episode transcript
Erin Fields: Alright, well, hello and happy timezones to those listening, no matter where you may be!
Welcome to the Summit Ahead, a podcast for future graduate students, brought to you by the West Virginia University office of graduate admissions.
I am your host, Erin Fields and I invite you to join me over the course of this show’s season as I chat with higher education professionals at West Virginia University who will be giving their best tips, tricks, and insights on topics important to consider when applying for graduate school.
Well everyone, another month, another episode. Today I am bringing on Dr. Stephanie Rellick, Director of the Master of Science in Health Sciences program here at WVU, who is here to chat with me about the program and also her experiences at WVU. Stephanie, it is so good to have you on with me. How about we start by you telling us a little bit about yourself, your position at the university, maybe a little bit about your career, and fun things you do in your spare time?
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: Sure! In my position at the university, as you mentioned, I am the director of the Master of Science in Health Sciences program. I oversee that program, helping students get ready for their next steps in applying to professional schools, and I also am still a researcher in the labs, so I do that part-time as well. When I have spare time, I work out, play with my dogs, hang out with friends, the usual stuff.
Erin Fields: What kind of dogs do you have?
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: I have two Brittany Spaniels. I have an old lady who is fifteen and a puppy who is two.
Erin Fields: Puppies are fun! So how did you get started in your career? What inspired you to pursue a career in health sciences and education? What was your career path like?
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: I always knew I wanted to do something in science. I majored in biology in my undergrad degree. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do medical school or research, so I actually took a huge gap year, which is kind of what the Master of Science in Health Sciences program is for a lot of people who are unsure about what they want to do after undergrad, or they’re trying to prepare for professional school.
And then I ended up going to graduate school to get my Ph.D. in cancer cell biology, and then I just stayed in research after that. During my time as a researcher, I also went to school to get my master’s in education, and so that’s kind of how I landed in this position as the director of the Master of Science in the Health Science program.
Erin Fields: It’s interesting that you took a gap year because I think in graduate education a lot of times students put a lot of pressure on themselves to go immediately to grad school, and they don’t know it’s okay to take some time off.
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: I like the idea of taking that year if you’re not sure what you want to do. Plus, I think sometimes you just need to take a break to avoid getting burnt out after undergrad and I think it’s good to take that time to decide what you want to do and those next steps. Once you start professional school or a career, you don’t really get much of a break after that, so sometimes it’s good to have that time.
Erin Fields: Absolutely. I went straight from undergrad to master’s and eventually I want to get my doctorate of education, but I realized I needed to take a break after my master’s degree, my brain was a little fried.
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: And it’s not bad to take a break, I’m glad I did.
Erin Fields: Right, because in the long run, if you’re overexerting yourself, you’re not going to be able to perform at your best and you’re just not going to be able to make the most out of your time in grad school.
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: Yep. And it helped me really decide what I wanted to do.
Erin Fields: Exactly. You said that you got your degree in cancer cell biology here. What were some of your favorite moments or memories working towards your doctorate?
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: Probably my time spent with my peers. Two of the graduate students who were in my lab, one of them I still talk to pretty much on a daily basis, she and I are still really close from the long hours that we spent together in the lab. So I’d say time with your peers is the best. You spend a lot of long days with them and you get to know them really well. You make friendships that last forever.
Erin Fields: Right, because you are spending so much time with them, it’s kind of hard to not be friends with someone after spending that much time with them. You either become very close with them or get on each other’s nerves, I feel.
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: Absolutely. You go through some ups and downs, but luckily she and I have stayed close and we pretty much talk every day.
Erin Fields: With it being a Ph.D. program, did you have time to do things on campus, or were you mainly in the labs for most of your time?
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: Most of the time we were in the labs, but there was still time to do other things outside of the lab, and I think you had to make time to do stuff outside of the lab, or you would probably go insane.
Erin Fields: That makes sense. After a ninety-page CAPStone paper, I was feeling a little insane. What are some of your personal research interests? Are there any projects that you are currently working on researching?
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: Yes! Actually, my time is still spent actively working in the research lab. Our lab focuses on pediatric leukemia, and we work looking at disease relapse and resisting disease and trying to find things that can kind of get rid of that relapsed disease or resistant disease or new treatments that we can do. We work with a lab that looks at bioinformatics and collaborates with our lab looking at that.
Erin Fields: That’s so cool, a collaboration. How long have you been working on that?
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: I actually am back in the lab that I did my Ph.D. work in, eleven years later I’ve come full circle. So I’ve been back in this lab for five years now. So we’ve been doing research for about five years.
Erin Fields: That’s so cool. I do not do scientific research since I am in enrollment management and marketing, but I always think it’s so cool to hear about things like that. During your time as a researcher, what would you say would be your most rewarding moment?
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: I’d have to say any time you interact with a patient and just hear how you've made a difference for them. A lot of times in research you don’t directly see the impact of your work until maybe years later, or not at all in the lifetime of your career. But you may have started something that down the road makes a difference.
