S-STEM/TRAIN Scholar Christopher Livingston's Blog

       I would love to say that I have a growth mindset but there are times that I question that assumption.  There are certain areas of my life that I most definitely exhibit the traits of a growth minded individual, but there are other areas that I tend to be more fixed. My education has definitely influenced my mindset, it is something that I was starting to discover after I took my first couple semesters of biology. I started to notice that most things didn’t fit into a nice little box, perfectly described, and not worth further debate… quite the contrary is true. How could I learn all of this and not reflect on my own self; was I not a dynamic living creature like the ones I was studying? If the evidence shows that I am an animal born of the same inherited and ever changing DNA as the rest of the life on Earth, then I too must not fit in a nice little box, perfectly described, and not worth further debate. It makes sense that we can change our mindsets, it ...

     I'm sure that I could pick any of the transferable skills and find something within my college experience to match it to. I've picked three that I think are useful and that I was able to get more experience with than the others the past few years: Leadership     For the past six semesters I have been serving as a TA for three sections of a plant biology class at the community college. In that time I have gained a lot of experience working with a diverse array of students. Many of the students excel in the class and need little help from me, but every semester there are at least a few who need consistent help. There are times during the semester when my help is in high demand, especially when we briefly cover genetics and photosynthesis. Overall the experience has helped me to fine tune my leadership skills. Communication     Another thing that I get to practice is  explaining scientific concepts to students pursuing non-science related degree...

This is an interesting question to ask for this blog post. I have been stressing over this very question for the past few years. At the beginning of my academic journey I thought that I would magically know by the end what I would be doing, but I am at the end of my college career now and I can guarantee you that I am just as confused about what I should do with my degree as I was at the beginning. I had ideas about doing research in a lab but after experiencing research I know that it isn't for me. I thought I might go into business using my degree, but I don't see myself as a business minded person either. I could use my degree to go into education but I also don't think that is a good fit either. I think that I need to take a break after the Spring semester to decided what I should do next. I may find that I am at a stopping point, or I may decide that I need to go further in school in order to get where I need to be. I wish I had a definitive answer for what I will do a...

My online presence currently consists of an old unused social media account, an online art gallery to showcase my paintings, and Slack to communicate at work. We use it as an instant messaging app, and it seems to work well. Our next assignment is to create a LinkedIn profile, so I will soon have that to add to my presence. I've had a Linked In profile twice before but I never really used it, maybe this time will be different though. This amount is a bit higher than my desired amount would be, but it should be manageable. I'll admit though that I'm notorious for neglecting online profiles after I make them. I think I might be open to having a social media account if I ever make any sort of crafts to sell online, possibly something that combines my artistic side and my biology side, it would be completely product/art focused though.

Prompt: What is my current on-line presence? My online presence is currently in decline by choice, in contrast to most others who are actively adding to theirs. I was very active online in the early days of social media (i.e. friendster and Myspace), but I have become more private/introverted and less interested in exposing parts of my life to the public as I've gotten older. Currently I have two social media accounts, the first is my original Myspace page, which has not been accessed in ~5 years; the second is my DeviantArt page, an online gallery of my paintings under a  handle of my choosing, I'm merely an anonymous artist. I know that this may be hard for others to understand, after all, during the last decade we've witnessed a mass migration of people to online spaces and it is fast becoming less common to not be a part of the online discussion. As I mentioned earlier, I was active in the early days of social media and as such I got the chance to live that life before ...

 1. What are your professional goals, 1 year, 5 years and 10 years into the future? What will accomplishing these goals let you do? How will accomplishing these goals impact those around you and what will it make possible for those in your community?      I think that my professional goals are pretty basic and they won't change over the course of the next 10 years. My goal professionally is to be in a stable career that is low-stress and involves the thing that I love most, plants. That may take a masters degree, but I'm still trying to figure that out. I'm currently looking at working in a herbarium, so in order to get there I need to experience an internship with one or more herbariums, and luckily I already have one lined up for the summer. There are zero people who will be impacted by any of my decisions as usual. As far as my community impact, I'm not sure there will be an impact to my immediate community, however, the scientific community might benefit from ...

 1. What did you know about your field 3 years ago, and what have you learned about that has 'wowed' you? (Supplemental questions: What did you used to think was an advanced topic in your subject, and what do you think is now? What was the experience that you feel you learned the most from?) 2. What do you want to learn about over the next 3 years? (Is it scientific or personal? Why do you want to learn it? How do you plan on developing this knowledge?) Well, I wish I could say that I know what my field is, but the truth is that I still have no idea what I'm doing with myself, or where I'm going. There just aren't enough classes offered that speak to my interests in plant biology. So, based on that I don't think I can actually answer these questions as they are. I will try to answer these questions more broadly about my educational experience, however. Three years ago I was just coming back to school from a "career" in retail management. I remem...