Kate Wardenburg
I am currently in the PhD phase of my MSTP training and am in the lab of Christina Stallings where I study the role of alveolar macrophages in the pathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. As a PhD student, what I do on a day-to-day basis can look drastically different! I may be in our BSL3 laboratory performing experiments, analyzing data I have collected, reading the literature to inform my hypotheses and approaches, or writing and working on presentations — all in an effort to advance my project and answer unsolved questions in the field. While I have a lot of liberty to plan my experiments and investigate the questions that I find most interesting and impactful, I am rarely working in isolation. I meet regularly with my PI to discuss findings (both exciting and confusing!) and get feedback on my future directions. I also benefit from great mentorship from the other members of my lab who are always eager to teach me new skills, help me troubleshoot problems I am encountering, or even just brainstorm hypotheticals with me. I have found the environment in my lab, and across the university, to be so supportive and collaborative. It’s been very conducive to me becoming the kind of independent researcher I came here to be.
Because I am early on in my PhD training, my laboratory pursuits are also intermingled with a few classes and other educational commitments. For example, last semester I took a course where we learned how to write grant proposals. It was very exciting to me to be taking classes where I was developing applicable career skills, and this past summer I applied the knowledge I had gained from that course to write and defend a mock grant proposal during my Qualifying Exam (or “QE”). Now that I have passed my QE, I am considered a PhD candidate and am preparing to propose my thesis and apply for a training grant! I also love taking advantage of informal educational opportunities in this phase of the program. There is no shortage of scientific seminars across campus (including a weekly one hosted specifically for MSTs) with speakers ranging from fellow students to invited speakers from other renowned research programs. These talks are great opportunities for me to learn and think critically about other fields of research, and sometimes even my own. Similarly, I enjoy finding time to attend clinical conferences at the hospitals on campus as well, as I find they are an easy way to keep some of the medical knowledge I built as a pre-clinical student in Phase 1 fresh in my mind. I was also recently elected to serve for two years as a PhD-phase MSTP representative to the Medical School Government. I am eager to see how this role will not only allow me to serve other MSTP students in the same phase as me, but also stay involved with the medical school and decisions being made about student program navigation there.
Another aspect of being a grad student I am really enjoying is the work-life balance I have been able to cultivate. I am able to make time for things I enjoy outside of research — like weekly workout classes with my mom or playing (and sometimes winning!) trivia with my classmates at a local bar on Thursday nights. Some of the most fun times I’ve had have been sporadic adventures around St. Louis as well, like running over to the botanical gardens late at night with two fellow MSTPs to see and smell the giant, stinky corpse flower when it began its annual bloom! Similarly, I think I will never get tired of the incredible food scene in STL — I’m lucky that my best friend in the program and I are always on the same wavelength about going out for dinner, walking to Jeni’s for ice cream after MSTP seminar, or taking a break from our lab work to meet up for mid-day coffee. Additionally, in both Phase 1 of medical school and now, I have found time in my schedule to continue volunteering at St. Louis Children’s hospital — which is something I have enjoyed doing since I was an undergrad. As a medical student I was able to begin teaching child CPR to parents of infants and children in the hospital, and now I serve as a NICU Cuddler (which, yes, is as wholesome as it sounds).