What's Next for Me?

Presenting research at the European Sleep Research Society's
meeting in Bologna, Italy this past September. Great
experience — and my first time abroad!

Since defending my dissertation in June, I've remained in the same sleep research laboratory as a postdoctoral researcher — expanding upon the findings of my dissertation, attending conferences (in Italy!) to present my work, and collecting data for a new pilot study in the sleep clinic.

As many of you know, I've known for a few years now that I wanted to use my extracurricular writing and communication experience toward a career in science policy. During my time as a student, I sought out advocacy projects that allowed me to interact with lawmakers, such as Capitol Hill Days in D.C. with the Society for Neuroscience and inviting my Congressman to tour our laboratory.

I was thrilled this past summer to see advertisements about the William Penn Fellowship, a brand new program designed for recent grad school graduates interested in public service. Working full-time with the Pennsylvania state government, fellows are paired with state agencies "to complete impactful projects based on their personal interests and skillsets."

After two months of preparing my application and interviewing, I'm excited to announce that I'll be serving as one of ten inaugural William Penn Fellows! Beginning next summer, I'll be working in the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) working on policies related to the opioid epidemic in Pennsylvania.

I'm incredibly excited and feel empowered knowing that I can use my science degree to help others and be a voice in government — especially now, where I feel it's needed more than ever. I'm also thrilled for this opportunity to learn and grow in a career that I know so little about, yet have wanted for so long. Without a doubt, 2017 will bring some amazing changes and challenges.

I want to sincerely thank you, the readers of this blog, for keeping me "in business" and engaged with my science writing. Your unending support is the reason I've stuck with it all these years, giving me the experience I needed to hone my skills outside of academia.

You can learn more about the William Penn Fellowship here.

(And don't fear. The brain blogging will continue!)

#SfN14 Day 1: Tackling Difficult Mentor/Mentee Discussions

This post is part of my series on the 2014 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting. You can read other posts in this series here. I’m also live-tweeting some sessions @GainesOnBrains. Join the conversation at #SfN14.

Wearing lots of hats—er, ribbons—at this meeting.

Greetings from D.C.! It’s nearly midnight on Saturday and my stomach is exploding from this chocolate torte I decided would be a good idea after a giant plate full of ravioli.

It wasn’t a good idea, though. It was a GREAT idea.

This afternoon, I attended life coach Dr. Samantha Sutton’s interactive talk called "Mentor-Mentee Interaction: How to Have a Difficult Conversation." In the past, Dr. Sutton has presented this as a 10-week, 4-credit course at Stanford. I was pleasantly surprised to see what I believe were an equal number of students, postdocs, and professors in attendance.

When I typically think of preparing for a tough talk, a student approaching a professor comes to mind. My preparation strategy for things like this is usually: 1. Prepare what you’ll say; 2. Be disappointed by mentor’s response; and 3. Not know how to respond because I didn’t prepare for this response, and because I lack tact and self-confidence. Knowing I’m not alone, and that PIs struggle with this too, was reassuring to me.

Kudos to everyone for realizing that relationships in the workplace—and especially among extremely competitive and career-driven scientists—are really, really complex.

Welcome to "Gaines, on Brains"

Welcome to my new blog!

My name is Jordan, and I'm a 22-year old graduate student beginning the pursuit of my Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Penn State. I'm not entirely certain what I'd like to do with my degree yet. I just know that I want a Ph.D., something I've wanted since 8th grade before I even knew what "neuroscience" really was. That could be me wanting to seriously pursue the scientific endeavor with all of my heart and soul, or me wanting to prefix my name with "Dr." without the daunting responsibility of treating patients.