Tag: career exploration

Meet Juliann Krupa, Coordinator of Guest Engagement & Learning Programs Specialist at John G. Shedd Aquarium

The Health Care & Science (HCS) Career Community wants to introduce students to a wide range of careers. Students may be familiar with popular clinical roles (e.g., nurse, physician, veterinarian), but less familiar with jobs like healthcare data analytics, health administration, or biotech research.  

Juliann Krupa - Learning Programs Specialist - John G. Shedd Aquarium | LinkedIn

Today, we want to highlight a science educator at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. In a virtual interview, Debbie Kaltman (HCS Employer Engagement Specialist) met with Juliann Krupa (DePaul ‘20, MS in Science Education) to share her educational and career journey, her current role as a Learning Programs Specialist, and advice for students interested in science education.

Juliann had many experiences in the museum industry to gain knowledge of animal care and conservation work. Through these opportunities, she discovered her passion for interacting with learners of all ages. As an informal educator, Juliann designs and implements different projects and programs for the aquarium and interacts with new guests of all ages and backgrounds.  She finds teaching and learning from museum guests to be very rewarding. 

Juliann shared her insights on informal education: “Being in informal education is a great way to test out if you would like to teach. If you’re not necessarily interested in teaching in the formal classroom, there are all kinds of opportunities at museums, forest preserves, and historical houses. There are a lot of opportunities in areas that are perhaps not ones you might think of right at the top of your head.”

Check out the full video below to learn more!

Resources:

Shedd Aquarium

Work at Shedd

Internships

How I Got This Job: Foreign Service Officer

Caroline Savage is a career Foreign Service Officer who served most recently as Director of the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Press Center.

As a non-resident fellow at Georgetown’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, her focus is diverse diplomacy leadership in foreign affairs, a project she began during her tenure as Virginia and Dean Rusk Fellow at ISD from 2018-2019.Prior to Georgetown, she served as Public Affairs Officer at U.S. Embassies Azerbaijan and Mozambique. In Washington assignments, she was Director for Russia and Central Asia on the National Security Council and Political-Military Officer in the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Russian Affairs. She also served previously in Belarus and Luxembourg. A native of Wisconsin, she graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, then received master’s degrees in Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her languages are French, Russian, Portuguese and Azerbaijani. She is currently in Kazakh language training for her next job as Consul General in Almaty, Kazakhstan, this summer.

Line of Work / Career Journey

The foreign service generalist track houses specialties in political, economic, public diplomacy management and consular cones. The traditional path is you sign up to be a Foreign Service Generalist, and you’re typically sent overseas to begin your career at one of the 270+ embassies or consulates around the world. The work you’ll be doing involves representing U.S. interests abroad, putting a human face on American interests and policy, and forging relationships with local people.

Savage spoke about her first two years on the job and the time she spent overseas in Luxembourg. She reflected on the large workload and political portfolio she managed, as well as the meetings and issues she tackled while there. Savage explained the series of tests one must take to get their foot in the door to do foreign service. After she passed her tests, there was still a long process to receive her health and security clearance, during which she completed her Master’s. As an undergrad, Savage studied abroad in Russia, taught, and secured as many internships as she could. Her main goal was to gain as much experience as she could in whatever form it was available to her.

Application and Hiring Process

The big components are the written exam and the qualitative evaluation panel to basically look at your resume and your written products and decide whether you’re invited to the oral exam. Therefore, the written and oral exam are the big components. If you pass those, then you have to go through the process of receiving your health and security clearance, which can take several years.

