S-STEM Scholar Margaret Devossier's Blog

              Blog post #4                I came into this class with a bit of experience on caring for myself mentally and physically and it was refreshing to have a course that I could apply my journey to. It felt great having my own thoughts solidified and validated along with so many other students. The hardest part about taking the controls to care for yourself is simply just starting. Taking that first step is always the most difficult, there's still a lot of work ahead but the worst is truly over. Moving forward I hope to continue to be unafraid of asking for help, and making sure to stop and celebrate all the things I think are worth celebrating. I don't want to hold back on being happy to "save it for a special occasion", or thinking that being happy now means something will probably ruin the mood later.               Since the start of my college journey...

    This book called me out in so many different ways that I started getting a little too embarrassed. I felt personally attack a few times but I knew it was because the words applied to me like a mosquito. The mosquito being an unwelcome visitor, annoying, irritating, and leaving a horrible itch that lasts much too long, but of course all these things were in the form of words that I think I definitely needed to hear. Perhaps after reading this, its not so much the book acting as a mosquito, but in reality it's been my own intrusive thoughts pestering me, and this book shined a big old bug zapper on it. The sections that still stick to me talk about how vulnerability is sort of necessary throughout life and not at all a weakness, and all the different suits of armor Brown touched on as well as how to shed it.     Applying the proper use and acceptance of vulnerability seems to be built into this whole TRAIN scholarship program. This class is full of other students a...

Blog Post #2 Spring 22'           I would be lying if I said my capability as a woman wasn't challenged on an often enough  basis, but within my academic career I have been pleasantly surprised (give or take a few egotistical men). Throughout my time in community college and with ASU, I would say that I could count all the male STEM professors I've had on one hand. My mindset has been slowly peeling tough layers back with every introduction of a new woman in STEM with the title "Dr.".  That not to say that I turn my nose up to men who have the same titles or work in the same STEM fields, but at the end of the day, our social culture within STEM has been built on a foundation of wealthy, privileged men. Many might read that sentence and immediately feel attacked or irritated, but I feel it's 100% true. That doesn't necessarily mean it is a negative thing, but a factual thing to some degree, and with that comes the challenge of being a woman (especi...

    For a long time I was a textbook version of a fixed mindset. I had zero goals, no expectation, and was content with a very average, mediocre life where I would no doubt end up as a retail manager at some store I hated. That is what I thought my bar was set at and I was...okay with it. My parents never went to college, never talked about it as an option for us, and in turn never bothered to save for a college fund.     Fast forward to present day and my mind is damn near at a complete 180. I would say it's at about an 80/20 ratio of growth versus fixed. The main reason for this change requires credit given to two instructors, first Dr. Jennifer Gustafson at Glendale Community College, and second Dr. Kimberly Toms here at the ASU west campus. Them, paired with my own will power, have had the biggest influence on changing me into having a growth mindset.     To set the scene for Jen (her preferred name), she was my chemistry teacher throughout the entirety...

Translating my college experience into employer-desired experiences example 1: Hands down the first choice of transferrable skills would be the ability to work within a group or with a partner. Class projects or working with a partner to complete a task, even working with people you don't necessarily mesh well with. I had a partner I was assigned to complete scientific papers with for an entire semester of an ecology lab. We practiced writing different portions of the papers creating data figures together, and collecting field data together as well. That in itself is a desired skill especially within the conservation field. Being able to successfully  collaborate makes tasks all the more manageable and can provide for better quality work. It helps keep you open to the idea that someone may have better insight or just a different approach that you may not have considered before. That in itself can help someone be open to criticism and be able to handle and adjust their performa...

 How I Think I Want to Use My Degree and Why      I've always known what I wanted to do with my degree, but I've always had this sense of imposter syndrome and have always been worried that I wouldn't fit the bill. I want to work with animals, literally any way I can. My main focus has been to search for a zookeeping job, animal rehabilitation, or even sanctuary work.     Time and time again people have asked me "what kind of animal do you want to work with?" and my answer has always been "Yes" because there is no one animal that I have my heart set on. I want to do it all, anything and everything I can get my hands on is what I want. Currently I volunteer with raptors, and I love it! Will I stick with an ornithological focus? who knows! I love the animals I work with but of course I'd be ecstatic do have an opportunity to work with carnivores or even elephants, all the way down to teeny little kangaroo rats.     I've accepted that seeking a zook...