Aself-defined thrill - seeker, senior EmilyJohnson would not bat an eye at the idea of bungee jumpingor skydiving. These adven lure – seeking activit ies that others might hesitate (0 partic ipate in , Johnson already did, no quest ions asked. It was with th e same undete rred passion that J o h nson, a biochemistry molecular biology major , pursued her decision to go into forensic science. An internship at the St. Louis Metropolitan Crime Lab this past summer, howeve r , made her step back and reevalua te where exactly she wanted to go with her degree. "The crime lab was divided up into different sections," Johnson said. " ] thought it would b e all one big thing, but t here was the biology sect ion, DNA, fingerpr int . firearm , drug chemistry... I was in the b io logy and DNA sect ions , but I did get to see [other ones}." During her internsh ip , Johnson got to observe seve ra l aspects of the forensic scie nce field including observing an autopsy and going to a couple of crime scenes to watch the cr ime scen e inves tigator gather eviden ce. " [In the biology section ] you deal with fi n d ing fl uids on the clothing, " Johnson sai d . "You flnd where it is, cut it out, put it in a bag and put it in the freezer. From there , the DNA analysts take over . They take th e clothing sampl e and extract the DNA from it." However, the exper ience also made her awar e that fOl"ensics was not something she was sure she wanted to pUl"sue anymol"e. Johnso n expected to find the wOl"k more gear ed around pl'oblem solving instead of more I'outine tasks that it actually entailed. She sought adventure in her future cal"eerjust as she did in play. " ( want [to do] something that will keep my brain going instead of rou ti n ely doing a task over and over," Johnson said. Upon return ing to H arding, Johnson began fro m square one, reexamining h er future and where she wanted to go with her life. She knew t hat she wanted to he lp people but was not sure how. The uncertainty that lay befo re her was a bit nerve racking as a senior. . "I was really freaking out," John son said. "{ felt like I was a freshman again and had no idea what I was going to do ." Sh e did know, however , that she wanted to stay in the sciences. Mter a brief thought of changing majors, Johnson decided to stay where she was. " ( really liked the scien ces. "J ohnson said. " ( couldn' t see myselfworking in any other field. " She b egan to loo k into bioinformatics and mapping the human genome. Though this did inte rest her, it went against one of her major pet peeves. Joh nso n did not want to work behind a desk at a computer all day. One of her adviser s, Mrs. Amber Hug, who runs the microbiology lab , suggested th at she join a fellowship at a lab for a year, before committing to one specific focu s in grad school, in order to gain some experience and narrow down exactly what she wanted to do. "[A fellowship wouldl give me experience and a direction ofwhat I want to do before applying to grad school." Johnson said. T h ough Johnson was faced with a life alter ing decision she never once fa lter ed o r gave up . She placed he r faith in God and kept looking deeper into herself to find whe re she really belonged. Emily Haupt/i and Nick Smelser Gathering food , sophomore Sara Howard and Dr. Dennis Province prepare their meals on Nov. 13 to eat with fellow Gedanken Society members. Every year Dr. Province hosted the cookout for chemistry majors to spend time with one another outside the classroom. Hagen Atkins -- . for m.y lional preparatlon h at 1 am. receiving e~cep ¥ "\ am. excited. t d.ical field. f, . th e m. e futu" c"e<' m D~ ) f",hm,n p,~e'~t~o;n~P~u~g[h~:" ____---:-__ ==~ ~ bio logy/physical sciences 169
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