Name: Allison Jevitt
Age: 24
Year: PhD Student
Hometown: Merritt Island
Area of Study: Biology
Involvement: Founding Member of the Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Association (TCGA), Deng Lab Web Master, Honcho of BSC 2010L, Scientific Illustrator, DIS Student Mentor.
Courtesy: http://bio.fsu.edu/~denglab/
Few people are able to incorporate the whole of their various talents and interests into their actual career, and that might just make Allison Jevitt a very big anomaly in a very good way. From her CMB research and duties as “honcho” of all Bio I Labs, to her scientific illustrations and role as Deng Lab webmaster, the graduate student is playing an impossible game of juggling – and winning. Her cool demeanor makes it all seem so effortless, but even today – her day off – she continues to whirr away at her work. The clicking sound her keyboard makes as she counts cells is hypnotic. Somehow, between this metronome and gasping fits of laughter at her witty comments and anecdotes, I’m able to tune in to the insightful words of this girl wise beyond her years.
Her Campus (HC): So let’s start by talking about interests. What are you most passionate about and has there been anyone who’s inspired these passions?
Allison Jevitt (AJ): I’ve always thought that… human beings pride themselves in their curiosity. It’s the thing that we feel separates us from other intelligent beings. We want to see how things work. We want to see what makes things tick. We…
HC: We ask, “Why?”
AJ: We ask why. And all the jobs I can think of rely on some source of knowledge. We create things based off of what we learn and being in a position to actually learn these things that help push society forward is really inspiring to me. That mindset came from my father. He always said, “Go learn for yourself. Invent the newest…medicine…or whatever.” He probably literally said “or whatever,” because he’s an engineer and knows nothing of biology. My other passion is communication. I’m learning as a honcho that communication is more complicated than I realized, which is a serious issue because bad communication can ruin people’s jobs and relationships. I feel like one of the most interesting forms of communication is through sight; it’s the one that leads us astray the least often. Images really speak to me. My mother inspired me through her creativity and love for violin, so I started drawing. I stuck with it and now my drawings help me express my ideas in science a lot more clearly.
HC: That’s awesome. So you were able to find a way to incorporate your passions into your work?
AJ: Yes. I really like to talk to other people – for example, Dongyu [Jia, Dr.] needed assistance with his dissertation on egg chambers. He needed a simple and effective cartoon of the egg chamber pictures he had taken, so he gave them to me and I was able to do it and give it to him to use for his defense. It was really cool afterwards to hear one of the professors on his committee like, “I saw your picture. I didn’t know you could draw like that! It made everything so clear!” I also incorporate a lot of my drawings and animations into my teaching; I redid all of the 2010 [Biology I Lab for majors] PowerPoint slides, which haven’t been touched in years and I was told it clarified a lot of the information on them. It’s really nice that I found such a practical application for something I thought might just end up being an obscure talent.
Photo of the Drosophila Ogenesis Stages used on the Deng Lab website as well as in Dr. Jia’s dissertation.
Courtesy: Allison Jevitt
HC: So do you ever work outside of school? – on the off-chance you leave the lab in the first place that day?
AJ: [chuckles] When I was in undergrad, yes. Also, during my first two years of grad school when I was still taking classes, I would bring all of my homework home. But I actually make an effort not to work at home now. I try to finish all my important work before I leave and save home for relaxing. It helps me focus better when I need to focus and relax more when I need to relax. If you don’t compartmentalize your life a little bit, you start to feel like you don’t have anywhere you can be at peace.
HC: Yeah, and that’s the point where a lot of students aren’t able to sleep, even when the work is all done. Well, good – I think that this is something that might help someone going through a bit of that.
AJ: Yes, and they should also know that I make my greatest scientific discoveries when my closet is in rainbow color order.
HC: [Laughs] Yes, yes, very good.
AJ: You’re welcome, world.
This illustration of Jevitt’s was chosen as the logo for the Natural Science Graduate Student symposium.
Courtesy: Allison Jevitt
HC: So while you’re doing all of this, you also have TA duties to perform. How do you manage that?
AJ: That’s a good question because I think that’s one of the biggest concerns for a grad student. For me, research is number one, but I have to budget in time throughout the week for TA duties since that’s what I’m actually getting paid for. So, the hardest thing for me is managing emails. As a honcho, everyone’s emailing me throughout the day and I want to get back to them quickly, but if I’m constantly going back to check all my emails I’d never get anything done. So I set up three email checkpoints throughout the day, then I check in the evening to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
HC: I feel like apologizing to all my TA’s who have to respond to my frantic emails now. Besides emailing, what was something fun you got to do? What was your favorite experience you’ve had while working for FSU?
AJ: So there was this conference in Chicago where I got to present a poster on my research for hundreds of people who flew in from all around the world and were all working on the same thing I was: fruit flies. It was my first time in Chicago and it was my first time getting to see this international community that you forget even exists. I got to see that I was part of something huge.
HC: That sounds awesome! Okay, last question: What advice would you give students struggling to settle on a career and figure in their passions to the equation?
AJ: So everyone’s always looking for the thing that they “love” to do. But what I’ve learned is that: sometimes what you love is apparent to you until afterwards. So always searching and stressing and panicking that what you’re doing isn’t actually what you “love” doesn’t really help you in any way. My advice would be to do the thing that makes the most sense to you – do something. There’s nothing wrong with getting a job or going to grad school and deciding three or four years down the road that you actually hate it. That would probably be one of the best things that could happen to you, because now you know to check that off your list and steer clear of things involving that in the future. I also realized in graduate school that you have a ton of time. Especially for people just graduating: you’re anxious to jump into your final career that you’re going to sit in forever, but if you just stop worrying about finding that one and find and pick something that makes sense to you at the time, you’ll be closer to finding out what will make you happy. Or, that will launch you into something that you are happy with.
HC: Brilliant. That’s a very scientific way of looking at that; you’re trying to find where to go based on where not to go, rather than trying to find the single, absolute truth from the get-go. Making falsifiable hypotheses and observing failures.
AJ: Yes! All of my experiments work this way: I’m observing a protein that I just know is involved in a biological process, because I really want it to be involved! Then it turns out it’s not involved at all, and that’s a bummer, but at least now I can narrow down my candidates. So don’t sit for three years worrying about the one thing you want to do; pick something that’s available to you at the time. Who knows? It could be what you wanted all along! And you would’ve never known if you’d kept waiting!