February 16, 2024 • 46 mins
In our first episode of 2024, Dr. Beth Bennett talks about pursuing her PhD and a career performing scientific research, all while raising children with her husband. They discuss why women should consider studying the sciences and the opportunities with careers in medicine. Through her research, Beth has traveled to many countries and worked in labs with people from all over the world. They also discuss Christian mistrust in scientific institutions and how to interact with it.
Beth Bennett, PhD is the Assistant Professor of Biology at Sattler College. She received a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Maryland Baltimore, where she researched mRNA stability and the biophysics of RNA-protein interactions. She has since worked as a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Phil Cole, first at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland, and then at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. There, her research interests have been in epigenetic pharmacology primarily involving acetyltransferase enzymes.
Beth tries to show love to those around her wherever she finds herself. In graduate school she was deeply involved in a student-led initiative to feed the homeless in Baltimore City. As a post-doc she was involved in international scholar fellowships both in Baltimore and Boston. In 2017, Beth married David Bennett III. They lived in Brighton, MA for the first nearly four years of marriage before moving to Wrightsville, PA to care for family responsibilities. Together they parent three young and vivacious children.
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Episode Transcript
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Zack Johnson (00:04):
Alright, it is January 24th 2024.
You are the first intervieweeon this year's podcast.
Congratulations, dr Bennett.
So usually I read a bio andthen we start a conversation.
Can I call you Beth after theconversation, as opposed to Dr
Bennett?
But you do.
Yes, you are a doctor.
(00:25):
So Beth Zikoni was born to afamily of school teachers in the
foothills of the Pennsylvaniamountains near the town of
Shippensburg.
From both of her parents shewas taught a love of God, a love
of the church and the joys oflearning new things.
From a father of ItalianAmerican heritage came an
appreciation for travel, goodstories, pasta and other
(00:48):
intriguing foods we have lots totalk about.
From a Swift chairman mothercame a love of order, attention
to detail and hearty work.
This blend of attributescoalesced merely in the academic
world, where each became usefulin crafting a life far
different than practiced in theCumberland Valley.
(01:12):
Beth received her bachelor's ofscience in chemistry from
Shippensburg University.
She then moved to theUniversity of Maryland,
baltimore, where she received aPhD in biochemistry and
molecular biology while workingin the lab of Dr Gerald Wilson.
The emphasis of her researchwas mRNA stability and the
(01:33):
biophysics of RNA proteininteractions.
After graduating, beth workedas a postdoctoral fellow in the
lab of Dr Phil Cole, first atJohn Hopkins in Baltimore,
maryland, and then at HarvardMedical School in Boston,
massachusetts.
There, her research interestshave been in epigenic
pharmacology, primarilyinvolving.
(01:54):
This is where I'm going to useyour help, acida.
Dr. Beth Bennett (01:58):
The CDO transferases.
Zack Johnson (01:59):
There we go, and then enzymes One more time.
Dr. Beth Bennett (02:02):
The CDO transferase enzymes.
Zack Johnson (02:03):
Sorry, you can know my familiarity with that
word.
Beth tries to show love tothose around here wherever she
finds herself.
In graduate school, she wasdeeply involved in a student-led
initiative to feed the homelessin Baltimore City.
As a postdoc, she was involvedin international scholar
fellowships both in Baltimoreand Boston.
In 2017, beth married DavidBennett III.
(02:26):
They lived in Brighton,massachusetts, for nearly the
first four years of marriagebefore moving to Wrightsville,
pennsylvania, to care for familyresponsibilities.
Together, they parent threeyoung and vivacious children.
Thank you so much for beinghere today with us.
Do you want to add or corrector subtract anything on your bio
(02:47):
?
First of all, since it's fresh,that's correct.
All right, and after readingyour bio, it's obvious that
you're familiar with biology.
So I thought I'd just kick itoff with the big question why
did you decide to study biology?
And maybe we can chat about whyshould other people study
(03:10):
biology.
It's a big question.
Dr. Beth Bennett (03:12):
Yeah, starting from a personal level, several
reasons.
One, it was practical.
I was actually my other comingout of high school.
My other career option that Iseriously considered was
actually photography and I justweighed the pros and cons making
(03:37):
people look good on paperversus making them feel good in
life and there's some minorpsychological benefits to making
people feel like they look goodbut they'll look good in life
or actually have healthy lifesort of one out.
(03:57):
I had a cousin and a half thatworked at Novartis and she gave
me a lot of tips on.
She's a little bit closer to mein age than you might predict.
She gave me a couple tips onher job.
What she liked about it Ireally liked in high school.
(04:21):
I really liked science,especially chemistry, and I
remember shortly after, aftermaybe my junior year of high
school, one of my friendsactually got a summer internship
at Fort Detrick during researchand I remember just sitting
there.
I can still picture sitting onthe curb outside at lunch and
(04:43):
saying to myself that is what Iwant to do.
But she was working at FortDetrick, it was the military.
I wasn't going to compromise myethics and work for the
military directly or indirectly,and so I just sort of let it go
.
I shadowed at a hospital in aphlebotomy lab for a high school
shadowing day.
Just felt really sort of boring.
Zack Johnson (05:07):
Okay, what's a phlebotomy lab?
Dr. Beth Bennett (05:09):
Phlebotomy lab , basically processing blood
samples.
Zack Johnson (05:11):
Right.
Dr. Beth Bennett (05:12):
Okay, so just running, it was just sticking
them in machines and themachines generated info.
And talking to my cousin whoworked more in drug development
at Novartis and hearing morewhat she did on the research end
piqued my interest.
That way Around that time Ialso read an article about the
(05:32):
benefits of nutritional researchand that interested me.
