Working with Linnea Stavney has been a prominent part of our internship experience, making our interview with her even more interesting. In 2016, she was a high school intern at ISB and now, after graduating from UW with a bachelor’s degree in biology, she’s working under Becky as an ISB undergrad intern. With SEE, she is working on connecting ISB STEM curriculum to different career paths, which hopefully will encourage students of many different backgrounds to pursue fields in STEM. In the fall, Linnea is going to begin earning a masters at Island Wood for education with an emphasis on science education. It was interesting to hear about her experiences learning about social justice and how her path changed from wanting to go into research to pursuing a career that involved helping and interacting with others. Linnea emphasized the importance of taking the opportunity to explore different skills, topics, perspectives. As someone who is closer to us in age than other interviewees, her advice about and experiences in college was extremely relevant.
Quotes:
“While I really loved working in the lab, I wanted to do a job that connected more with people, where I felt like I was making an impact and not just adding to the reservoir of knowledge that is science.”
“Another big tip is: take those classes that you don’t think are going to be relevant, and maybe don’t seem very fun, because they might be super helpful later on.”
“I encourage you to pick something that you want to learn and try to teach yourself because it’s really empowering… once you teach yourself that one skill, you’re like “I can teach myself anything!” and that in itself is a skill.”
“One thing I really love about ISB is that it’s all about systems thinking… I can combine all of my interests of art, equity, education and science all into one job.”
“I think the best thing I can do is to remember that I’m always learning and there’s always room for me to grow.”