Video transcript – Julie Wagner

Donna Llewellyn: We asked someone who just graduated in May. Yay, who really participated in undergraduate research and has been in your seats as an SRC student in the past, to have instead of a talk, I’m gonna have a conversation with Julie and ask her some questions and then there’ll be time if you all have questions.

And we thought that having someone who has been in your seat a little bit more recently than any of us might have some insights as the summer gets off. So Julie, welcome. Thank you for joining us, this Thursday morning. And so I’m gonna ask you as a start just to tell us a little bit about yourself and your path to Boise State.

Julie Wagner: Sure. So, I am older. So I’m very much a nontraditional student.

I had a career in the baking industry for many years before I decided that that was not fulfilling. So I sold my house, my car, everything that I owned and moved to Boise. And I was gonna go to school, at CWI for nursing. And then my anatomy and physiology teacher was like, Hey, I’m doing this INBRE program for the first time. You should like do some research with me and I was like, Nah. I’m gonna, I’m gonna be a nurse.

And I’m very stubborn. And then she basically forced me into filling out the application, which I’m totally glad she did, cause it was definitely out of my comfort zone. And I was like, this is what I’m doing. So I did this summer research. It was 2 weeks in the summer. I learned that I hate working with crayfish. But with that said, I love the lab aspect of it.

So, I ended up the following summer doing INBRE again at CWI. And that’s how I ended up at Boise State, was through the INBRE program and Dr. Ken Cornell’s lab. And so that kind of is my transition to Boise State was just through research. And then from there, just kind of took off. From the Bridges to Baccalaureate program and, that’s the kind of the main way I transferred to Boise State.

Donna Llewellyn: Great. Thank you. So, tell us a little bit why did you do undergraduate research? Why did you continue doing undergraduate research after you learned that you hated crayfish, for example?

Julie Wagner: Well, like I said, I’m stubborn. So I loved the… so, during my crayfish project. The Deans talked about failing and learning from your, from the failed research. Our crayfish project was one big fail for 2 weeks. They kept dying. We didn’t do like we couldn’t do what we wanted to do with them because we couldn’t keep them alive. And so that really intrigued me. And that research is not always cookie cutter. You actually do have to think and like work through problems. And so when I the second summer I went into Dr. Cornell’s lab, which is a biochemistry lab and to the to that point I had not taken a chemistry class yet.

So it was like baptism by fire and I was like watching YouTube videos on how to do conversions and like trying to teach myself. basic chemistry. But, it really just lit this fire in me that like I want to be a part of a bigger picture. And through my journey, I’ve learned that I want to do research that’s translational to patient care.

Donna Llewellyn: Yeah. Looking back to your original view of being a nurse. So how wonderful that it links. Do you have any particular memory that you want to share from your time doing undergraduate research that has sort of had a particular personal impact.

Julie Wagner: So I would say that failing is like what you actually learn from. It’s not the successes that you have in research. So my last year of undergraduate research, I was trying to purify a protein and it wasn’t working. And by I worked on it from like June of last year until April of this year and finally at the end I got it to purify a tiny bit but it was hopefully enough to pass along to the next person that they could do something with. So I think that was probably my bit, like my most memorable research experience is just failing, trying something different, failing, trying something different. And cause it makes you step back and like look and think through the issues.

Donna Llewellyn: And I love this theme of sort of failing forward. I’ve had lots of conversations with colleagues about the use of the word fail when we talk about this because we’re so..we’re so taught all the way through schooling that failing is something that’s bad. And we don’t want students to fail in terms of not get to where they’re wanting to go and to thrive. But this issue that we have to make mistakes, we have to trip forward as long as we’re not tripping backwards too much that it that it’s a positive. Would you change anything about your research journey thus far?

Julie Wagner: I don’t think I would actually. I really love my research that I did at BoiseState. I love the, Dr.Cornell’s lab. All the lab people were great. We got along really well. So I will say that my journey is not everybody’s journey and if you don’t feel comfortable or are not…..like getting fulfilled in your research lab, it’s totally fine to change labs. You don’t have to stay in the lab for 4 years. It’s totally fine to switch and find something you’re passionate about.

Donna Llewellyn: So where are you headed after graduating?

Julie Wagner: So I’m actually kind of in a transition. I’m staying with my brother and sister-in-law right now, cause I moved out of Boise like 2 days after graduation. But at the end of June, I’ll be moving to Bethesda, Maryland. I was accepted into the National Institute of Health’s Graduate Partners Program with Georgetown University to get a PhD in microbiology and immunology.