One weekend my parents wereactually they were away for the
weekend speaking at somemarriage seminar and I was home
alone with college catalogs.
And they came home and Iannounced that I am going to
Cornell majoring in nutritionalscience.
(05:52):
Right, and this is I had taken.
I was out of high school a yearand a few months and my dad's
like, okay, we'll go to Cornellnext weekend, or like I'll call
up my friend from college, butwe'll take a trip up there.
It's fall.
(06:13):
Who would not want to go toupstate New York in the fall.
And so we did.
I happened to go there.
We stay with my dad's collegefriend.
We sat in a canal info sessionand they told me nothing about
the quality of their education.
It was all about work or whereI'd be a leak Right and I was
unimpressed.
We stay with my dad's collegeroommate who had sent one of his
(06:36):
their children to not roommate,but friend, college friend.
They had sent one of theirchildren to Cornell and they're
like, yeah, it's not worth yourmoney.
But so I decided that I wasgoing to apply to the local
state school, shepard University, do two years there, get all my
nutritional science pre-rex inand then transfer to Cornell.
Zack Johnson (06:57):
All right, and then?
So that's why you studied.
Why should other people?
Dr. Beth Bennett (07:02):
study.
Why should other people study?
There's a lot of reasons.
I mean, you can help peopleLike.
Part of the part of the missionof Jesus is to bring wholeness,
and physical wholeness is notthe end all be all, but it sure
feels good to feel good, and youcan't function if you're sick,
(07:23):
and I think there's a lot a lotto be said for benefiting people
that way.
I would say in general, from aperspective a lot of Sattler
students would be.
It provides access to limitedaccess countries.
I mean, I was invited to give ascientific talk in Iran.
(07:45):
If not, not everybody is goingto get that invitation, so that
would yeah.
It just opens many doors, andnot just internationally but
also locally.
Most research institutions arecalled the United Nations of the
(08:08):
world Up until now.
This may change, but the US hasattracted the world's best
scientists and so you get achance to interact with people
from all over the world.
And who is the best missionaryto their home country?
But the person who's the native.
Zack Johnson (08:29):
And I'm going to go on a little bit of a
sidetrack here, but knowing youand interacting with you I've
seen you.
I mean these were takeadvantage of Boston a lot more
than your average person.
I remember when I first met you, you showed up with yours.
There's always someone you werewith that you had met.
That was really interesting andit's kind of tagging onto this
(08:52):
the US is attracting reallyinteresting people.
I'd love to hear you talk alittle bit about Boston and
studying biology in Boston andsome of maybe the unique
opportunities that exist andjust sort of the benefits of
Boston as well.
I don't know if you can speakto that.
Dr. Beth Bennett (09:11):
You might be able to say that Boston is the
best city in the world.
Zack Johnson (09:14):
Oh, not the best, but maybe that it makes sense.
It makes sense to be here inthe city and it opens a few
doors that might not beavailable otherwise.
Dr. Beth Bennett (09:23):
Yeah, I would say any research institution,
especially one that's in anurban environment.
A quality research institutionin an urban environment draws a
lot of people and draws peoplewho maybe have at least an
intellectual curiosity andChristianity, and that's the
(09:45):
first step in developing andworking shoulder to shoulder
with somebody is the best wayfor the gospel to be shown.
Zack Johnson (09:58):
So you're saying like in a work day?
Dr. Beth Bennett (10:00):
In a work day, Shoulders, shoulder to shoulder
, or having lunch with people,but yeah, I mean my lab mates.
A lab is like a family in manyways, like my lab mates saw me
when I was tired, when I wasgrumpy, I was even chewed out
(10:20):
for something slightly unethicalonce upon a time and in sharing
things that I wasn't supposedto share.
But you get to see how you canyou get that for more details.
Zack Johnson (10:34):
I feel like I have that.
Dr. Beth Bennett (10:36):
I shared my ID to give a collaborator access
to a lab space which heforgotten his ID.
Zack Johnson (10:46):
Okay, it's not as juicy as I thought it was going
to be.
And then I just want to say Iam always do you have any tips
for people to developrelationships in the day to day
life that might lead to gospelconversations?
I feel like you've done that orI've watched you do that really
(11:06):
well, and any tips on that?
That's a different.
Dr. Beth Bennett (11:10):
That is a tough.
I mean, that's your switchingbrain.
Yes, our face is there.
You can read the book Godspace.
They have a good, a number ofgood strategies in that one, but
I think just being authentic isa good.
Being authentic and non nonpreachy If you're devoted to
(11:32):
Christ, like it's going to comeout.
Zack Johnson (11:34):
What do you mean by non preachy?
I understand that, but it's saymore on that.
Dr. Beth Bennett (11:41):
I remember in graduate school actually having
conversations that just flownaturally, Like what did you do?
This weekend?
Had a conversation in graduateschool talking about my cousin's
wedding that turned into aspiritual conversation, things
(12:02):
like that.
Zack Johnson (12:04):
And so kind of at this, I think, a conversational
level.
There's this idea that you cantell when people start a
conversation and they're tryingto get to an end result.
So not doing that.
Yes genuinely Having legitimateconversations, yes, rather than
having a.
Dr. Beth Bennett (12:23):
And it gets into the whole idea that Jesus
did most of his teaching byasking questions, not by
lecturing to people.
Zack Johnson (12:29):
I agree.
Dr. Beth Bennett (12:30):
Maybe I'm lecturing right now.
Zack Johnson (12:31):
No, you're not All right, let's go back to bio.
So you became the programcoordinator for the bio program,
I think three years Wow, it'slike that long ago.