Skills / Experience / Advice

  • If you’re interested in joining the foreign service, take the written test sooner rather than later, because you may have a couple years, like I did, between taking the test and actually starting the career.
  • Be aware, engaged, and informed about what’s happening in the world.
  • Re-read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, so you know which amendments are which.
  • Sharpen your oral and written communication skills – be concise, clear, and compelling in your writing.
  • Be able to distinguish yourself professionally and experientially from other applicants in the oral exam and group sessions (leadership and collaboration skills).
  • Take practice exams, gain experience with local organizations such as the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, network with industry professionals in the Midwest.
  • If you don’t pass the Foreign Service Exam the first time, it’s no big deal. Savage knew several people who passed the 5th time or the 8th time

Websites and Resources

Meet Mai Hong, Senior Operations Program Manager at Teladoc Health

Here at the Health Care & Science Career Community, we want to introduce students to a wide range of careers in those industries. Students may be familiar with popular clinical roles (nurse, physician, veterinarian), but not with jobs like healthcare data analytics or administration, or biotech research.  

Livongo & Teladoc Health (a recently merged company) is “transforming the healthcare experience and empowering people everywhere to live healthier lives.”  Teladoc is a leader in telehealth, or virtual healthcare, providing virtual primary health care, mental health and chronic care management (including diabetes, high blood pressure and weight loss).    

Mai Hong is Senior Operations Program Manager at Teladoc, and recently offered her advice to current students interested in careers in healthcare startups, as well as health administration & management and health data, analytics and informatics (learn more about these industries here!)

Q: Can you explain what your job is? What do you do on a daily/weekly basis?
A: I’m a Senior Operations Program Manager. On a daily basis, I work with our eligibility department to make sure that we’re enrolling members. On a weekly basis, I work cross-functionally with other teams to set up clients and figure out how to scale operations as our company grows.

Q: What do you find most rewarding about your job? 
A: We’re a young company so everything we do is figuring out: how are we as a company going to do this? It’s a lot of fun to create things from scratch. There are no playbooks so we can be really creative and innovative about how we approach things

Q: What do you find most challenging? 
A: We’re growing very quickly so the other part of my job is to build things out that are scalable. So what we build today that works when we have 100 members, will it work tomorrow when we have 1000 members?

Q: Looking back, what were your most meaningful experiences from undergrad/grad school? (Internships, jobs, classes, student organizations, etc) 
A: I participated in hackathons during grad school and it made me realize I love working in fast paced environments that come up with out-of-the-box solutions. It also helped me understand how to put together pitches that would appeal to stakeholders.

Q: What advice do you have for students looking to enter biotech/health tech/health startup worlds? 
A: Ask a lot of questions! Health startups move quickly so there’s a lot of value in people that can get up to speed quickly and ask critical questions. 

Interested in learning more? Check out careers at Teladoc and careers at Livongo.  Learn more about careers in health care and science here!

Industry Insights: Careers in Museums Recap

On Thursday, November 5, the Education, Nonprofit & Government Career Community at DePaul hosted a panel discussion with current professionals in the museum industry to speak about their roles and experiences working in museums. The panelists shared their journeys of how they ended up in this industry and provided some insights for students on how to break into the field. 

Panelists were asked questions around different themes, including overviews of their roles, recommended hard and soft skills to have for this industry, advice for students and alumni to break into the museum industry, and more. 

Our volunteer panelists included:

  • Madeline Shearer, Assistant Director of Institutional Relations at the Art Institute of Chicago
  • Lorien Yonker, Curatorial Associate for the Arts of Africa and Arts of the Ancient Mediterranean and Byzantium at the Art Institute of Chicago
  • Molly Butler, Marketing Coordinator at the Field Museum
  • Catherine Anchin, Acting Associate Director for Advancement and External Affairs at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC

How One of the Panelists Started Her Museum Journey

“When I was a senior in undergrad, I started reaching out to museum professionals whether on LinkedIn or email and just saying, “Hi I’m a student and I’m really interested in your job, do you mind chatting with me for half an hour?” That way you start to really build a network, because museum jobs are few and far between, especially now. The more relationships you have and connections you build can really give you a leg up when those decisions open up.”

Interested in setting up an informational interview? Check out this resource in our career library!

