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Host:Alright! First of all, thank you so much for joining us today. We just wanted to start off by talking a little about your journey through STEM. So could you start off by telling us a bit about yourself, specifically within STEM as well?

Anahita Seraji:Yeah, for sure! My name is Anahita, I just finished my 3rd year of Biology at the University of British Columbia. I’m hoping to pursue medicine so I’m mostly involved in that aspect of STEM. Being a first responder—and stuff like that—but mostly, I like to dabble in a lot of things. So I try to get involved in all aspects of STEM [as much] as possible!

Host:Alright, sounds amazing! Have you thought about which speciality in medicine you want to pursue and if so, why? So kinda what was your inspiration behind that?

Anahita Seraji:Yeah, I want to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Although I will admit that I’m recently having a little bit of doubt. But now I will just explain that in just one second. So the reason I wanted to pursue surgery is because as a kid—I actually was not a science kid whatsoever. I didn’t like science at all but I really loved crafts. And I loved working with my hands and I was like an 8-year-old knitting and sewing and just building dolls out of scratch. And at one point, when I started to actually like science, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to pursue it if I’m just casually talking to patients and writing prescriptions—that I actually want to have that hands-on work and that I was good at it! So, that’s why I want to pursue surgery. I feel like it’s essentially art but on a human body and I get to do all those knit-picky, hands-on things that I love so much. And the reason that I’m recently having doubts is because I realized that I, again, being a person that likes to dabble in a lot of things, would love to get out and visit the world and actually help people. And I can’t really do that if I’m so specialized in one category. So now, also recently I’m looking into being a general surgeon. That way, in any situation I’m actually ready and prepared to help people.

Sophie [V.O.]:I also just wanted to say it’s really interesting that you brought that up because my mom actually used to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. But she was an architect before she went to med school. So I thought it was really cool to hear you talk about how it kinda depends on hands-on work. I guess that’s not really a connection I’ve made before!

Anahita Seraji:Yeah, definitely! That’s amazing!

Host:Alright, thank you so much! You mentioned that you weren’t really interested in STEM and science especially when you were younger. So do you mind talking a little bit about what sparked that interest for you and made you decide to pursue your Bachelor’s degree and beyond in science?

Anahita Seraji:Yeah! I mean, I guess, growing up one of the things that I didn’t really like about medicine was that it always reminded me of being sick. And I was such a healthy kid that I was like, “Ew, I don’t want to work in a hospital!” And then as I grew up, I got more hands-on experience in terms of learning about science and specifically the human body. And I really loved learning about all the tiny little things that go on in our body and making sense out of it. And I remember I must have been in the seventh grade, I found out I had anemia and I didn’t really understand what that meant. So I decided to do a project about anemia and I found out all the different types and all the mechanisms of the red blood cell and that just blew my mind. And I always think about how we’re so hard on ourselves. And we think, “oh my gosh, I have a pimple, what am I going to do? It’s horrible!” But that single pimple is so important in your body and it’s helping you so much. And I feel like just learning about the tiny, little things in your body that you’re doing without even realizing it just makes you appreciate both yourself and life so much more.

Host:Yeah, that sounds incredible! Definitely more well-thought out than any kind of “oh, what’s your passion?” kinda answer that I would have. So, you mentioned again that you go to UBC, and I mean, I, myself and a lot of others on the team, and a lot of our listeners—they really do want to go UBC, so could you talk a little bit about a day in your life at UBC as a student? And [tell us about] the quirks, the difficulties, the ups and downs of it?

Anahita Seraji:So I guess, youth do you mean undergrads or high schoolers?

Host:High schoolers like us, yeah.

Anahita Seraji:I mean, I’ll be honest; it’s hard. The easiest way to say it: it’s really difficult. I find that transitioning from high school into UBC was a bit easier just because you feel like everyone is on an even playing field and you come here and it’s such a well-known school. There’s a massive international population and everyone’s got these diverse experiences and lots of understanding and now you’re competing with people with a whole variety of skill sets. And it really does take a lot for you to be able to pull yourself up and to just recognize your own worth and stay inspired. And if you’re like me, pursuing medicine, you’ve probably heard that everyone wants [to be] the 90% straight average kid but then class averages could be 75% and that could really demolish your confidence essentially. But I think the thing that makes UBC so great—first of all, seagulls and squirrels all over the place, racoons, the wildlife—I love it. I’m pursuing medicine, but at heart: complete Bio kid; I love all the animals. And also, the students. I think that’s one of the reasons that I actually chose to go to UBC instead of Toronto or McGill. The students are so kind and compassionate. I have never asked a person for help and have the answer [been told] ‘no’. There’s a lot of professors that go out of their way just to support you and I feel like the community we have here—how everyone cares about the nature, and each other’s degrees, and each other doing well; it makes everything worth it, it makes all the hardship worth it.