Maybe two, two years ago andthen one of the big initiatives
was to establish multiple trackswithin the biology program.
Do you want to speak a littlebit to that and what the tracks
(12:54):
are and why you did things likethat?
Dr. Beth Bennett (12:56):
We did it because not everybody has to be
an MD is cut out to be an MD.
There's a whole diversity ofcareers open to somebody with a
biology degree and there's justdifferent nuances of what each
need.
For instance, if you're goinginto research, human
(13:17):
pathophysiology is not going tobe as important as if you're
going to PA school, as somethinglike physics is going to be
more important to, say,occupational therapists but less
important to, maybe, somebodywho's going into nursing.
Zack Johnson (13:34):
So what are the tracks?
Do you have them off the top ofyour head?
Dr. Beth Bennett (13:37):
So pre-med, that's what we started off with.
So the pre-med track, perhapsthe most rigorous.
You only have two freeelectives.
We work really hard to keepthose free electives for our
pre-med students.
The basic human biology, whichis the same thing as the pre-PA
track.
So somebody who wants to be aphysician's assistant or just
(14:01):
have a biology degree forwhatever graduate program or
what they want to work as alobtak, sort of like the plain
vanilla, gets you everything youneed for the broadest breadth
of options.
So that's two.
Pre-research, again, less onanatomy and physiology, more on
some of the harder math andscience.
Let's say pre-PT or DPT.
Zack Johnson (14:26):
Doctor of physical therapy, ot, occupational
therapy and BSN nursing, so eachdifferent track is tailored to
a student's interests.
Dr. Beth Bennett (14:38):
It is tailored to the needs to get into
post-boc programs.
So it's whatever you need toget into.
So, for instance, pre-bsn, it'sset up that if somebody wants
to do an accelerated nursingprogram after they graduate from
Sattler, there's usually 10, 11months accelerated nursing
programs, mainly clinical work.
They get all their book workout of the way.
(15:00):
These are all the courses theyneed to get admitted.
Zack Johnson (15:05):
And so, in general , this is a hard question.
I feel like this is more of amarketing thing, but what are
the career fields you can getout of a biology major?
There's a lot of them.
Dr. Beth Bennett (15:18):
Yes, I mean everything that I listed.
And I mean with medicine.
I mean we also talk aboutdentistry.
We're talking about tomatry,podiatry, ophthalmology, every
subtype within that, ordiversity.
Dentistry is a great option.
It gives you a good quality oflife relative to some types of
(15:43):
hospital medicine.
Zack Johnson (15:44):
I have a best friend who encourages all his
children to be dentists.
Really, if it kind of makessense.
Dr. Beth Bennett (15:51):
Yeah, there's a high suicide rate, but if that
doesn't bother you, Indentistry.
Yeah, because of the paininflicted.
Zack Johnson (15:58):
I did not know that.
On the people practicingbecause they inflict pain.
Dr. Beth Bennett (16:03):
Yeah.
Zack Johnson (16:06):
I'll make sure they go and update mine.
Dr. Beth Bennett (16:10):
I think it could be circumvented.
But yes, I would say dentistry.
My roommate in graduate schoolwas a dentistry student.
My father-in-law was a dentist.
It's actually a good quality oflife.
You don't have to be on call aweekend.
Spend the time.
Zack Johnson (16:23):
And then I just wanted to give your department a
shout out.
Many of our one of the bigtests that students prefer for
is the MCAT.
What does the MCAT stand for?
I don't know.
I should look that up.
Does it stand for anything?
Dr. Beth Bennett (16:39):
Medical college admissions test.
Zack Johnson (16:41):
And so a lot of our, some of the students I've
known, spend a lot of timepreparing for that, and can you
talk a little bit about thatprocess and then some of the
results you've seen with thestudents you've worked with?
Dr. Beth Bennett (16:53):
So you want me to say what our median MCAT
score is.
Zack Johnson (16:57):
You say it Damn.
It's what I want.
Dr. Beth Bennett (17:02):
The median MCAT score is the 98.5
percentile currently.
Zack Johnson (17:06):
I think it's the highest.
I think it's the highest in thecountry, really.
Yeah, somebody can do it.
Dr. Beth Bennett (17:12):
There's a lot you could do when you have a
limited end.
Zack Johnson (17:16):
I'm going to milk it.
While we have it, enjoy it.
Dr. Beth Bennett (17:19):
But yeah, so our students have done well and
we actually last year we had ourfirst student get into PA
school Directly out of Sattler.
It's actually harder to getinto PA school admissions or
lower than med school, sothere's actually a 7 percent
success rate of going directlyfrom undergrad to PA school.
(17:40):
Oh really, and one of ourstudents hit that.
Zack Johnson (17:43):
I did not know, yes, so what's usually in?
Dr. Beth Bennett (17:46):
between.
Usually people have to work forseveral years in a clinical
setting.
Zack Johnson (17:50):
I didn't know about that.
Dr. Beth Bennett (17:51):
Yeah, that's exciting, yeah.
Zack Johnson (17:54):
And then this is another sidetrack, but not
really so.
There's obviously the academicside of career and things like
this and then but you mentionedbefore that a bio degree can
open the doors to cross culturallet's just say missions,
opportunities.
Are there any models or storiesyou know of like medical
(18:16):
missions, done right in a goodway, that you like to talk about
or inspire you?
Dr. Beth Bennett (18:22):
Medical missions yeah.
Zack Johnson (18:23):
Precisely or anything.
I'm not clinical Anything inthe sphere of biology.
Dr. Beth Bennett (18:30):
I would say in general, just the idea of well,
when I was at HopkinsInternational Fellowship they
had people come from all overthe world and we saw numerous
people become believers andseeing them go home and the fact
that they were able to have intheir home communities.
