Season 2 Episode 4: Meet Nancy Otaluka

Nancy is currently a Clinical Research Assistant at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She was one of the first BioBuilder Apprentices,  a workforce readiness program for Boston-area students in under-resourced local high schools. In 2021 she graduated from the University of Massachusetts -Dartmouth, where she majored in Psychology and minored in Biochemistry. In 2022, she has returned to the BioBuilder Apprenticeship program as a teaching assistant, helping today's high schoolers with professional and laboratory skills.  

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello, and welcome to live changing science V Bible podcast. I'm your host Z Sean and my guest today is Nancy OCA. Nancy is currently a clinical research assistant at the Beth Israel deacons medical center in Boston. She was part of one of the first Bible apprenticeship programs in high school, and is now teaching assistant with BI. Let's hear more about her journey and dive right into this episode.

Speaker 2: 0:27

I'd like to ask you, when did you first get involved with BI builder? When did you first hear about BI builder?

Speaker 3: 0:33

So I first heard about it back in my senior year of high school. So that was like in 2016 I was taking, uh, I think it was either from AP bio or from my bio ethics class. I had the same teacher for, um, Ms. Scott, amazing teacher. She brought it up saying that there was this new program that they're gonna be doing out of MIT and it would be super interesting and anyone who wanted to join, they should just let her know and they'll help. She'll help her. She'll help you with the application. And just the caveat was that the deadline was very close. So you had to just rush to get everything together. So that's why I first heard about it rushing you get the application in and then heard back later saying like, oh, not accepted the I builders program. And from there, just being able to enjoy the program, being able to like, uh, just going straight from active from school into Boston, to be able to like go use like MIT's lab space, use all their equipment and able to do science that I wouldn't always be able to do it in the classroom. So that was my first experience with it.

Speaker 2: 1:37

What was the apprenticeship program like, uh, in terms of when you were, what type of experiments were you doing or did you get yeah. Did you get the opportunity to, uh, to do

Speaker 4: 1:49

So? I know it was a lot of things that were mentioned in classes and science classes, but not necessarily, you get to go in, in depth with it. So a lot of just learning the basics of how to conduct yourself in a lab space, a lot of learning, a lot of the lab math as well. So I know there were a lot of exclusion making a lot of pleading cells a lot. I remember the, the running the gel, the aro gel, especially cause I liked doing that one. It seems super cool, but we just learned a lot of the basics that you need to know on how's like that you learned a lot of the basics of what you need to know to conduct yourself in a lab in a lot of just the just useful skills to be able to move on with anything that's more advanced later on.

Speaker 2: 2:34

How did your experience with the apprenticeship program, uh, influence your decision when applying to, uh, yeah. Applying for colleges and for majors

Speaker 4: 2:43

Week before that I wanted to go, go to college major in BI. I thought it made wanted to major in biology. I always knew I wanted to be a doctor growing up. So that was always the basis of it. Also the fact that I was already a high school senior, the spring of my high school senior year. So a lot of the college stuff was already application sent decisions were coming back. By that point, it was a nice way for me to get my hands into like deeper into biology than I would've through high school.

Speaker 2: 3:13

Yep. And I guess while, um, at college would've taken, uh, pre-med and have done a lot of biology courses, a lot of organic chemistry as well. I'm sure a lot of time in the lab and that can, I guess, I mean, I was pre-med for a year as well. And I going to the lab for the first time can really scary and intimidating did, because you already had a bit of that experience with buy builder during the apprenticeship program. Did you feel more because of that? Did you feel more when you were doing the same labs in, in college?

