January 12, 2004
A: FROM MENTOR MARTY CHINTALA IN RI
Sally, I cannot speak about becoming a surgeon, but I can speak about
marine biology. There are many different jobs in the marine biology as
well as the oceanography field. In general, marine biology is the study
of animals, plants, and other organisms that live in the ocean. People
who are marine biologists do many different things and focus on a
variety of different marine animals and plants (or both) and can work on
the water's surface, within the water, on the ocean floor or in marshes
and shallow estuaries, to name a few. You can also be employed by a
univerisity or college, federal and state agencies, private companies,
nonprofit organizations, or self-employed. As a marine biologist, I do
a variety of things from reading, computer data entry and analysis for
writing papers, and field work, where I actually get to go out and
conduct experiments and surveys. I am a scuba diver, and work from
boats with a variety of gear, or trudge around in a marsh getting
covered in mud. I do research related to shellfish populations
(oysters, clams, scallops) and fish populations and what their habitat
requirements are. But there is a wide variety of things that you can
do. You can be a biologist, chemist, ecologist, geologist, physicist,
engineering- just about any science field you can think of there is a
place for you in the marine field. There are so many different avenues
that you can pursue, and some require more education than others.
Generally, a bachelor's degree (4 years) will get you a position as a
research assistant or technician, and a graduate degree (master's (2-3
years) or PhD (4-6 years)) will get you more involved in research
planning and higher pay scales. There are many web sites out there to
help you learn about what opportunities are available for you as well as
what you might want to think about now for planning to go to college and
select majors, etc. Check some of them out!
http://www.marinebio.com/
http://www-marine.stanford.edu/hmsweb/careers.html
http://www.marinelab.sarasota.fl.us/careers.phtml
http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/guide/career.html
Good luck with your career path! Let me know if there is anything else
I can do to help you.
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January 8, 2004
A: FROM MENTOR SUZAN SONG IN IL
I can't really answer about the marine biology, but I can write about becoming
a surgeon. To do so, you have to finish 4 years of college (majoring in
ANYTHING - from English to Science to anything). Then you do 4 years of medical
school (this is not easy. Let me repeat - it isn't easy. But it's definitely
worth it and one of the strangest, most valuable experiences you may have).
Then you do about 4 years of Surgery residency. Then it depends if you want to
specialize in something like Vascular or Thoracic, etc. If so, then you need to
do extra training. And if you want to do research, then you do a year
fellowship. It depends on why you want to do surgery (what do you like about
it) and what you think you want to do with it.

It might seem like the training is really long for surgery. It is. But it's
similar in length to any of the other medical fields. The difference is in the
personality of surgeons (which isn't all *that* bad) and the difference in how
physically and emotionally demanding the training is - it's not for everyone.
Right now, it's not that difficult to become a surgeon once you finish medical
school. The number of surgeons is decreasing, so it's easier to get a
residency, so the hardest part right now is just getting into medical school.

There are lots of things to consider: lifestyle is now a huge issue. Many women
(like myself) aren't going into surgery because it would be hard to dedicate the
time that I want to my family. It is definitely do-able though. But going into
surgery (or anything through medical school) is a huge commitment - you have to
make sacrifices, but in the end, I think they're 100% worth it :) Would love to
talk with you more about it :)