Zack Johnson (18:55):
Yeah, that makes sense.
And even being like amissionary doctor, do you have
any thoughts on that?
Dr. Beth Bennett (19:04):
It gets you in the country and it depends on
how you do it.
Are you actually caring forpeople?
What's the setting?
How much are you pushing peoplethrough as fast as you can?
Are you integrating into thelocal community?
Are you planning churches?
(19:25):
How holistically are you doingyour job?
There's a time I mean not tosay that if you just run into
the front lines wherever andhand out medications or do
surgeries as fast as you can,there's nothing wrong with that
(19:45):
Right.
But the more holistic your job,I think, the better the
benefits other people.
Zack Johnson (19:52):
Yeah, that's right .
Right, change your tracks again.
So here at Sattler we have thispearl moment where we invite
people to give pearls of wisdom,and I've heard you share some
pearls and I think it's been anaudience favorite when I ask is
there any pearl that stands outto you that you either that
(20:17):
you've heard or you've given,that you like to talk about just
wisdom that you've encounteredin your life that you like to
share?
Dr. Beth Bennett (20:25):
I know it's hard to think of something on
the spot, but the one that's themost clear cut would actually
be the house fire that I had.
Zack Johnson (20:35):
Tell us about it.
Dr. Beth Bennett (20:36):
Forget if you were around for that one.
When I was post-doc at Hopkins,we had spent an evening with
the Veritas Forum and they hadRavi Zacharias before back when
we still thought well of him andNabil Koreshi over to speak
(20:58):
about the problem of if there'sa good God, why is there evil in
the world had a great, greattime.
I think the Muslim StudentAssociation and some of the
Christian Student Associationsort of went together, had a
blast.
At the end of the evening I wassort of tired and one of my
(21:19):
friends offered me a ride homeand they were super nice people
so I decided to take them up onthe offer and I lived on a
little Roe Street in Baltimore,one way street and we get to the
one cross end of my street andthere were fire trucks there and
I didn't think anything.
And we get to the other end andthere's fire trucks there.
I decided to jump out the carand I knew that my housemate was
(21:42):
actually baking pumpkin pies asmy birthday gift for the
International FellowshipThanksgiving dinner the next day
.
They thought Mennonites weregood pie makers and therefore I
should be able to bake pies, butshe volunteered to pick up the
slack for me as my birthday gift.
And, sure enough, instead ofsix pumpkin pies for my birthday
(22:04):
, I got what at the time lookedlike a gutted not completely
gutted a kitchen.
Gutted stove, gutted, lots offire, damaged house.
I'll put it that way.
Zack Johnson (22:20):
And what's the pearl?
Dr. Beth Bennett (22:25):
It was a contradiction of just being at a
talk, of hearing about thegoodness of God in the face of
evil, and I had to immediatelyapply what I heard to the
situation.
So about two months later, whenone of my Persian colleagues
stopped by my house after we hadhalf moved back in and opened
(22:45):
the door to the remodeledversion, first words out of her
mouth for congratulations.
So instead of six pumpkin piesfor my birthday, god had decided
to give me a $30,000 remodeledkitchen.
Zack Johnson (22:58):
Hey, so there's a silver lining, a huge one, yeah.
And then, speaking of pumpkinpies, that's one of my favorite
foods.
You're probably the only personthat mentions food in their bio
.
I don't quote me on that, butyou mentioned that from your
father, who was Italian-Americanheritage, came into
(23:22):
appreciation for travel, goodstories, pasta and other
intriguing foods.
Is there anything more there?
What kind of intriguing foodsare you talking about?
Dr. Beth Bennett (23:30):
I do like trying diverse cuisines,
especially hanging out at theHopkins International Fellowship
we had a different ethniccuisine almost every week and I
enjoy trying and trying to cook.
Zack Johnson (23:49):
What's some of your favorite?
I'm just curious.
Top five, top 10.
Dr. Beth Bennett (23:53):
Top Ethnicities.
Zack Johnson (23:56):
Yeah.
Dr. Beth Bennett (23:57):
Ethnicities.
Well, I mean, my mother claimsI inherited all my father's
taste buds and none from her.
I do really like Italian foodand then it's just sort of a
radius out from there.
I would say Middle EasternGreek version would sort of be
the next Turkish, as long as youuse tomatoes.
(24:20):
My father's cooking advice wasif it doesn't taste good, just
add more garlic.
So anybody that uses garlictomatoes, eggplant you have a
likelihood of being good.
Zack Johnson (24:32):
The studying biology make you a better cook.
Dr. Beth Bennett (24:35):
It's actually interesting.
A lot of biologists do tend todabble in cooking.
There was actually an IPI ingraduate school, as wife worked
for a restaurant in Baltimorewhere the PI was actually a few
months away from graduating fromHopkins biophysics program and
(24:56):
just didn't feel like writinghis thesis.
So he just dropped out andstarted a restaurant.
Zack Johnson (25:01):
That makes sense to me, and then just Just a lot
of us just mixing things up andthen tying this back to sort of
a previous conversation.
Have you found that food islike an entryway to friendship?
Yes, and how?
Dr. Beth Bennett (25:15):
Because everybody has to eat.
Zack Johnson (25:17):
And so how do you become sort of, how do you
leverage that interest to makeconnections with people?
Dr. Beth Bennett (25:24):
It's at least one conversational starter when
you're a nerdy lab person whohasn't left the lab to do much
else in life.
Zack Johnson (25:34):
And would you make food together or would you go
out to a?