Erin Fields: That's pretty cool to think about it like that. Let’s talk about the program: Master of Science in Health Sciences. So the program is one year, and it’s really designed to focus on biomedical and public health disciplines, so how do those degrees really help students develop and achieve their goals?
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: Yes, the program is designed to be a one-year program. There are students that spread it out and take it longer if they need to, but it is designed to be one year, or two semesters. And it’s designed to be a stepping stone to either like I said, take that gap year, or to prepare them for professional school, if they feel like they’re not ready or if they feel like they need to take time to study to take the professional school entrance exams, like the GRE, the DAT, the MCAT.
The curriculum was designed with the professional school’s help, so the medical school, dental school, pharmacy school, biomedical school, and science programs all helped and gave us input on the first-year curriculums of their programs, and we picked courses specifically that are in those first-year programs to get students ready for graduate-level courses. So students take graduate-level courses similar to what the curriculum at these schools is, to get them prepared for those programs.
Erin Fields: That’s super great, a way to prepare students for that. I know whenever I talk to students, they love how closely the health sciences program is connected with all the local hospitals.
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: Another cool part of it is that all students are required to do an independent study research project. So, they work with a mentor and they can work in any kind of discipline. There are students who work in nursing and some that work in mental health, some that work in science labs. You can really work with anyone you want to. And students really enjoy it, because it’s something different than just taking the usual, run-of-the-mill courses.
Erin Fields: What are a few projects that students have worked on in the program?
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: Some of the clinical projects. People work with Dr. Matt Dietz, he’s an orthopedic surgeon. He looks at prosthetic joint infections and how you can come up with better treatments for those. People work with Dr. Ranjita Misra, who is in public health and she does a lot of community outreach for diabetes. Dr. Ivan Martinez, who is in a basic biomedical science lab, looks at ovarian cancer cells. So like I said, you can work in pretty much all different areas of science, and there’s a lot of diversity.
Erin Fields: The one you stated who works with diabetes in the community, does a lot of that research involve the local community?
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: A lot of the public health research does. And even the dental research, we’ve had students go out into the local schools, especially the elementary schools, and educate students about oral health and they had little tool kits with lunchboxes and toothbrushes that looked like carrots, things like that, to educate students about oral health and the benefits of making sure you brush your teeth. So, there are a lot of outreach projects as well, which I think is good for the students and for the community.
Erin Fields: For sure. Morgantown is very WVU centralized, so it’s cool to be able to see such a close partnership with the community.
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: Absolutely.
Erin Fields: So, the last academic question I have for you is: What advice would you have for someone interested in wanting to pursue a Master of Science in Health Sciences Program here at WVU?
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: First, I would say go to the website. There’s a lot of information about the program, in terms of prerequisites and the curriculum. But you can also reach out to me personally if you have any questions. I’m always happy to talk to students, now that we’re in person, I’ve had students come in to meet with me, but I’ve also had students meet with me over Zoom to just talk about the program. So anyone wanting more information on the program, there are lots of different ways to get information about it.
Erin Fields: Yeah, and we have graduate campus tours Mondays at 1:30! We are always happy to set up department visits.
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: And I have actually met with students after they’ve taken the campus tours.
Erin Fields: Sweet. So I’ve got three speed-round questions for you. I saw something go through your body just now, but I promise it’s not that bad! Number one: how do you drink your coffee?
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: I don’t drink coffee.
Erin Fields: There’s the door. You don’t drink coffee?!
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: I don’t, I don’t drink coffee at all.
Erin Fields: Are you more of a tea drinker?
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: I do drink tea.
Erin Fields: Okay, so what kind of tea do you like?
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: I usually drink green tea with lemon.
Erin Fields: Oh, a classic. I like it! Two: what’s your go-to karaoke song?
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: Wow, I don’t know. I feel like I’d probably do something like ‘80s Michael Jackson.
Erin Fields: I like it. I’ve had answers anywhere from Britney Spears to L.L. Cool J, now we’ve got some M.J. in there, we’ve got a wide variety of people listening to different music here on the show, folks. Lastly, do you know what your Hogwarts house is?
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: I know nothing about Harry Potter.
Erin Fields: Aw, wow. Stephanie!
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: I’m sorry, I’ve never been a Potter fan!
Erin Fields: What are you a fan of, your Ph.D. in cancer cell biology?
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: I guess so!
Erin Fields: And working out and your dogs.
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: There you go, that’s what I do.
Erin Fields: Well thank you so much, Stephanie, for sharing your insights and knowledge with us on the show today, about the MS in Health Sciences and also for putting up with my speed-round questions to keep you on your toes.
Dr. Stephanie Rellick: I didn’t do very well at those, but that’s okay!
Erin Fields: That’s okay, there are other things in life.
Today’s episode was brought to you by the West Virginia University office of graduate admissions. For more information about graduate education at West Virginia University, please visit our website at www.graduateadmissions.wvu.edu. If you’ve enjoyed or found value in anything you heard today, we recommend you leave a review on your favorite listening platform, follow us on social media, and subscribe to be notified of our new episodes coming out once a month.
Thanks for listening, and until next time, let’s go Mountaineers!