Speaker 4: 3:47

So definitely. I think it helped with the confidence just because if you're someone who's coming out of having been able to do a whole program that was using MIT's labs and being able to do a lot of experiments that you didn't get to have your hands on. Initially it's easier to be more, to be more comfortable in the lab. But I think even bigger to that point that really made bio builders stand out to me was that I was able to do so do the assignments in the lab, do the experiments as expected to do in the lab, but I was expected to do it more independently and, um, mistakes were more expected. So it wasn't like, oh, you getting this failing grade because your experiment messed up or because you didn't know what to do, you just try and do it to the best of your ability. And then if it messes up, it messes up, you can go back and you can go back and fix it or figure out where wherever you went wrong. And I think that was a really big thing for me, just because going into college, then you get harder and harder classes. You're not gonna know how to go about every single experiment in experiments are going to go wrong. So I think being already comfortable making mistakes and having things fail on you is a really great thing to get a bio builders. Like even thinking back, I remember that we had, uh, we had to make this solution and I think it was like the 40% glucose solution. And me being a high school senior, not used to a whole lot of solution making, I just kind of thought like, okay, I'll just put all the things in a tube and stirred around and the all set, I ended up making rock candy out of that. So that, wasn't what I was supposed to make at that point I realized like, okay, that didn't work now. I have to figure out what to do. I asked Natalie, I asked like the, like the students that she had also helping out with the class saying like, oh, you need to be able, you need to use a stir plate to make this solution just because glucose just hardens one solid form. And then immediately after that, I went back up and asked what a stair plate was because you don't know until you have to get, you have to get to that point

Speaker 2: 5:55

2022, you came back to BI builder as a teaching assistant one. What made you interested in the opportunity to become a teaching assistant with BI

Speaker 4: 6:04

Builder? First off right now I'm on, um, a couple I'm on a gap between my undergrad and my in medical school. So during that time I always thought like, I would wanna, I wanna do something else outside the classroom. I wanna do something that's more than just being the student. And at some point I remember I still get a lot of the emails from viability that will say like, oh, the application cycle's open. And I'll like, sometimes see them in my email, but before I was away at school, so I kind of just ignored it. And this time I saw the email come through and I thought like, oh, I'm back in Boston. I have time. I said, like, I just reach out to Natalie acting like, Hey, I'm back in the area. If you need any help with anything, I'd be glad to help out. So then she decided like, oh, you can be a teaching assistant that to which I have never been a teaching assistant. I had mentioned multiple times like, oh, I don't know how, how to be a teaching assistant, but decided to like, just go through with it, see what happens. Um, I know my year they had some of, I think there were like two students from MIT that would help out with being the teaching assistant. I always appreciated them being there cuz they just seemed like they just purely enjoyed showing other people how to do the biology, how to do the experiments. So I wanted to be that type of person for this new cohort that's here.

Speaker 2: 7:22

Amazing. And I'm sure that was really rewarding. Um, so far what's been the most challenging as well as the most rewarding experience so far, uh, as your, in your teaching assistant role,

Speaker 4: 7:35

I think most challenging is that in, in school you learn all of the, like you learn all of the knowledge base of it. You learn how to do the things, but you never like teaching. It seems like it's different thing that you need to be able to fully understand the concept enough, to be able to explain it to someone who is not yourself, who is like they're high schoolers, they have they're coming from a different approach. They're coming from a different background than you. So being able to understand the concept enough and how to explain it, to explain it to high schoolers. I don't know if that they'll also ask you questions and then you realize like, I don't know how to describe this in a way that's not ridiculously technical.

Speaker 2: 8:17

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 8:17

Cause your answer shouldn't be technical. It should be able to be absorbed by anyone.

Speaker 2: 8:22

What were some of the experiments that you, uh, worked at, uh, yeah. Worked on and explained to you some of the students

Speaker 4: 8:30

Like going back, I, they did Theros gel one. I was there for that, but it was funny because at this point the, the program's grown a whole lot and they now have like all these really nice technical, um, what is it? They have like these very nice, more modern aro, gel setups. So I came in thinking like, oh, we gotta get the whole buffer solution that the, the gel that sit in and make sure they, they can pipe it in the, each of the Wells. And I know like always to avoid, try and have it splash out of there or having any kind of ING. But then I come in and they're a lot neater sets and they're a lot more sophisticated so they can see their runs go as like, as the time progresses where I was very surprised at that and also surprised to learn that there's more efficient ways to do to do that. So I was really happy to help them with that project cuz I know like, oh you wanna make sure it's like just remembering all the things I messed up on and wanting them to not do the same thing.