Dr. Beth Bennett (25:37):
restaurant, sometimes having them teach you
how to cook their ethnic food.
Zack Johnson (25:43):
And do you do that at their abode or your abode?
Dr. Beth Bennett (25:46):
It depends.
Okay, got it Not in the lab.
Zack Johnson (25:49):
Not in the lab, but how would that?
Dr. Beth Bennett (25:52):
That would be a biosafety concert.
Zack Johnson (25:54):
That's right.
And then so you mentioned onebook called Godspace.
Are there any other areas ofjust books, or any books or even
other things that you consumeon a regular basis?
Zoom, consu, sure, media booksnot necessarily media podcasts
(26:17):
that you like to talk about Ifnot?
Dr. Beth Bennett (26:20):
Yeah, another book on that subject, I think
would be Once I Was Lost.
I don't think I'd forget theauthors, but it's by inner
varsity press.
Zack Johnson (26:31):
Okay, what's that?
What's that?
Dr. Beth Bennett (26:32):
It's the five thresholds of postmodernist must
cross to become a believer.
Okay, so analogous to you.
Know we talk about sewing andreaping, but it sort of puts
that sewing and the early stagesinto categories.
It's not just when someonemakes a decision for Christ,
it's each of those early things,excuse me, like learning to
(26:55):
trust the Christian Right,having intellectual curiosity,
being willing to change.
Zack Johnson (27:01):
Got it.
And then I'm going to say oneof the harder questions for the
end, if you're ready.
It's not a hard question, but Ithink it's one that a lot of
people might resonate with and Iwant to ask it if you're a
young lady and you have a visionfor career and family and
studying biology, but there'ssort of a you feel like you have
(27:23):
to choose between the two, howdo you approach that decision in
life and can you help menavigate that tension as to why,
if you have a mind for a family, studying is it necessary?
You shouldn't preclude or justclose the door on studies?
Definitely not.
(27:44):
Does that make sense?
So tell me about it and howyou've gone about your mother.
You have a family.
Dr. Beth Bennett (27:49):
Yeah.
Zack Johnson (27:49):
I'd love to hear how you balance all these things
.
Dr. Beth Bennett (27:52):
You can ask me in 20 years it's for my
analysis of whether I dideverything right Maybe 40 years.
So what do they say?
How your grandchildren turnedout?
Zack Johnson (28:01):
Right.
Dr. Beth Bennett (28:04):
Yeah, parenting is as hard as a PhD or
harder, but I think, whether itbe medically relevant topics or
just whether it's learning howto think, how to deduce,
teaching your children how todeduce logically At any point, I
mean, getting an education isnot a lost cause, right?
I mean, thankfully I didn'thave to go into debt at all, and
(28:30):
that was definitely helpful.
But learning how to think andbeing able to train your
children how to think is never alost cause.
It definitely helps to marry aguy who is invigorated by your
studies instead of intimidatedby them.
(28:52):
I think my husband actuallyenjoys my teaching Maybe not as
much as I do, but notably enjoysit just because of the great
conversation starters it is.
His degree is in chemicalengineering, and so we have some
overlap, I think, in at leastcarry a scientific conversation
on some topics.
(29:13):
So, yeah, I mean Sattler isgood because they respect family
.
Zack Johnson (29:22):
Right, and I think that's just an institutional
tension that we're trying to.
We're a new institution, buthow do you respect family while
having a deep respect forintense study?
Dr. Beth Bennett (29:35):
Yes.
Zack Johnson (29:37):
I mean.
So there's some people that medschool is a huge time
commitment with your wife, a lotof time, and I feel like
there's a way to balance thoseright, where you can do both
without losing one or the other.
I mean, we have to believe thatright.
Dr. Beth Bennett (29:52):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean I would like to thinkthat there is.
I mean, there's only you onlyhave so many hours in your life,
but what can you do and howmuch can you do in that time?
I mean, I prep for class whilemy children sleep.
That's how I calm myself downin the evening.
Zack Johnson (30:15):
By prepping for class.
Yeah, I like it.
Dr. Beth Bennett (30:19):
I don't like bed Over break.
I had some issues actually thatI just couldn't fall asleep
because I didn't have anythingto calm myself down to study.
But so yeah, there's a balance.
I mean, I obviously couldn't be.
I would not want to be aphysician.
That's why I'm teaching atSattler and not working in
(30:43):
research, because they expect 30or 60 hours in the lab in
research and I just didn't wantto do that.
And teaching is much moreforgiving and on a part-time
basis it's possible.
Zack Johnson (31:02):
Right.
Dr. Beth Bennett (31:04):
I know other people, I mean, who are
attending positions but havepicked polemology or something
that's less demanding, less oncall time.
Zack Johnson (31:13):
I'm not going to no, not polemology.
I think I Polemology,polemology or lungs, lungs,
lungs.
Yeah, I just just for theaudience.
You know I'm kidding.
Yeah, and then how many?
Children, do you have Three,and what are their names?
Dr. Beth Bennett (31:33):
And it's David IV, Angelina and Miriam.
Zack Johnson (31:37):
And so you're able to teach and be a mother at the
same time.
Dr. Beth Bennett (31:45):
You can critique.
Zack Johnson (31:46):
You can critique, I'm not criti.
I'm not criti, I'm notcritiquing.
Dr. Beth Bennett (31:51):
Currently trying to do both.
Zack Johnson (31:53):
Good yeah, I think it's just something that I'm
encouraged by, because a lot oftimes, people there's like you
can only do one or the other andI.
Obviously you have to balanceit.
Dr. Beth Bennett (32:05):
It helps.
It helps that I got married notat 25 and sort of had built a
fairly good foundation before Igot married and had taught
classes a couple times before.
