Luke ScherzJunior BIOSC major currently studying for his MCATs You’ve all heard the stereotypes: college professors are lackluster individuals who have few interests outside the academic domain and are proudful of their reputation as being the most difficult professor. Now I know that some of you are well aware that this is a dramatic exaggeration, but I also know that many of you still hold this stereotype to be true. In fact, this stigma about professors being these intimidating figures of authority is one of the many reasons why most students fail to utilize one of the most beneficial resources available to them as undergraduates, office hours! In order to undermine this pervasive stereotype of professors, I interviewed one of the BIOSC professors, Dr. Linda O’Reilly, to show that many college professors are people just like you who have extremely active personal lives beyond their job as a professor. I have had the pleasure to not only take Dr. O’Reilly for both Foundations 1 & 2, but also to perform undergraduate research underneath her sponsorship and serve as a UTA for her BIOSC 0150 course last fall. The first question I asked Dr. O’Reilly pertained to her winter break and what fun activities she did. She told me that much of her winter break was spent with family, particularly a lot of time in their pajamas and enjoying each other’s company. Dr. O’Reilly stressed the fact that it is very important to find balance in life, especially balance between work and one’s personal life. Some activities Dr. O’Reilly enjoys outside of work include exercising (walking and running) and Ti Chi, which is form of Kung Fu! She told me that her family is very active, and they enjoy doing many activities together.
She teaches BIOSC 0150, 0160, and 1010; interestingly, Dr. O’Reilly is the only professor here at Pitt that teaches both semesters of Foundations Bio (BIOSC 0150 & 0160). After asking her about what she loves about the courses she teaches, she told me that while she loves seeing the skill development and formation of study habits in the two semesters of foundations, she does not like the large class size since it makes it difficult for individualized attention. In other words, students are more likely to get lost the in the sheer number of their peers. For this reason, she loves teaching BIOSC 1010 since the class size is much smaller and allows for individualized attention. Furthermore, she told me that she loves BIOSC 1010 since she has the opportunity to see how far along her students have come in their academic careers! Interested in Dr. O’Reilly’s biography, I asked her about what influenced her decision to pursue a career in biology. She responded by telling me a brief story about her high school biology teacher who was a young female teacher among a sea of male teachers. She had great respect for her bio teacher and thought that if this woman can do make it in a field dominated by men, so could she! Her passion initially led her to pursue a career as a high school bio teacher, but soon transformed into pursuing bioanalysis. She began work in a research lab and soon became a mentor to many newer members of the lab. She emphasized to me the importance of her mentors along her journey to receiving her PhD in biochemistry. Although she did not initially plan to obtain a PhD, she told me that with the support and guidance of her mentors along the way, she discovered her passion for science and teaching and correspondingly entered a PhD program. Discussing her current research, Dr. O’Reilly does not perform any wet lab research but is very interested in academic research. Specifically, she is interested in improving the learning experience in the classroom by establishing an engaging environment for the students. Interestingly, she told me that some BIOSC faculty and herself began 3D printing macromolecules in order to better illustrate to students the difference between major and minor grooves in DNA. I concluded the interview with a question asking about any advice she would offer to incoming students interested in pursuing a degree in biology. She responded by saying that incoming students must reach out and establish connections with their professors, finding mentors that will help guide them along their academic career. She also stressed the importance of utilizing UTA’s since they are an extremely under-utilized resource that is available to students. Lastly, she said that incoming students must be honest with themselves. If you need help, seek it as soon as possible. It is ok to ask for help, no one is perfect! Now that I have hopefully shifted some of your opinions on college professors, I encourage all of you to attend office hours and get more involved! Establishing relationships with faculty members is crucial to academic success!
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10/4/2020 08:38:36 am
Prof Prem raj Pushpakaran writes — 2019 marks the 100th year of International Union of Biological Sciences!!!
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