Host:Okay, thanks for that! In terms of getting into university and stuff, if you can recall your last couple years of high school, what would you say was the most important part of high school experience when it came to transitioning into university? And do you think focusing on grades or extracurriculars would have either helped you get into university or help you transition into university? Where do you find that balance and what lessons can be taken from that experience?

Anahita Seraji:Yeah! I mean, I guess I’m sort of—I found myself at the end of my Bachelor’s degree and wanting to pursue higher education. I find that, yes, obviously, good grades do matter and extracurriculars do matter as well. But I think the most important factor is honesty. And what I mean by that is I had—when I was writing out applications for scholarships and stuff and the way that I had learned writing scholarships and stuff was not to be simply me—it was to make yourself seem perfect. And I kind of realized that they have so many applicants that sound perfect that it almost kinda gets boring when you’re like the 100th person applying and I remember feeling very disappointed because there was a whole bunch of things that I couldn’t get like awards and stuff and then I basically two minutes to just kind of explain my life story and my background to this guy for my extracurricular group who was ahead. And he was like, “you know, I think you’re very cool. I think you’ve got a lot of things to offer the world. And I want you to know if you’re interested, there’s schools in the U.S. we can get you attached with that would be interested in giving you scholarships and stuff.” To me, that was the minute I realized I should’ve just been honest about who I am, my passions, and the reason I was actually pursuing this field instead of trying to be like, “yeah, I’m involved in so many things, and have amazing grades.” And then it just makes you unique and that’s the thing that makes you stand out and that’s the lesson I’m trying to take with myself when I’m going to med school. The realization that you are who you are and that is the most special thing about you. No amount of good grades or extracurriculars can make you a better version of you. You already have it all, that’s the embellishment to prove who you are.

Host:Wow, thank you! Beyond that, we’re also wondering—it seems like you have a lot of insight in the transition to university and just being in general. So, do you think you have any advice to offer students in general or also students especially that are really confused about what kind of field that they want to get into; they’re interested but they don’t know what to do next?

Anahita Seraji:Yeah, I would say just keeping an open mind. And I know that it sounds very cliche, but I truly do mean it. Another thing that I mentioned that changed my mind about what I wanted to do, especially in regards to surgery, was that I recently ended up going on a research trip to Costa Rica. I was investigating sea turtle conservation. And that has nothing to do with medicine. But I was like, “I get credits, why not?” And it has completely changed my life. So just the hands-on experience working with an amazing team and the turtles being in culture. And that’s kind of when I realized that in that experience I would love to pursue medicine in rural communities. And like to live amongst the people. Maybe by day, save the humans, by night, saving the turtles. You never know. Little things like that, I would not be able to pursue and I would not be able to have that experience because I was so zoned in on I want to do medicine. Having that, I guess, not knowing what you want to do and dabbling into a little bit of everything is a strength when you think about it. Because some people focus on one thing and you have the opportunity to expand and pursue all different kinds of skills and [Sophie] mentioned her mom going into architecture and then medicine. You just have to realize how interconnected STEM is to everything and no matter where you start you could end up somewhere completely different. That, and just to have skills.

Host:Awesome, thank you so much. We’re also wondering if you have any advice for students getting into different opportunities in STEM outside of school? So, for example, are there any opportunities you took advantage of when you were our age? Or are there any things you know of? How would you kind of—I mean, if you were in our shoes now, how would you try to get involved in STEM outside of school?