Speaker 2: 9:34

I, I feel once you're involved with Bible builder, you know, you, it becomes part of your family, right? Mm-hmm<affirmative> do you see yourself being involved with BI builder? Um, over the next few years, at least summer, um, in one way or another,

Speaker 4: 9:48

I could definitely see myself like coming back whenever like the time was available, they'd gladly be back next year. If they'd have me to, um, help out as well. Since I know I'll still be about still in be in the Boston area, but definitely would come back just because they also have, all of them are such a great group of kids. They love learning the science. They love just talking about anything they're doing. They love talking about colleges with me. They love, they love knowing more things. So I'd definitely be open to coming back and experiencing more of that.

Speaker 2: 10:21

What would you say are some of the skills, um, needed to Excel in, in a stem field? Having, you know, being part you've been part of the Bible apprenticeship program as a student, as well as teaching assistant and you've gone through, um, undergrad college. What skills have served you well? Um, in terms of it's, it's a broad question and difficult question to answer, but if you have to pick three things that I think these three things make me a good scientist, what, you know, there's more than three things of course. And all of us are lots of different types of scientists. But if you have to choose three to describe yourself as a scientist, what skills you feel are great for you, um, that have really helped you along this journey? What would you say they would be?

Speaker 4: 11:08

I think definitely, um, being comfortable with failure just because stem is hard, stem is hard for everyone and you can see all the people who have all these successes in it, but you, you never really see a lot of their, their failures along the way. So being comfortable failing is definitely something that helps, um, keeping an open mind to just new approaches to how to go about any task. So I know, uh, you can, like, you can see the step by step of how to do something or you can like have an idea of how things have already been done, but it, it brings you even further. If you can understand the concept and manage it in a different way, not just what's given to you.

Speaker 2: 11:53

Yeah, that's fair. I think I, I definitely agree with the, if I had to choose the most important, it's definitely being comfortable with failing mm-hmm<affirmative> um, because it's sometimes Aero just doesn't show the bands you want, not sometimes 90% of the time.

Speaker 4: 12:08

Yeah. And I know, cause I also studied, um, biochem, like during my undergrad and you think you're doing everything right until you realize that your titration has no indicator, so you gotta do it over again and you have to be comfortable with the fact that there are gonna be times where you do it wrong or sometimes you do it. Right. And it just doesn't work.

Speaker 2: 12:31

Yep. And I think buyer builder, would've given that experience to you where, you know, it's okay to fail and I think fail failing is part of the process it's it's in the pipeline of becoming a scientist, right?

Speaker 4: 12:45

Yes. Definitely. Just if you're not failure, you're not learning, you're not moving forward in lies. Like if you're not, if you're not failing, you're not moving forward and that's just part of the experience and it's best to get comfortable with it very quickly.

Speaker 2: 13:00

Yeah. And it's so cool that uh, people, students, high school students who go through Bible apprenticeship program, uh, I really feel they're ahead of the curve. Mm-hmm<affirmative> um, and just get that experience super early. Um, I, I say this in almost every podcast episode, but I wouldn't mind going back to high school if like I had my builder.

Speaker 4: 13:21

No, they have so many, so many nice things now that I think I even mentioned to the students that cuz they have the new lab space, uh, in Seaport. And I remember coming in there pretty much my jaw dropping at how large, a space they have and it's just dedicated to them and there's so like they just have all the materials they need and they can have the lab space. They used the lab space for every day. Whereas when I was doing it, we only could use it on Saturdays just because like that's when it was available. So like definitely appreciate like how mu how much more they have now in comparison to when I was doing it when it was just first coming out

Speaker 2: 14:02

That that's the one with, uh, at Ginko. Right?

