Finding skills and support system as a BIO5 student worker
Two University of Arizona undergraduates describe how their experiences working in marketing, business, and programming at the BIO5 Institute helped them personally and professionally.
Students are an important part of the BIO5 Institute at the University of Arizona and share in the success we achieve here. The different administrative departments within BIO5 look for ways to engage with students and train them on the business side of science. One of those departments is the Public Affairs department where students assist with communications and marketing projects, community and faculty events, and other special projects. One such project is our undergraduate internship program, the BIO5 Ambassadors.
Amy Barber is joined on Science Talks by two of those BIO5 students(now University of Arizona alumni): Paulina Garza and Drew Seiser. They worked as Public Affairs student assistants and co-facilitated the BIO5 Ambassadors program. Garza graduated in May 2024 with a degree in management information systems and works in technology consulting. Seiser also graduated in May 2024 with her BS in cell and molecular biology and aims to pursue a PhD.
This interview had been edited for length and clarity.
Lina, what is your favorite word in another language and what does it mean?
Garza: I like hearing the word “love” in other languages, in Spanish it’s amore.
Drew, if you were transformed into an animal, what would it be?
Seiser: My favorite animal is a manatee, and I would be content if I were a manatee because all they do is float around all day and hang out.
Lina, what is something you could eat for a week straight?
Garza: Probably tofu because it tastes like whatever you put on it. I'm also a vegetarian so tofu is what I eat every day.
Can each of you tell me what made you decide to come to the University of Arizona?
Seiser: When I was trying to decide where I wanted to go to school, one of the major factors was if I could afford it because in my family if you want to go to college, you pay for college yourself. Going to Harvard and Yale and all those places is very expensive, so I looked at Arizona and then I remembered I liked the U of A campus tours, and I think the people were the main factor. I looked at Northern Arizona University (NAU) and Arizona State University (ASU) and I didn’t get the same campus culture that I was looking for. In one of my classes, someone came and did a biology systems talk, and I thought “That’s what I want to do at U of A.” That was my first major before I ended up switching.
Garza: I also have to pay for college myself, but the biggest factor was going somewhere where one of my siblings was going, and my brother went to Florida International, but I don’t like Florida, and I have separation anxiety for my sister, so I came here for her. It’s close enough that if I’m feeling homesick, it’s an hour and a half drive to my house. But I still have independence and can start my own life here. Eller College of Management is also a great business school, and I always knew I wanted to do business.
What is your favorite part of school here?
Garza: The Eller experience is great, it’s very emphasized. But I think I just liked Tucson. ASU is a beautiful campus too, but I don’t like the campus being within the city. U of A’s campus isn’t closed, but it’s all together. All the buildings match and they’re all brick with lots of leaves and trees. We’re like our own little town here.
Seiser: I would say the people, I have met some of my closest friends here. When I was a freshman, it was COVID, so everyone was meeting online, but students were making Zoom meetings to meet once a week and talk to each other. When we came to campus, we already had a little family, and I loved that about the students. There are tons of things to do here, if you like skiing you can go to Mt Lemmon, if you love food there are tons of places to eat, and of course academically we have a great biology medical campus all around. In the lab I’m in I’ve met some great people.
Can each of you explain how long you’ve worked here and why you chose BIO5?
Garza: I’ve been working here all four years of college and it’s been great. I remember so vividly while I was looking for jobs and I had no idea how HandShake worked until my advisor said, “Look on HandShake.” I wanted to be a marketing student, and I was looking for marketing positions specifically. I don’t know how BIO5 came up and I had no idea what BIO5 was, but it sounded interesting. I’m not a science person, but I like knowing about science. My dad and sister are science people and my entire dad’s side is into science and medical research. So that was a push toward BIO5, and when I looked at the pictures it was so pretty.
Seiser: I’ve worked with BIO5 for two years now. I started as a BIO5 Ambassador, which is an unpaid credited internship that we’ll be getting into later. I did that to start, working with my mentor and facilitator, and I did a lot of events and tours. I remembered how much I loved Lindsey (another former BIO5 Public Affairs student) who was my facilitator, and I liked everything she did. I remember thinking “What if I did what she did?” Then I went to Amy, and you said I was hired if I wanted and I’ve been here since then.