Anahita Seraji:Yeah, I think that’s actually a very good point. Because when I was in high school, I wasn’t really allowed to do some other things. My mom was like, “you’re too young to be in the community” but then I tried to use school as my to do other things. So my high school, Heritage Woods, had an amazing program called Science Co-op 11 and basically you get a month to do odd jobs and for me, I went to get my standard first aid and that is something I’ve carried with me all of my university and still first responder I’m first responder and volunteer at and I’m hoping to can start school and it will be elsewhere and it will stay with you for years. Point two is that you don’t have to be stuck in STEM. I’m actually a filmmaker and women’s rights activist and so, the ways that I’ve actually tried to incorporate that into STEM, is for example, is by volunteering for AccessBC, which is an initiative to provide access to free contraception in BC. And even with that, I get to learn about the fight behind reproductive rights and protective systems and that’s an aspect of STEM by following something completely unrelated. Or, I would be a video-content creator and social media content creator which is an engineering outreach at UBC. I’m just taking photos and videos but I get to learn about physics, things I would have never thought of. So take one passion, and just pull on it, and you could expand on it. It could lead you to a lot of good initiatives that you thought you would never expect.

Host:You briefly mentioned just in your last answer being an activist in a women’s rights [organization]; I think that’s fascinating. Do you think you could talk about your experience as a woman in your field, given that your field is a very male-dominated field. How do you think that’s affected you and how do you think you overcome any challenges as a woman?

Anahita Seraji:Yeah, I mean, I guess I do have a little better just because I’m physically and biologically and engineering is definitely women in engineering have it a lot worse. It is a really male-dominated field; women are kind of overlooked and their needs are also overlooked. From my experience in biology, I haven’t had too much of a problem. Especially not at UBC. Although, I would say that there have been instances where I feel like maybe my contribution is undermined in group projects where I try to make a point or I know I have the skills to be able to do something and in the group and my male counterparts are like, “no, no, no let me handle this” and in that situation it is a bit off putting and I kind of have to assert myself “no this is my portion; I can handle this. Can you let me take over? And you stick to your thing.” And there’s always been this issue. I don’t think it’s just STEM in any field or any women or the minute you step up and try to demonstrate your worth and your knowledge that people think you’re bossy or that you’re just being annoying and no one likes you. And I do think it just has to do with being confident in who you are. I don’t want to think that you should have to undermine your talents or your abilities to make anyone else feel uncomfortable. And at the end of the day, we’re all a team here. That’s kind of the thing here; that’s what I love about UBC. If you’re more talented in a certain aspect, that as long as you can tell everyone because that is going to help the whole group, that’s going to help everyone, and you should be proud of it. That’s all I could really say. But the reality is that it’s never going to get easier, not yet, not yet.

Host:Yeah, so speaking of challenges, outside of challenges around gender, what would you say is one of the biggest challenges you’ve faced entering STEM or being STEM just anything about your daily life as a student?

Anahita Seraji:Yeah, I think it’s just I don’t really know. I suppose it’s just the way that a lot of us administration is given to us. The whole system of education; the education system is what I mean. For example, math courses, I feel like you, especially if you’re a BC resident, we don’t have to learn Calculus in high school. But then again with such an international population and so many other kids coming from other places in Canada having a school that does offer Calculus from regular things we should learn. You’re kind of at a disadvantage. And from my experience, unfortunately, post-secondary doesn't really count for that disadvantage. Because I have where you should be at and if your high school didn’t meet that standard it must really suck for you because you’re going to be struggling now. So I guess that one of the biggest things is not just in math, although that tends to be the one year that most, especially first-year, it’s very discouraging. There’s sort of like a standard that you’re at and this idea that being in STEM is so glorified; you must be so smart, you’re going to have such a bright future. But we don’t actually talk about how difficult it is. Especially coming from diverse backgrounds; backgrounds that didn’t have access to constant tutoring or some really fancy private school. And these are differences that are not really accounted for. I think in education institutions, in general, but it definitely shows itself in STEM.

Host:Yeah, I heard a lot about “ooh the dreaded first-year science at UBC”; I heard a lot about it. So, speaking of that, how do you think you kind of got to that first-year? I’ve heard it’s a really big shift for a lot of people—so what kind of tools, or resources, or any coping strategies did you use?

