Sara Tavakoli is a 2015-2016 alumnus of CT JSHS. She is in her second year of dental school at Boston University. Sara and Negin Farzad were connected through a mutual friend. Negin is a Ph.D. student at Yale University in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She shares insights on finding opportunities to do research as a high school student or undergraduate.
Questions asked:
1. First, could you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your program and where you’re from.
2. Being in a competitive program, you must have had a lot of challenges along the way. Could you give an example of some of those challenges and how you overcame them?
3. What can highschoolers do right now to prepare for a future career in STEM?
4. In biomedical engineering, it’s a male dominated field. How have you navigated the challenges that come with that?
5. Highschoolers listening to this might be intimated to reach out to a researcher or PI to get involved. Any advice?
6. If I email a PI and don’t get a response back, would it be okay to email their grad students?
7. Since New Haven is famous for its pizza, do you have a favorite pizza spot?