Sheena Stevens

Undergraduate Fellow

“I was dead-set on being a surgeon since I was seven years old. You couldn’t change my mind. I didn’t even know what it was, but I wanted to be one.

I went to community college through the A+ Scholarship Program and I didn’t necessarily have guidance. I didn’t know what classes to take, what avenues to go down or what opportunities were available. I was just taking classes that I thought made sense. Turns out they were totally wrong for me.

I had to come up with a game plan and I thought, ‘Okay, not graduating is not an option. How can I do this and still be a doctor of some sorts?’ So, I talked to some people and they said Hey, be a doctor by being a psychologist.”

Do you think that there are any lessons or motivations that you can take from field work as you transition to being a psychologist?

“Just the overall theme of not giving up. When I was in the biology field I was doing experiments. Most of the time they don't go the way that you want them to go, but you’ve still got to keep going.”

Sheena worked with Rachel Penczykowski's Plant Disease team during summer 2018. Learn more about their disease ecology research here.