During this week’s RAM meeting, Dr. Dana Naughton, director of the global health minor and assistant professor of biobehavioral health, was kind of enough to speak to us about her career and path to this point. On her path to her current position at Penn State, she changed her major 5 (FIVE) times, joined the Peace Corps, worked at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Johns Hopkins, and switched her focus from education to healthcare. Besides her interesting path to the present, one of her takeaways from her journey really stuck out to me.
Learn to stop looking for “career building experiences” and start looking for “personal growth experiences.”
To a lot of people, that might be really obvious. Building up yourself, as a person not just a professional, should come before any line on a resume. Also exploring yourself, the world, and your passions typically lends itself to developing as a professional. But for me, it wasn’t always obvious. I spent most of my high school experience and parts of my earlier college experience just searching for the most prestigious, biggest and best opportunity to bolster my resume and prepare me for med/grad school. To me, that was the best way to qualify me to take on the opportunities I needed to be a great doctor and scientist—exploring the world and different passions came second.
Recently, however, and Dr. Naughton’s presentation resonated with me for this reason, I’ve put a much greater emphasis on finding experiences that allow me to be productive, while meeting people, seeing places, and just generally learning about myself as I enjoy life. I think my mindset really started to change when I did my study abroad in Sweden. At first, I partially wanted to do it as a stepping stone to other opportunities. I thought a 6 month research internship at a top 10 international medical school would look great on my resume! But as I spent time there, and made new friends and found new cultures and interests, my mindset shifted towards recognizing the critical importance of personal growth as well as professional growth.
Now, in my last semester as I prepare for a career in medicine, my goal is to not lose sight of the importance of personal growth. In my gap year, I’d like to spend time doing things I might not have the chance to do when I’m busy studying in the coming years. In medical school, I don’t want to lose sight of my passions and interests outside of school, while taking advantage of the school’s extracurricular offerings. I’ll always be looking for those personal gainz.
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