Ramona Weber
PhD Candidate at the University of Virginia
“So I think that was my biggest fear is like, is my application or I guess me even am I good enough to get into this program? And am I good enough to complete this program? Yeah, absolutely, I think I guess as terrible as it sounds, it's obviously helpful when, you know, misery loves company and other people are in the same boat. So that obviously alleviated like, OK, I'm not alone in this. I have like peer support and we're all going through this together. ”
Read Ramona’s full profile below
What I do in my daily role is?
Um, so I just start a PhD program, so my day is going to class online and also doing a lot of readings and starting hopefully about three different projects in the next semester that kind of look at child development and parenting and genetic factors and things of that nature. Before that, I was a clinical research coordinator for an anesthesiology study where we were assessing hip fractures, and I think it was sixteen hundred patients across the country.
I find my work rewarding because?
Um, that's a good question. I just I don't know, I've always liked helping people and I guess the experience I had that kind of solidified my research interest in knowing that I wanted to go to grad school is I used to work at Hopkins before I did my masters. And when I was at Hopkins, I tutored Inner-City High School students who had weekends where they didn't have access to food or maybe a family member or a loved one was like passed away from gun violence. And so I was kind of thinking like, these are great kids, and they're clearly very willing to learn, but they may not have the support needed to get the education that they want. And so that's kind of how my I knew I wanted to help children and kind of understand if there were ways, I could support their development.
What were your moments of fear/challenges in your career?
I think I have this thing here that everyone else had, which is that like these are big name places and these are places where people or like educational programs or people that I knew growing up, I regard it as incredibly intelligent and successful and obviously very intimidating. And so for me and also a lot of my peers, we kind of all had like imposter syndrome of, Oh my gosh, can we do this? Like, are we making the right decision about our future? Or, you know, I mean, obviously, education can be expensive, too. So it was like, is this what we want to do? So I think that was my biggest fear is like, is my application or I guess me even am I good enough to get into this program? And am I good enough to complete this program? Yeah, absolutely, I think I guess as terrible as it sounds, it's obviously helpful when, you know, misery loves company and other people are in the same boat. So that obviously alleviated like, OK, I'm not alone in this. I have like peer support and we're all going through this together. But just having like little milestones along the way, I was super, super helpful. So I was not really the best student in my undergrad experience, and I think that played a lot into it. But I took like one or two classes or Hawkins and I got good grades. And then when I transitioned to my master's at Penn, I was getting good grades. So it's like, OK, I'm going to see if I can add a part time job to this. And then I ended up doing really well. So then the next semester is like, Let me see if I can get like a second part time job, and I was mostly still able to handle it. Yeah. So I think like taking like little moments to acknowledge like your accomplishments and also like moving slowly onto like adding things onto your plate and being like, OK, I can do. This is super helpful.
What are some of the innovations in science that you are most excited about?
Oh, wow. I. I think science in general is obviously a very important topic with the pandemic. Yeah. So I guess it's really cool to see like all of the innovations that are happening and in that regard. But I think what excites me is. I guess a broad way of looking at it is like neuroscience, because it's a newer field, but in the last like I think it's like 20 years, they've already come up with so many different technologies and tools to assess, like biological markers that weren't available to us before. So I would say the innovation of neuroscience, I guess.
Where did you grow up?
And so I was born in Boston, and then I lived there until I was 11, and then I moved to Cincinnati until I went to college.
Who was your favorite teacher and why?
So, my gosh, I had I had a lot at my Master’s program, actually that I would love to rave about, but. I think the professor that I was like most attracted to was Professor Adrian Raine, because I think that a lot of people have the experience that class can sometimes be a little boring or challenging, and you don't necessarily always want to be there. And I think that he will. He created his own field. So that already made it an interesting class. But I think it was like forensic neuroscience kind of thing. It was the classical violence in neuroscience, and the reason he was like, my favorite professor is because the class was always super interesting and engaging, like he always brought case studies or like, let us watch videos about, like, you know, different things that arose in neuroscience. So it was super engaging and interesting and like a class that you were excited to, like, go to school.
What inspired you to pursue a career in STEM/Healthcare?
Yes. So I'm going to give a general answer, but I think it's very pertinent to this question because my family and my friends are definitely like my driving forces, because my dad and my mom actually both work in science. So my dad is a breast cancer researcher and my mom works like the FDA does regulatory affairs. And so I grew up already and a science motivated background. And so I think that kind of helped inspire my trajectory into the field of science. But I think graduate school. And both capacities, actually, because the FG has also already started to become challenging, having like those outlets or support systems has been more friendships has been super helpful because there are definitely days where I'm super tired of. I feel like I bite off more than I can chew and I'm just like, I don't want to do this anymore. I just want to like sleep for a week. And the lake is super supportive and kind of like, remind me of why I decided to do this. So, I think that's like my inspiration to keep going every day. Okay, great.
What’s next for you?/What would you like to do when you “grow up’? (retire, etc.)/ what is something you hope to accomplish in the future?
Um, so my end goal when I graduate is to do the trifecta, I guess, so I would ideally like to be a professor doing kind of the research interests that I mentioned before. And then I also hope to I was thinking about, but I haven't fully fleshed out this idea. So, I'd like to do be a professor and do like research and teaching. But I'm also interested and doing some sort of practice, whether it's my own practice or an already established practice with children like on the weekends or evenings, because I like the idea of like leaving, I guess, a long-term impression through publications and research, or also having kind of a short-term impact on being able to help children in the immediate future.
What is your unique talent?
So I picked. What is your unique challenge and the current book that I love? So for what is my unique talent? So my mom is a very big painter and can play canvases and pottery and stuff like that. And so growing up, I also painted pottery a lot. But after I graduated college, I started doing like canvas paintings and mandala paintings. So like, that's like specifically what I do, I actually only paint, so people feel like I know how to do, but that's OK. So that's like, I think that's my special power. And I mean, it's like even like a size of paper, it can take me like 20 hours to do because it's like so detailed and intricate. So I think it's a I think it's a talent.
Current book/book you love?
And then the current book that I am reading or that I love, I am a big fan of Bad Blood by John Kerry, who I think is his name because it's. Phenomenally written, like even though it's nonfiction and it reads as a story and the story is like wild. So I think it's really like an easy read, but also really good read. But I also do like my fiction books. And at the end of the day, I want to read something lighthearted. So right now, I'm reading red, white and blue, red white and royal blue.