I had three children and thingslike that add to it.
(32:27):
We have a good support networkand I have a good husband.
Zack Johnson (32:34):
That's great.
And then all covers travel,because I know you've traveled.
You mentioned Iran.
Dr. Beth Bennett (32:41):
I did end up going there.
Zack Johnson (32:43):
I was going to ask you that you did not end up
going.
Dr. Beth Bennett (32:45):
My PI cared about me and told me I shouldn't
go.
I got the invite at what was it?
A week or two before the USissued a travel advisory and PI
stands for.
Oh, principal investigator.
Zack Johnson (32:57):
Which is at what?
Dr. Beth Bennett (32:58):
So it is a person who gets a grant from the
NIH Got it.
So, basically, if you're inresearch, so in research I did
graduate school, got my PhD andthen I worked as what we call a
postdoctoral fellow.
It's, in essence, the PhDequivalent of medical residency.
(33:18):
So you're working undersomebody.
Zack Johnson (33:21):
So your PI didn't advise you not to go to Iran?
Yes, but I know at least lastyear you were in the UK, is that
right?
Yes, what were you doing in theI was more for family.
Dr. Beth Bennett (33:33):
Okay got it.
I was at a conference inSwitzerland, a conference in
Portugal, traveled to seefriends colleagues, stopped by
Turkey, spent some time in Egypt.
Zack Johnson (33:55):
And was your travel fueled by your studies or
motivated by your studies?
Dr. Beth Bennett (34:01):
A lot of my travel has been either to
scientific meetings when I wasmore active in research, or to
see my friends Got it.
I'm still waiting on my weddinginvite from India.
One promise when somebodyactually gets engaged.
Zack Johnson (34:18):
So you are selfishly motivated and shit.
And then just to wrap things uphere, graham, do you have any
questions that I missed?
Is there anything, any otherbig topics that you might want
to talk about with the audience?
Dr. Beth Bennett (34:34):
Yep, yeah, I mean I would say I touched
briefly on careers in science.
I mean there is nursing,there's non-health related
fields and there's also publichealth, there's hospital
administration, there's sort ofmedical administration, the
business end of medicine, theintersection of biology, patent
(34:56):
law.
So even on the satellite, anumber of our graduates are
working or worked as lab techsfor long or short term, just
with a basic bachelor's degreein biology.
So you can do that.
If you want to hang out inBoston, you can probably do that
the rest of your life.
Techs have the best data.
Zack Johnson (35:15):
So maybe I can drill into another comment now
that it just resurfaced.
Some Christian communities dohave a distrust for the medical
community and I'll just sayscientific literature and I hear
it in politics right nowresurfacing every once in a
while how do you navigate, howto interact with the distrust
(35:39):
for the medical community inscience Especially?
I'll get into, like theChristian, the Christian pockets
that you tend to find that.
Do you have any thoughts onthat that you're willing to
share?
Dr. Beth Bennett (35:51):
It makes no sense to me, because God created
the world, god created order.
Science is a manifestation ofthe characteristics of God.
I'm not sure.
I'm not sure that's a wholephilosophical discussion.
(36:12):
As far as it started, weactually had a student who
enrolled here as a pre-medstudent just because of that
issue, to sort of address thatquestion.
So I think it's lack ofeducation.
We're not just.
(36:33):
These words have definitionsand I would say, not knowing
what certain terminologies mean,here's a great one.
One of my friends from mychurch in Baltimore was a
nuclear medicine technologist.
So just the idea of a nuclearmedicine technologist.
Zack Johnson (36:55):
You use a lot of big words.
So we're Graham and I arelearning.
Dr. Beth Bennett (36:59):
He ran an MRI machine Like what's the big deal
?
Or actually I was.
When I was at Hopkins I ran toPhilly to do some work with a
collaborator at Fox Chase and Iactually had nucleosomes and we
got done a little bit early andI was with my grad student that
(37:20):
I was training and she was fromAustria and I'm like we're done
early, before our training,let's go see the Liberty Bell.
And so we're carrying this icebucket with this little
teeny-tiny test tube ofnucleosomes and all of a sudden
there's a metal detector andsecurity.
I'm like what do I tell them isin there?
(37:41):
If I say nucleosomes, they'regoing to freak out that it's
radioactive.
And it's just nucleosomes, it'sjust proteins and I forget.
I might have just said protein.
I forget what I said.
But there's a lot.
A lack of education leads to alot of mistrust of names.
Just in biochemistry class onMonday we were talking about I
(38:06):
actually failed to mention thisto the class, but we're talking
about niacin, nicotinamide andhow it was basically renamed to
keep it away.
So people want to associate itwith nicotine.
Zack Johnson (38:22):
Right, what is, what is?
Dr. Beth Bennett (38:25):
Vitamin B5.
Zack Johnson (38:26):
Okay, got it.
Did you know that?
No, I'm just thinking.
Sure, I'm not the only one inthe room.
Dr. Beth Bennett (38:33):
So yeah, just renaming to make it palatable
that if somebody is readingtheir list of ingredients in
their bread they're not freakingout that they're ingesting
cigarettes.
Zack Johnson (38:47):
So maybe I'll just get, because this is such an
interesting conversation.
Do you think that science is?
There are elements of sciencethat have political motivations.
I know that that's sort of anew trend that I'm seeing that
people think that.
Yeah, it came out during theCOVID era.
(39:10):
Some of the COVID era talksabout hey, the government is
trying to manipulate science forsome.
Dr. Beth Bennett (39:19):
What data do you have to support that
hypothesis?
Zack Johnson (39:22):
Do I have?