I saw something in you, and I wanted to have that on our team. What was one thing professionally and one thing personally you’ve taken from your BIO5 experience?
Seiser: I feel like I had a lot of organization and time management before, but working here I learned even more about that. I was even more organized, and time management was a big thing. Public speaking was another thing I had but I homed in on those skills here. We did a lot of outreach with the community. I feel I am coming away with great mentors and a great support system.
Garza: For the personal part, it’s like Drew, I’ve met so many people through BIO5. I feel like Drew and I got close working together this past year. All my mentors like you, Lisa, Jessie, Tammy, Deanna, everyone. Professionally, I learned a lot, my resume when I first applied was, I was the captain of the swim team. Now I have so much more experience I was able to put on my resume and the opportunity I have post-grad is because of what I learned at BIO5. I have both hard and soft skills, taught by everyone here.
What are your majors and minors?
Seiser: I am a molecular and cellular biology (MCB) major, and I am double minoring in biochemistry and business administration.
Garza: I am majoring in management information systems (MIS) and I have two minors in Spanish and music.
How will you connect your minors with your major?
Garza: With Spanish, I took it because I am fluent in Spanish, and I have used it to my advantage. Two years ago, I did a separate internship for sales, and it was in Arizona. There were a lot of Spanish speakers, so I had that in my back pocket. Music was one of the big factors why I chose MIS over marketing. I like technology but also have a future goal of sound engineering or music production and now that I am a MIS major I can’t use much I’ve learned in MIS for music, but I’ll know a bit about computers and tech, and how to put that in music.
Do you play an instrument? Have you always played since you were younger?
Garza: I play the piano and guitar currently. I started with the violin, but I stopped when I came to college. I wish I still played.
I’m sure if you picked it back up, you’d get the hang of it. Drew, what is it like with a double minor while majoring in molecular and celluar biology?
Seiser: I’m not going to lie, it's a lot of work. I did it in a weirdly strategic way, and I didn’t intend it to be like that. When I started with biosystems and analytics, I started to code and I said, “Absolutely not,” so I switched to MCB. During that time, I was so scared, I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life. It had a lot of prerequisites, a lot of science and math before you could take major classes. Once I started to take my major classes, it was a lot of work. Suddenly, I wanted to look at the business side because researchers end up going to big pharma or biotech companies. That’s why I added the business minors. When I sat in my business class, I'm using completely different parts of my brain. Then I added the biochemistry minor because it makes it easy to double dip a lot of the classes for my major. It made it possible for me to finish and graduate on time while adding it on. I probably could have graduated earlier if I hadn't added all those minors on there. But I'm happy that I did because it gave me all the experience I have now.
Do you have a mentor that impacted your life?
Garza: I don't have one name that comes to mind. There are hundreds of people, past swim coaches, teachers, professors, people I've worked with, friends from a professional club in Eller, and people who are older than me. When I was younger, I didn't have one specific person. But I know there are a lot of mentors in my life.
Seiser: I think that's a difficult question to answer. But I am going to have to say a mentor who has impacted my life is Savannah, a graduate student in my lab. When I first started in the lab, I was very quiet, and I didn't know anything. You have impostor syndrome, when you start something new. She went out of her way to explain things slowly to me, and asked if I wanted to meet, to talk things over. She was a big support system for me when I started preparing to present my work. She was always super supportive, pushing me in the right direction. I thank her a lot for my research side of what I do, because if it wasn't for her, then I don't think I would have thought I was good enough to do it. So thanks, Savannah, if you're listening to this!
If someone asked you about working here, as if they were interested in a position, how would you describe everything to them?
Garza: Very diverse. I feel like when I started, I was expecting to only do one thing and kind of stick with it. Now that I've been here for so long, I feel like I'm doing something different every single day. I feel like this year was a little bit more of focusing on one thing and helping where I can. But prior to this year in the last three years, I was, in the best way possible, doing hundreds of different things that teach you a lot.