Anahita Seraji:Yeah, I mean the best way to just say it was holding my breath and sprinting through first-year as fast as possible—I will be honest. First-year was the start of a wreck. That, and you know, I definitely wanted to mention that coming from high school, I was this perfect student, then first-year happened and I completely crumbled. And that’s okay. It’s almost happened to everyone so don’t feel bad about it. It’ll get better. That’s definitely going to get better. But I also think, in my first year, the thing that really got me through it was trying to be actually engaged with the course material. I remember in term 1, I kind of had an idea that everything was going to be so easy; I’ve already learned this. And then slowly I started to fall behind. And I also had this that the way that I should study should be the same as high school. And we’re not taught this and I think we should be. But university-level exams and high school exams are two completely different things. You literally go home and have 40 pages of reading and assignments to do that night and there’s 5 hours till midnight and you just got back from class; it’s insane. So, I think, for me, just kind of trying to make it a hobby, going to class, and thinking “oh how fascinating, we’re looking at beetles! I hate insects, but fascinating. Love it!” And just engaging with people. It’s probably when you’re first-year and when you don’t know people but literally find person in class, make them your best friend. Now you’re gonna be show up to that class every single day, ‘cause you have a best friend waiting for you, and that alone, was a drive to get me out of bed and in class. And now you’re missing stuff, you have a study buddy, who’s you’re baking friend, helping with your social life and. It’s a good decision I might say.

Host:More of like a personal question I have, and I know a lot of people that are super curious about this, is that it’s a whole question of taking AP’s like IB and using that as university credits for first-year. I’m not sure if you had any experience with that, but if you did, or have any thoughts on it, we’d love you to share and just talk about how you feel about trying to take a leap forward in high school. And trying to skip a little bit in university.

Anahita Seraji:I mean, ultimately, if you did really well in the classes and you’re investing in it. But if you’re at the point where you’re kind of questioning, “do I take IB or AP”, is it worth it? I would say, “you know what? University is hard. Sooner or later it will get hard.” If you feel like “should I make my high school a little harder, just so that I can get a one-up in university?” then I would say it’s not necessary. Just enjoy high school, enjoy the last few years of “peace” you have because when you get to university you’re gonna be so busy trying to have those extracurriculars, being on top of school, and actually being an adult and taking care of yourself. You’re going to miss those days. So enjoy high school. Have a great time, but also I will say that I took AP Psych when I was in high school. I didn’t do the exam to get credits for it, but I found that when I transitioned into university and I took courses that kind of correlated to university-level psychology courses, I was doing really, really well. And it’s a known thing that, when you’re in psychology there’s departmental averages, and most first-year students do struggle. But I wouldn’t necessarily attribute that to having taken AP and just knowing some main things. I would mostly attribute that to knowing how to take exams. I think that although maybe it doesn’t make you smarter, it just teaches you how to study. And how to take the exams, that’s all.

Host:Thank you so much for that insight. Another thing we’re really curious about is with COVID and all, we were wondering how was it for you? Studying online, using Zoom, and online resources during university, and what you kind of took away from that experience?

Anahita Seraji:Oh, man. It was—it was bad. It was so bad for me, just because—so I live in a little studio on campus, and my bedroom is my classroom, which is my study room and my kitchen, and my hangout room. So this tiny little room is my entire life, and at the time because of COVID, I didn’t want to go out and get groceries, it was scary, bacteria virus stuff, so then I’d get my groceries delivered, which meant I wasn’t going out at all. Again, with such a—I was living on campus when COVID hit and the summer after. There weren’t a lot of people here, so it was kind of a lonely period, and I found that it was actually really difficult for me to stay focused when I was in my pajamas and I woke up ten minutes before, eating a bowl of cereal, watching a lecture on genetics. It was the most complicated thing, and I could not stay focused whatsoever. I tried to go to the library, but again, it was just like—constantly, fourteen hours a day, staring at a computer screen, and it was not an engaging learning experience. I actually remember, by the end of the first COVID term, I had a really irritated eye just because I was taking a computer science course. So I was coding all day, every day, fourteen hours just on my computer. And my eyes turned red—I had to write the final with sunglasses on, it was—it was really bad, I couldn’t look into direct sunlight or really just any light. But I think the one benefit of COVID was—first of all, showing people that you don’t need to be in person for everything. Certain tutorials I feel like—you know, you can have the same outcome if you’re just online, or something like coding, you don’t need to be in a classroom, you’re going to be on your computer anyway. And also for professors to realize the importance of recorded lectures. I think one of the reasons I struggled so hard in my first term was eight-AM classes every day and you’re in class all day—you’re tired, you’re not going to pay attention to every last detail. Having a recording you can go back to, or if you miss a class for whatever reason, that will make a massive difference in your overall performance in the course. And now you know, after COVID—we’re still in it, but we’ll say after—I think that was the biggest thing that supported my education: actually having recorded lectures that I could look back to.