Donna Llewellyn: Woohooo. Celebration!

Julie Wagner: Yeah for sure.

Donna Llewellyn: Okay, any last words of advice? You gave lots already in terms of, you know, feel free to switch, right? You’re not doing crayfish anymore. It’s okay not to do what you start with, any other great advice for our current students engaged in undergraduate research.

Julie Wagner: I think the I have 2 pieces of advice. One, a professor at CWI, Dusty. For CWI people, you’ll know who it is. Dusty told me, Don’t…Always apply for everything. Whether you think you’re gonna get it or not. And the worst they can say is no. So just apply. You never know. You could get a yes. And that’s what I’ve done through my entire undergraduate research. I have applied for internships or fellowships. And scholarships and the worst that they can say is no and it’s not a reflection on you personally. It’s literally them just having a huge response. So that’s one piece of advice. And the other one is. Grow your network. Like that’s one thing that I’ve done. I’m a like a firm believer in knowing people, knowing who to go to or if you don’t, ask questions.

Donna Llewellyn: Thank you, Julie. And I will say, I happen to know you’ve been very successful in some of those things that you’ve applied for. So, and it matches the advice that I received when I was fairly young was if you can handle rejection then just fly because you won’t get it if you don’t apply. So get some thick skin that you can handle the no’s and then go out and apply. So I love that advice.

Julie Wagner: Thank you.

Donna Llewellyn: So great. Thank you. And we have a couple of minutes if any of our participants here have any questions for Julie? I’m gonna ask my colleagues to help monitor chat and look for hands because I have limited screen view right now with everything else going on. But are there any other questions from the group. Appropriate wait time.

Julie Wagner: Hmm.

Donna Llewellyn: Yes, Dusty is great. Dusty Perkins. We missed him. He left CWI. But Dusty is amazing. Okay.

Julie Wagner: Yeah, he was. He’s amazing.

Nico Diaz: We have a question, from, a, Sara. If you have any strategies, if, for growing your network for introverts.

Julie Wagner: So I am an introvert. You really just have to step out of your box and like, be bold. Just, do get out of your comfort zone. And just talk to people. It’s really intimidating. And it sucks most of the time, but I think you’ll have a much better experience doing undergraduate research if you’re able to do that. And you never know who you meet. At a conference, you might need to ask them a question later or their advice later. So I think just step out of your comfort zone.

Donna Llewellyn: And we will provide lots of opportunities this summer and good advice about networking. So thank you for feeding that advice. That. That’s great. See another question in chat. I did find chat. How did you find what is your passion?

Julie Wagner: Well, so as I said, my anatomy is, AMP instructor, Dr. Oppenheimer at CWI was like, Hey you should do this with me. And I was like, no. But what that did was it taught me that wet lab work is where I am successful at, like, where I thrive. Like I said, I am an introvert, so I love being just in the lab doing my own thing. And…although crayfish wasn’t what I wanted to work on. When I got into Dr. Cornell’s lab, I learned some great molecular, but like biochemistry techniques. And so that has kind of fed  into my desire to do microbiology. And then the other part of that is I absolutely fell in love with microbiology when I took the class. So just because it’s a required class doesn’t mean like, you can’t get something out of it. Because I was like, I’m not, I never thought I was gonna go into microbiology or like anything like that. But things change, your path changes all the time and that’s okay.

Donna Llewellyn: Okay, I’m gonna take one last question from chat that I see is, how did you stay positive through all your research, through all the fails?

Julie Wagner: Well, if you ask my lab mates, I got very frustrated, which is common. I think if you’re on a trend of failing, you really question your sanity. And so, it’s just a matter of seeking out new knowledge. And trying something new. So I learned that the way that I like look back on it, even though in the moment it was frustrating and I was like, it’s not working, I don’t know to do. Looking back, I learned some amazing molecular biology techniques that I would not have otherwise learned. And I can carry that those skills on to graduate school and beyond. So even though in the moment you feel like a failure or you feel like you are frustrated and it’s not working, just step back and think what if I actually learned through this process, not like the techniques. that you’re learning are invaluable.

Donna Llewellyn: Alright, thank you, Julie. We all, thank Julie, taking the time and sharing some of your lessons in the journey and we wish you only the best in your, next steps. Thank you.

Julie Wagner: Thank you. Yeah, and I will put my personal email address in the chat. That way if somebody had a dying question they wanted to ask or whatever or they were too shy to ask in the group,  can email me and I’ll do my best to get back to people.

Donna Llewellyn: Thank you.