Dr. Beth Bennett (39:23):
Yeah, for what data is being presented to
support that hypothesis?
Zack Johnson (39:27):
That the government is yes, that
hypothesis.
Dr. Beth Bennett (39:30):
Usually there's some preliminary data
that leads to be associated withit.
Zack Johnson (39:33):
Well, I'm just trying to represent the audience
I know here, so obviously youneed to have data to have it
explained yeah, there's also.
Dr. Beth Bennett (39:42):
I mean there's how you present the data.
People do do fraudulentscientific work.
I'm not saying that.
I'm not saying that frauddoesn't happen.
I'm not saying that errordoesn't happen, right, but
releasing info into the publicdomain.
There are evil people in everyfield, but the vast majority of
(40:10):
scientists I've worked with areactually very well-natured
people.
I mean, I've had goodexperiences, but especially in
research.
Yes, you do need to survive.
There's NIH policies that maypush for publications, but I've
worked with a lot of justgolden-hearted people and
(40:32):
research and the scientificcommunity.
You can always, if you havequestions about somebody's data,
you can Try to replicate it.
Zack Johnson (40:46):
So and then, just for this is a hard question but
for your average person whomight not pursue a PhD, what is
one way to sort of take a steptowards being able to educate
yourself, towards understandingscientific literature?
And I know that's a hardquestion, but if one of the
(41:11):
problems is lack of educationand how, what's one way to sort
of bring yourself to understandthe other perspective better?
Dr. Beth Bennett (41:20):
Get a biology textbook and read it.
Zack Johnson (41:22):
There you go.
Dr. Beth Bennett (41:23):
Or you could come to Sattler.
Zack Johnson (41:24):
That's a great change to you.
I mean, I'm asking you At leastat Sattler.
Dr. Beth Bennett (41:28):
I mean, one of the advantages of Sattler is we
make all students take freshmanbiology just so they have a
basic, have at least some of thebasic vocabulary.
Zack Johnson (41:38):
And we've worked.
We've had conversations abouteven being able to consume
literature about studies andcontrol trial random, randomized
controlled trials andunderstanding the really I would
say phenomenal things we canlearn through controlled trials
and take statistics to issomething that I would say to do
(42:02):
.
Any other comment in thatgeneral sphere of thought about
trust, that sort of science isan the enemy.
Right now it might be a falseenemy.
Dr. Beth Bennett (42:15):
Scientists are humans.
They make mistakes, but ifthey're releasing information, I
would like to believe that mostscientists are releasing
information that is to the bestof their current knowledge,
right.
Zack Johnson (42:28):
Good Any other.
Sorry, I took it.
Dr. Beth Bennett (42:32):
No, it was actually a good.
That was a good topic to cover.
Zack Johnson (42:35):
Any other areas that you feel like you really
need to hit on, or any otherlast words for the audience At
all.
Dr. Beth Bennett (42:43):
So you're going to ask me what to name
this flycast.
Zack Johnson (42:47):
I could.
I think I'm actually trying toyelating a name.
Oh what if you haverecommendations?
Dr. Beth Bennett (42:53):
My husband recommended proffered golden
apples Wait what.
What was it?
It was like golden apples.
Wisdom is like golden apples.
Zack Johnson (43:03):
Proper.
Dr. Beth Bennett (43:04):
Proffered.
Proffered Offered.
Zack Johnson (43:07):
Golden apples, what?
Dr. Beth Bennett (43:09):
do you think, Graham, it might be above?
Maybe it's above, maybe it'stoo hard to grasp.
Zack Johnson (43:15):
No, but yeah, I really want to thank you for
being here today and come andstudy biology at Sattler.
It's a phenomenal.
I think it's a phenomenalprogram.
Dr. Beth Bennett (43:26):
And I think we have some of the best placement
of graduates too.
I mean, I don't know the statsand I'm biased.
Zack Johnson (43:32):
So we have people in medical in Texas, we have
people in medical inPennsylvania, we have a student
PA school in Pennsylvania, andthen we have a student
interviewing everywhere that Iknow, or an alumni or even a
reviewer.
Dr. Beth Bennett (43:45):
Yes, and a lot of our graduates, if they have
taken a gap year, have gottengood jobs we have with Sattler's
capstone requirements.
Some of them have stayed onworking as texts in the lab here
in Boston where they did theircapstone.
Zack Johnson (44:02):
Got it.
Dr. Beth Bennett (44:03):
So yeah, that's one of the benefits of
Sattler's.
We push students to getresearch internships, but then
if they do get one, it does helpthem.
Zack Johnson (44:14):
Yeah, I know we have current students with
internships at Dana-Farber,which what is for the
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Dr. Beth Bennett (44:21):
It's one of the top cancer institutes,
probably in the US.
Zack Johnson (44:26):
We got another student who's just got an
internship at MGH recently andso, yeah, it's a great.
Dr. Beth Bennett (44:33):
A bunch more that hopefully by summer we'll
have something landed.
Zack Johnson (44:36):
And it's a great door opener.
I think from the outsideBoston's really intrigued by
Sattler's students I love.
It seems like we don't quitebelong here.
You know what I mean by that.
Dr. Beth Bennett (44:48):
View some stories have filtered back to
you.
Zack Johnson (44:50):
Yeah, people are like what are you doing here in
Boston?
And I often am really excitedto see our students make
connections into these reallywell-run institutions.
And, yeah, thanks for all your.
Dr. Beth Bennett (45:02):
You have great students.
Zack Johnson (45:04):
Yeah, so keep that in mind.
Thanks for all your workdeveloping the students.
And Beth lives in Pennsylvania,so you come back and forth, so
thanks for all the travel you do.