Host:Alright. Yeah, so next question we’re kind of looking at is—this is a very general broad question—like so what do you think kind of inspires you and drives your passion for STEM, and what keeps it going even when things get hard?

Anahita Seraji:I think, sort of like what I said earlier—having an open mind and trying to dabble in everything. Like I mentioned, I wasn’t always the typical STEM kid, and I feel like while I absolutely love biology and learning about human anatomy, I find that it’s—because I’m in biology, I’ve learned about animal biology or animal anatomy, I’ve learned about genetics and evolution and ecology. And all these little concepts are actually really interconnected and you can apply it to things as simple as your day-to-day life. Like, when you’re determining what you should prioritize, you can really easily apply the concept of “fitness trade-off,” where, you know, if you’re good at one thing—you’re really, really good at it—that means you might not be able to invest in other things, and, you know, you might not be as good at those things. That’s a concept I learned in ecology that I actively apply to my life every day, and I feel like the thing that makes me love STEM so much and stay passionate is an eagerness to just learn about fields that I wouldn’t necessarily be interested in otherwise. And when I learn about those, to try to hang on to the knowledge that I learned from them and applying it to my day-to-day life, just because I feel like it expands your mindset, it completely transforms the way you’re looking at the world, and I find that STEM is that: it’s a way of thinking and understanding the world, and it’s so—I guess—revolutionary. You get to change the whole world. You take this tiny little [piece of] information about what’s natural and you can build on it, you can be innovative, you can build medicine and structures and technology, and just watch the world form into—hopefully—a better place.

Host:It’s really inspiring to hear about everyone else’s inspirations in STEM and whatnot. One of the questions we had was what do you think is the most groundbreaking discovery you’ve made, either scientifically or about yourself through your journey in STEM so far?

Anahita Seraji:Yeah, I mean. I don’t know. I suppose—the most groundbreaking discovery for me, I’m not sure if it would necessarily be STEM related but I guess you can kind of try and incorporate it there—was linked with women’s activism and my psychology courses. I basically, one summer day, was thinking about the debate that was going on through social media about “not all men,” and “yes, all women” — the debate that was going on while taking psychology courses on learning, as in behavioural learning mechanisms and theories. And I kinda just thought about it, and how—you know, the “not all men” side of the debate isn’t entirely wrong, but they’re missing a point, that yes, all women do have to experience a certain amount of misogyny, of sexism, discrimination, oppression, and I tried to think about why. So I ended up writing a paper about how it’s more a cognitive thing: women are being conditioned by our society to fear men or to—and actually to generalize their fear towards all men. So you might have one negative experience with one man, but you’re going to generalize that fear towards all men. And for women to have this sense of guardedness in situations that trigger them, it’s really easy to say not all men are bad, but all women have to have this sort of protectiveness, and they’re constantly negotiating their definition of danger just to have an illusion of safety. And those are some of the things I read in the articles I was looking into when I was investigating this, and to me that’s just so revolutionary, and it really did change my perception, because I feel like the point of my paper was to kind of cure this disconnect between men’s perceptions of women’s realities and the reality of women’s experiences, and I think that’s really important. Like I said, I take everything and I try to apply it to all different types of fields, and you could start by looking at being in a constant state of fear: always being stressed out, the second a man walks behind you having that defensiveness—how does that ultimately impact your brain? How does it impact your fight or flight response? You’re constantly worried. What does this mean for your overall health, and that opens up a whole new doorway to women’s health and research on women in general that I’d want to look into. So it’s a bit unrelated, but I always find a way to connect it back to science, and I think that definitely did change my perception of the world and myself and all the interactions that I’ve been having. I hope to get the paper published, fingers crossed, and it’s a piece of information that I’d really love to give out to the world.

Host:Alright, so talking a little bit more about STEM, what kind of work outside of school are you doing in the field, and how did you get into it, do you enjoy it, etcetera?

