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| Married with
challenge: Grad students Antony John and Audrey Odom,
who wed in May, stand on the threshold of balancing two
academic careers |
| photo:Chris
Hildreth |
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catch a glimpse into the harried life of a Duke graduate student,
ask Audrey Odom '96 about her wedding weekend. Odom, an M.D.-Ph.D.
student, describes how after she and her British fiancé,
Antony John--a Duke graduate student in music--set their wedding
date for early May, she learned she had been chosen to receive the
prestigious Weintraub award for excellence in graduate study in
the biological sciences. The meeting at which she and twelve others
from across the nation were to receive the award was the same weekend
as her wedding, but on the other side of the continent. No problem.
Odom flew to Seattle on Thursday, gave a talk Friday morning, flew
home on the red-eye, drove straight to her wedding rehearsal in
High Point, and the next day said, "I do."
Or ask Marco Davila, another M.D.-Ph.D. student, who had his heart
set on proposing to his girlfriend at her graduation from her master's
program at Columbia University in New York. Davila was too busy
in his lab to do a lot of shopping around, so he purchased a diamond
ring from the Internet. But he couldn't have it shipped to himself
in Durham because on the way to his proposal, he, too, had a meeting
in Seattle. No problem. He had the ring shipped to a FedEx office
he had noticed near Columbia on a previous visit, took the red-eye
back to North Carolina, walked across the airport, hopped another
plane to New York, dashed to the FedEx office to pick up the ring
between the graduation ceremony and reception without even being
missed, breathed a sigh of relief that the ring had arrived and
was as beautiful as advertised, and popped the question in Central
Park. "She said yes."
While these stories may be extreme examples of the pace of graduate
life at Duke, they're typical of the level of dedication that can
be found in campus labs and libraries where 2,200 graduate students
quietly, almost invisibly, conduct their research. Cathy N. Davidson,
vice provost for interdisciplinary studies, welcomed the new class
of graduate and professional school students last fall semester:
"We are living in a cultural moment where adventure has been
equated with speed, rapidity, innovation, change--extreme sports,
extreme machines, extreme commerce, extreme success. At this glittering,
speeded-up, excited, frantic, and frenetic moment, you have made
a major commitment to opt out of the whirlwind in order to take
time to become educated. Given the myths of our moment, I cannot
imagine a more daring possibility than the one you have chosen.
Let's call it extreme thoughtfulness."
A passion for thinking seems to be the common denominator among
graduate students, whether they study cell biology or cultural anthropology,
philosophy or theology, biomedical engineering or environmental
engineering. They must be driven by something very deep to weather
the six- or eight-year journey to a Ph.D., with very little money
or time for outside interests along the way.
While maintaining focus on a subject for more than half a decade
can be tough, sometimes the real challenge is to disconnect from
the work. "I love science and I love bench work, and it can
be difficult to pull myself away," says Davila. "The most
difficult thing for me is to be able to recognize that I have responsibilities
outside of my education. I get infinite pleasure from my work."
D'Arcy Brissman, a history student finishing her dissertation on
the United States' occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934, says she
feels privileged to have spent her twenties in graduate school.
"It's not a luxurious life, but I got to sit around and think
big thoughts and write about them, and get paid for it."
"It is so rewarding to live and breathe a subject and finally
make a contribution," says Rob Deaner, a Ph.D. candidate in
biological anthropology and anatomy. "And when others say,
'This is interesting,' or 'I wish I had thought of that,' it feels
great."
Biological chemistry student John Hatten agrees. "It's exciting
when something works. You start with a theory and prove it and learn
something no one knew before. That's the greatest joy." But
no matter the joy, Hatten can't stay in his lab all the time testing
theories. His time is divided between his research; his family of
a wife, a three-year-old, and a one-year-old; and a part-time job
doing genetic sequencing to make ends meet. "I'm working on
new broad-spectrum antibiotics for tuberculosis," he says.
"I enjoy the work, but I feel a great personal loss if I don't
see my kids for an entire day, so often I come home and eat dinner
with them and then go back to the lab after they're in bed."
Molecular physics student Mary Dwyer knows how that feels. She
juggles her long hours in the lab with rearing three children, ages
eight, five, and three. She and her husband take turns with afternoon
duty, and on the days she takes the afternoons, she often comes
back to the lab after her children's bedtime. "We try to remain
as flexible as possible," she says. "And it's hard sometimes.
But I think I'm a better mom when I'm working. Otherwise, I wouldn't
be happy."
Dwyer and her husband are used to taking turns. Midway into her
graduate work at Johns Hopkins University, she took five years off
from the rigors of academic research while her husband completed
his Ph.D. She continued to work in labs, so she didn't fall behind
in her field or lose her rhythm, and she started back to school
at Duke when her husband got a job in Research Triangle Park. "It
helps to have a husband who has been through it himself, so he is
very supportive. We planned and saved a long time for this and he
has a good income now."
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Food for thought:
Hatten at dinner
with his family before returning
to work in his lab |
| photos:Chris
Hildreth |
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Dwyer would like to follow her husband into industry, but many
students want to stay in academe. Kylie Prymus, a Duke Endowment
Fellow, James B. Duke Fellow, and University Scholar, has known
for a while that he wanted to study philosophy in graduate school
and then teach others. During his senior year of high school, an
English teacher turned him on to philosophy, so he decided to major
in the subject at Howard University. Then, through the Institute
for Recruitment of Teachers (IRT), whose mission is to help minority
students seek advanced degrees for careers in teaching, he found
out about the graduate program in philosophy at Duke. Duke is a
consortium member of IRT and has made a commitment to recruit IRT
students. "What I enjoy is enlightening other people to philosophy,"
he says. "Besides, with a Ph.D. in philosophy, you can only
teach or stand on a street corner and ask for change."
Nayeli Garci-Crespo, an international student from Mexico in the
film and video Ph.D. program, has seen her own interest in teaching
wax and wane during her graduate career. "Graduate school can
be quite a soul-deadening experience when you're taking your initial
coursework in subjects you're not necessarily passionately interested
in," she says. "But then when you're done with exams and
have more freedom writing your dissertation, you can focus on your
real passion. At first I wasn't interested in academia, but I've
come around."
For students who want to know more about what to expect from a
career in higher education, Duke participates in the Preparing Future
Faculty (PFF) program, a national project to prepare graduate students
for the multiple roles they may play as future faculty. The project
brings together faculty members, administrators, and graduate students
with colleagues at partner institutions.
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