Seiser: I agree. I think if somebody is planning to work here, I would describe it as you will be assigned one mentor and one supervisor. For example, this year, our job description was facilitating the BIO5 Ambassador program. And that's our main goal, but at the same time, that's not going to take every second of every day. You're going to work with your supervisor and be taking on more of a floating task in your job description. Because if you're needed for this marketing project, then you're thrown into that. If you're needed for this podcast, then you're thrown into something like that. I think you have a general goal and a general direction for where you'll be working, whether it's graphic design, marketing, or in the business office. But at the same time, you're going to be learning all those skills too, so you kind of get a little bit of everything/
We rely so much on our students and appreciate everything you do for us. You mentioned a little bit about the BIO5 Ambassador program. Can you tell us about the program, and what were your jobs individually for the program?
Seiser: The BIO5 Ambassador internship is a two-semester credited internship, where you work with a mentor for the first semester. You could be working in graphic design, business office, marketing, social media, or events and tours, which is what I did when I was an ambassador. Then, for the second semester, you'll work more directly with the facilitators, the other ambassadors you're with, and your cohort. You'll be working on various projects that the facilitators give. For example, this semester as program facilitators, we gave them a video project that we had them present at the end of the program. Throughout the internship, we also hosted professional development workshops throughout the two semesters. The ambassadors were a huge help and support system for giving tours and doing outreach to the community.
Garza: I was more involved with the communication with the ambassadors, throughout both semesters. I sent emails and their weekly journal prompts. Like Drew said, if one of us couldn't do one thing, the other one would take over and vice versa.
Can you tell us what your favorite memory is of working together?
Garza: It wasn't an ambassador-specific thing, but I was talking about the Student Industry Networking Event at BIO5. We were cleaning up, and I don't know why, but that was one of my favorite memories of working with Drew and all the students. I was dragging all the furniture out while also trying to take the leftovers of the food before it was taken away, and it was so much fun.
Seiser: I would agree that was just one of those moments when you take a look around, you're like wow, we have such a cool team because everybody is laughing and having a good time. We're all doing work and that kind of sucks I guess but like you're doing it together which just makes it so much better.
Drew, can you tell us about how it was being an ambassador before working at BIO5, and then now working?
Seiser: Being an ambassador was fun. I loved the cohort that I was in. I liked how the whole internship itself was a bridge between science and business. Because at that point in my life, that was where I was going, and I wanted to bridge the gap between the two. I saw the advertisement for this internship. I was like, “This is exactly what I'm looking for. This is crazy.” I worked with Tammy White on events and tour planning. It was a good experience. I felt like I learned a lot, professionally and personally. On another side, BIO5 is a great networking place. Being in science, I was like, “Well, I know that I'm probably going to want to be in a lab soon. If I can stay in this network of people, then I probably have a better chance of finding someone.” That was another big factor for me as well.
You were the cohort of ambassadors that was the one that planned the Discover BIO5 event, right?
Seiser: Yeah, that was a cool opportunity to have just students plan events for students. It was a really good experience.
How has BIO5 prepared you for your future career?
Garza: I don't think this was necessarily on purpose on my part, but I have a feeling it's the reason I have the position I have now. And I'll get more into it in a second because I work in a scientific environment. After all, my job post-grad is going to be tech consulting at its core, but for life sciences companies, so medical manufacturers. I feel like they saw my BIO5 position and thought I might know something about science. I also remember, when I first interviewed for the internship, the only experience I had on my resume was BIO5.
Seiser: About a year ago, I was searching for a lab. I was striking out; it was difficult for me to find something. But eventually, I came to you, Amy, and I said, “I could use some help in this domain of trying to find a lab to prepare me for whatever I decide to do next, whether that's R&D, or going into the business side of it.” And you're like, “Yep, sure, I'd have a couple of names for you.” You sent me some and then Frank Duca - shoutout to him - answered back and invited me to an interview. I ended up getting into the lab. Now it's been almost a little bit over a year of me working there. I've had a lot of great experiences on both sides, but I think BIO5 is ultimately for getting me a position like that because now I want to go get my PhD in research. I'll be doing that, ideally fall of 2025. I'm going to be taking a gap year, but during that time, I'll be working as a research technician or intern. And I think BIO5 has taught me a lot of professional skills. But again, giving me the network to have been able to find something like that I think ultimately influenced the next steps that I took.