Anahita Seraji:So earlier I mentioned that I was actually a social media and video content creator with Geering Up, which is an engineering outreach at UBC. A lot of the work they do is that they have summer camps for children, they teach them engineering—I’ve seen ten-year-olds coding and building robots, it’s actually really insane. The whole initiative is amazing. And I’m only a photographer and video content creator, but like I mentioned, sometimes they want me to edit podcasts, so I get to learn a lot about quantum physics, and there’s things—I love it because it makes STEM and engineering so much more accessible for children. I wouldn’t really understand quantum physics, and I still kind of don’t, but I recently edited an audiobook to explain quantum physics for children. And that made me learn about quantum physics, and again, you don’t have to necessarily be a quantum physicist or be in that field, or pursuing a degree. You can get into something as easy as photography or video editing. And that will give you that experience. As long as you’re in an initiative that cares about STEM, that will give you experience. I’m also going to be working at the ER in Surrey Memorial and Royal Columbian Hospitals, as a part of the ATICO study, it’s the Active Transport Injury Circumstance and Outcome study, which is part of my co-op job. It’s going to start in September. So [I’m] very excited about that, it’s mostly research-based work, but I get exposure to the ER and I’m working with an awesome team, so I’m really looking forward to it. And lastly I’d say I’m employed by Odyssey, and they are—basically they provide first aid for events, whether it’s concerts or just working at PNE, so I’ve taken that first responders thing, and I’ve applied it—and I’m employed now. I find that—I have a few jobs, but it’s really nice because they’re a bit more self-paced, so I get to choose my own hours. And I find that it’s a nice balance for me, because I get to have those things that I’m involved in, but also be able to focus on my school, pick my own schedule, and maybe take less shifts during finals or more when I’m free.

Host:Thanks so much for that. I know it’s quite early in your journey through STEM, but we were really wondering if you have an idea of what you want your legacy to be or what you want to be remembered for when discussing your STEM experience and your involvement through the field.

Anahita Seraji:That’s a good question! I don’t know, I haven’t thought too much about it. First of all, I’m still trying to get into medicine, and then we’ll see what happens from then, but ultimately I think just being honest and open and willing to learn about things—never giving up, that sort of thing. There are several aspects of my work that I would love to stay with people, especially in women’s rights activism, and I think while I want to pursue medicine, I’m not the type of person that could sit still and let the system be the way it is. I’m also more involved in policy-making and making a difference—for example, we’ve seen the way COVID has impacted the healthcare system. And there’s a saying that doctors and healthcare practitioners are not saving lives, they’re actually donating from their own lives. And that came from my realization that we’re not treating our healthcare practitioners the way we should be. There are not enough of them. We need more people in healthcare and we can have more people in healthcare—but students are not supported to join healthcare. Med schools are so competitive that, you know, it’s discouraging students from wanting to get involved, when the ultimate goal should be “how can we get people involved?” And I think there’s this overall representation—we glorify medicine, and all these amazing STEM fields, but at the end of the day, we’re not really making it easier or more accessible for people. I hope that if I do get into medicine, and if I actually succeed, that I have the opportunity to look back and say: we should be supporting our students more. We need to make education more accessible to them, we need to make it easier for them. They should not have to feel like they’re sacrificing their health to pursue a career. And I also feel like it’s really important because we hear a lot about how doctors and healthcare practitioners are not providing adequate care, and that is creating this big mistrust between healthcare practitioners and patients. And I hope to combat that by letting the healthcare practitioners not be hypocrites: they’re actually taking care of their own health and being role models for their patients. That can help build trust, and I think it would help a lot in terms of both having people in healthcare and combating burnout. If I can make some sort of difference, I want to. [I’ve] got a lot of ideas, and I gotta see how far I get!

Host:Yeah, definitely. Honestly, that is really inspiring. At this point we don’t really have any questions left for you, but we wanted to thank you very very much for participating in this kind of interview process, and again, once more, thank you for joining us on Unlocking STEM. If there are any last comments you’d like to make, we’d love to hear them, but otherwise, I think we can wrap this up!

Anahita Seraji:Yeah, for sure! Thank you so much for having me, it’s been wonderful engaging with both of you. I really appreciate your offer to have me here today.

Host:Thank you so much Anahita!

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