Speaker 4: 14:05

Yeah. So very nice space. It's very pretty

Speaker 2: 14:09

Well. I wanted to also just briefly ask you about your role as a clinical research assistant at, I don't know how to pronounce this, so I know it's Beth Israel, decon,

Speaker 4: 14:21

Deas,

Speaker 2: 14:21

Deaconess. Okay. How long have you been there as a clinical research assistant? So what is a clinical research assistant?

Speaker 4: 14:27

So my role is just to help out with any studies that are happening. So in the it's like in the MRI department, so I work in MRI research. We have a lot of studies that have MRIs component. Then you have, you have, um, different members of the research team. So you obviously have the PI that's leading the study. But then my task is more of to do a lot of the, um, like the subject level part task of it and keeping up with the IRB and all the documentation. So I'll be the person who, um, say assign like one of the researchers needs someone to scan. It's like needs to test out a sequence. They have, I recruit someone, bring them in ha it's like have help them get the, help them with their MRI visit and all of those components of it. Then also moving on as I'm becoming the more senior CRA there as I'm moving up and being the, the more senior clinical research assistant, then I also get to take part in some of the data analysis. So a lot that means I can, like I joined in on, I can join in on project. I know I joined in on one post docs project who is looking at, um, mul multiple sclerosis. So Ms. And in that's like my part of it is just looking at all of the brain images and being able to segment lesions from it a lot. I see a lot in, I see a lot of images of brains just going through all the data analysis part of it. I mean, it's really cool, especially since I didn't initially anticipate that I would do, I would be working in radiology. I just was applying everywhere and realized that with radiology, you get to see a lot of other departments just because they all need some kind of imaging for their study. So I get to see, um, like people from different departments such as neonatal that will scan their newborn infants and, um, neurology does a lot of them just to be able to have their brain scans and a lot of the Donald's studies. So that's always really interesting to see such a wide variety of things in the same position of just

Speaker 2: 16:41

Awesome. Uh, okay. So last question I wanted to ask was what message would you give, uh, to prospective high school students who are interested? Uh, so one, what message would you give to prospective high school students who are interested in taking part, um, either in a Bible club or the apprenticeship program, and two, what message would you give to college students who are interested in becoming TAs, uh, with BI builder?

Speaker 4: 17:10

How would I would encourage anyone to apply? Just if you are curious about science, if you're curious about any part of biology and wanna pursue anything deeper and just take advantage of all the things that are in front of you, they're amazing assets, amazing things you get to do from early on and just be prepared to, to show up and be excited about science. I've always been someone who feels that you should always give back to any kind of supports or community that helped bring you to the, to the point that you are to the point that you're at. So for that, I feel like this is definitely reinforcing the fact that I do enjoy, like coming back to wherever at it's, like coming back to these kind of programs and being able to see the new, the next generation of these young scientists, the next generation of just high schoolers who are excited to do, to do biology, to talk, to come together and just put in, put in the work that's necessary for, I know like a lot of them are coming from all these different high schools and just appreciating, being able, like appreciating having this program that can have, that can have so many students from everywhere meld together and just do their projects, do, uh, their experiments

Speaker 1: 18:33

And just, yeah. Be excited about science. Thanks once again, to Nancy for joining me today, what I found particularly insightful was a comment. If you're not failing, you're not moving forward Bible that provides the opportunity for young scientists to make mistakes and more importantly, learn from them and grow as scientists. I feel this episode will be very useful to any high school student interested in the Bible apprenticeship program, as well as any ex Bible builders who are interested in teaching and contributing to the wonderful Bible to community. If you would like to learn more about anything Nancy and I discuss today, please refer to the show notes, join me for the next buyer builder podcast. We'll welcome. Another wonderful guest whose career has been influenced by buyer builders. Life-changing signs. See you next door.