that may not have a rigorous scientific background . In my employment now , I am constantly praised on my ability to take scientific jargon of our Ph . D . -level researchers and present them to leadership in consumable verbiage to ensure full literacy among the non-technical team members .”
Currently , McGregor works as a technical director at the National Security Agency ( NSA ), where he has been for the past six years . Between his B . S . and M . S . degrees at Stevenson , he completed an internship at the NSA , and upon completion , he was offered a full-time position in a physical scientist role . McGregor credits the bachelor ’ s and master ’ s programs at Stevenson for preparing him for his career path .
“ The most beneficial experience I had was the hands-on lab time during the B . S . in Chemistry ,” McGregor says . “ There are many larger schools where students learn how to operate equipment but receive very limited hands-on experience operating the equipment and designing test parameters . Within my lab spaces here , we use many of the exact same state-of-the-art test equipment , and I was able to be promoted twice in three years because of my ability to hit the ground running .”
Another meaningful experience , McGregor remembers , was the three-week independent research courses he took during the summer of his junior year . “ During those three weeks , I was able to practice necessary skills in project management and independently decide the direction of a scientific research project ,” McGregor says . “ Those exact concepts are essential in my current job .”
Zoe Singman , who graduated with her Biochemistry degree
19 | VENTURES / SUMMER-FALL 2022