Abigail Rothberg ’01, Mary Elvira Stevens Fellow (2019-2020)

At some point in 2018, I realized I had to stop thinking of my professional life and what brought me joy as two distinct parts of my life. I needed what I did professionally to reflect who I am: a person passionate about social justice, and also someone who is silly and loves to laugh, someone imperfect and impatient, someone who loves staring at art, and someone who literally loves getting her hands dirty.

“The Gates Cambridge is this incredible gift—an opportunity to pitch your scholarly passion project to a committee that's willing to fall as hard for your subject as you have, provided you can illustrate how your passion can translate beyond the classroom and into a better world for all.”

“I want to make ethics accessible to people. Whatever form it takes, I want to bring ethical inquiry into the everyday, and the Watson will ground me in that work.”

Learn About Careers in Life Sciences

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Wellesley Career Education

A career in the life sciences can include a broad range of companies, organizations, and foundations concerned with the study of living organisms, including biological sciences, botany, zoology, microbiology, physiology, biochemistry, and a number of related subjects. Employers may include biotechnology & pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, healthcare organizations, foundations, and federal agencies. Most of the information on this page concerns non-patient facing options but there are opportunities to create career paths that merge patient and non-patient settings.

“I’m glad I decided to pursue Fulbright. It gave me an opportunity to share my unique experience as an immigrant and first-generation college student, not only with my Chinese colleagues, but also with other international students at Northwest University, who rarely meet Chinese Americans.“ 

“Crafting a proposal is a very introspective process. I was challenged to understand my motivations and interest in death and dying, then explain how those have informed my life’s course. From this, I gained a deeper sense of myself, academically and personally, which was rewarding in and of itself.”

“We have authored research documents on a wide range of labor issues, from exploitative employment contracts in textile factories to sexual harassment on tea estates.”

“Our library work allows us to interact with a multitude of subjects that we would otherwise not have been exposed to and has opened our eyes to a wide variety of topics that our majors may not cover.”

“Spending two months in Delhi and directly seeing the impact of this NGO’s work has made us grow as students and as individuals.”

“I’ve learned that at its core, medicine is all about creating an environment where relationships can be fostered and grown.”

“Detroit has opened my eyes to the role of the built environment in creating a sense of place for its inhabitants.”

“Working on multiple ongoing projects has pushed us to become adaptive, composed professionals.”

“A typical day at the office consists of research and report-writing on topics such as public access to information, governmental corruption and financial crimes, and Argentinian geopolitical relations.”

“I previously had dreams to be an author, but found myself called by the combination of logic, mystery, and truth in science.”

Finance, Accounting, and Insurance

Casey Hurley
Casey Hurley

A career in Finance can mean many different things, depending on what type of work you’re interested in or what specific subsect you want to explore. Within Finance, you can work in the financial department of an organization (governmental, nonprofit or for-profit) or you can work at a company that provides financial services to individuals, groups, institutions and/or organizations.

“By living in vegan communities and exploring their foodscapes, I hope to understand the lived experiences of being vegan across cultures and find ways to adapt veganism to various cultural contexts and customs.”