Important Advice for Succeeding and Advancing in Museum Roles

“Be prepared to advocate for yourself. In my experience, our work is quite a bit more fast paced than people imagine and we’re on from one project to the next continually. So, if you do get your foot in the door and want to advance, you really have to get comfortable putting yourself out there and advocating for yourself. I know that doesn’t always come naturally to people, myself included, so it’s something I really had to work at and practice in other areas of my life. That really served me well in advancing to the kind of position I was hoping to get.”

Check out the full recording of the event below!

Health Care & Science: Top podcasts to learn more about the industry

Spending a lot more time at home? Need something to keep you busy on your outdoor walks? One great way to gain insider knowledge into Health Care & Science careers is by listening to podcasts! 

Podcasts are usually free, often created by fantastic experts, and can help you learn no matter where you are in your career journey. Listen through Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts or any comparable app.  

  • The #HCBiz Show: #HCBiz describes itself as a “practical podcast on the business of healthcare.” Hosts Don Lee and Shahid Shah help break down challenges in healthcare, why they exist and how to work around them, plus they explore psychology, healthcare IT, policy and administration. A well-rounded listen for anyone interested in the intersections of healthcare and business or healthcare and IT!
  • Healthcare Rap: A unique combination, for sure! Podcast team “#digitalhealth influencer” and rapper Jared Johnson and health care industry veteran Peter Balistrieri discuss new ways to market health care. Join their posse for unique insights on health care presented in an approachable format! 
  • Science Vs: Join super enthusiastic host Wendy Zuckerman and her team of friendly fact checkers as they disprove “your firmly held opinions and replace them with science…wondering whether you should drink detox teas like an insta-celeb, or believe your drunk uncle’s rant about gun control?” Listen in and learn today!
  • Ologies with Alie Ward: Maybe you’re an aspiring biologist… but do you know about toxinology (the study of jellyfish venom) or gastroegyptology (the science of bread baking!) or plumology (the study of feathers)? Learn about “ologies” familiar and exotic in this unique science podcast!-Gastropod: Gastropod “looks at food through the lens of science and history.” Co-hosts Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley cook up two new episodes a month, and their most recent delves into “the most dangerous fruit in America” (the watermelon, thanks to its intertwining history with racism).  Listen and learn (preferably on a full stomach!)

Key takeaways:

  • Podcasts are a fantastic way to learn about employers, industries and career paths
  • Use your extra time at home or when walking to learn through podcasts
  • Check out our recommended health care & science podcasts and ask your friends, professors and internship supervisors for recommendations too!

Meet Sadie Freedman, Product Manager at CancerIQ

The Health Care & Science (HCS) Career Community wants to introduce students to a wide range of careers. Students may be familiar with popular clinical roles (nurse, physician, veterinarian), but not with jobs like healthcare data analytics, health administration, or biotech research.  

CancerIQ is a digital health startup company that helps health care providers “use genetic information to predict, pre-empt, and prevent disease – starting with cancer.” In this interview, Debbie Kaltman (HCS Employer Engagement Specialist) met with Sadie Freedman, a Product Manager at CancerIQ, to discuss her education and career journey, current job responsibilities, future goals in the health technology field, and insights to students. 

Sadie’s background and passion for genetics and healthcare services allowed her to gain an internship with CancerIQ, which opened her to a world of new career opportunities in telehealth. In her full-time role as Project Manager, she works closely with CancerIQ’s sales, customer success, development, and marketing teams to oversee the products, take in and implement customer feedback, look into new product ideas, and improve current products. Inspired by CancerIQ’s software “pointing out patients that a provider never would have thought to do increased screenings on and catching cancers in earlier stages”, Sadie expressed that she has found a rewarding career that she plans to continue developing.

A valuable token of advice from Sadie for current students: “One thing I was missing as an undergraduate was awareness of potential career paths, so try to explore what is out there”.

Check out the full video below to learn more!

Don’t forget to visit CancerIQ’s Careers Page for their upcoming Summer Interships!