And if this is the question,can people follow you anywhere?
Follow me, I don't want tofollow.
Don't try to find.
(45:25):
Don't try to find.
That's online.
You can find a bio on ourwebsite which we need to update.
Dr. Beth Bennett (45:30):
You can email me if you need.
Zack Johnson (45:32):
It All right, I should, you can email you need
information or have any otherquestions.
Well, that wraps it up today.
Any announcements?
I'll just announce we launchedIntrustment on Monday, so every
accepted students gets a fullyfunded tuition offer Really big
deal.
It's called Intrustment, sothat'swe have limited spots
(45:52):
available for the season.
I'm not going to mention howmany, but we aren't fully yet.
So if you're interested inapplying, apply at satireduapply
and then the bio concentrationscan be found under, I think,
academics on our website, incase you want.
Dr. Beth Bennett (46:09):
That sounds right.
Zack Johnson (46:10):
In case you want to, or you can email me, or
email Email works great, allright, thank you, dr Bennett, or
thanks Beth.
Dr. Beth Bennett (46:16):
Thank you, Zach.
Zack Johnson (46:18):
Thank you.
Alright, it is January 24th 2024.
You are the first intervieweeon this year's podcast.
Congratulations, dr Bennett.
So usually I read a bio andthen we start a conversation.
Can I call you Beth after theconversation, as opposed to Dr
Bennett?
But you do.
Yes, you are a doctor.
(00:25):
So Beth Zikoni was born to afamily of school teachers in the
foothills of the Pennsylvaniamountains near the town of
Shippensburg.
From both of her parents shewas taught a love of God, a love
of the church and the joys oflearning new things.
From a father of ItalianAmerican heritage came an
appreciation for travel, goodstories, pasta and other
(00:48):
intriguing foods we have lots totalk about.
From a Swift chairman mothercame a love of order, attention
to detail and hearty work.
This blend of attributescoalesced merely in the academic
world, where each became usefulin crafting a life far
different than practiced in theCumberland Valley.
(01:12):
Beth received her bachelor's ofscience in chemistry from
Shippensburg University.
She then moved to theUniversity of Maryland,
baltimore, where she received aPhD in biochemistry and
molecular biology while workingin the lab of Dr Gerald Wilson.
The emphasis of her researchwas mRNA stability and the
(01:33):
biophysics of RNA proteininteractions.
After graduating, beth workedas a postdoctoral fellow in the
lab of Dr Phil Cole, first atJohn Hopkins in Baltimore,
maryland, and then at HarvardMedical School in Boston,
massachusetts.
There, her research interestshave been in epigenic
pharmacology, primarilyinvolving.
(01:54):
This is where I'm going to useyour help, acida.
Dr. Beth Bennett (01:58):
The CDO transferases.
Zack Johnson (01:59):
There we go, and then enzymes One more time.
Dr. Beth Bennett (02:02):
The CDO transferase enzymes.
Zack Johnson (02:03):
Sorry, you can know my familiarity with that
word.
Beth tries to show love tothose around here wherever she
finds herself.
In graduate school, she wasdeeply involved in a student-led
initiative to feed the homelessin Baltimore City.
As a postdoc, she was involvedin international scholar
fellowships both in Baltimoreand Boston.
In 2017, beth married DavidBennett III.
(02:26):
They lived in Brighton,massachusetts, for nearly the
first four years of marriagebefore moving to Wrightsville,
pennsylvania, to care for familyresponsibilities.
Together, they parent threeyoung and vivacious children.
Thank you so much for beinghere today with us.
Do you want to add or corrector subtract anything on your bio
(02:47):
?
First of all, since it's fresh,that's correct.
All right, and after readingyour bio, it's obvious that
you're familiar with biology.
So I thought I'd just kick itoff with the big question why
did you decide to study biology?
And maybe we can chat about whyshould other people study
(03:10):
biology.
It's a big question.
Dr. Beth Bennett (03:12):
Yeah, starting from a personal level, several
reasons.
One, it was practical.
I was actually my other comingout of high school.
My other career option that Iseriously considered was
actually photography and I justweighed the pros and cons making
(03:37):
people look good on paperversus making them feel good in
life and there's some minorpsychological benefits to making
people feel like they look goodbut they'll look good in life
or actually have healthy lifesort of one out.
(03:57):
I had a cousin and a half thatworked at Novartis and she gave
me a lot of tips on.
She's a little bit closer to mein age than you might predict.
She gave me a couple tips onher job.
What she liked about it Ireally liked in high school.
(04:21):
I really liked science,especially chemistry, and I
remember shortly after, aftermaybe my junior year of high
school, one of my friendsactually got a summer internship
at Fort Detrick during researchand I remember just sitting
there.
I can still picture sitting onthe curb outside at lunch and
(04:43):
saying to myself that is what Iwant to do.
But she was working at FortDetrick, it was the military.
I wasn't going to compromise myethics and work for the
military directly or indirectly,and so I just sort of let it go
.
I shadowed at a hospital in aphlebotomy lab for a high school
shadowing day.
Just felt really sort of boring.
Zack Johnson (05:07):
Okay, what's a phlebotomy lab?
Dr. Beth Bennett (05:09):
Phlebotomy lab , basically processing blood
samples.
Zack Johnson (05:11):
Right.
Dr. Beth Bennett (05:12):
Okay, so just running, it was just sticking
them in machines and themachines generated info.
And talking to my cousin whoworked more in drug development
at Novartis and hearing morewhat she did on the research end
piqued my interest.
That way Around that time Ialso read an article about the
(05:32):
benefits of nutritional researchand that interested me.
One weekend my parents wereactually they were away for the
weekend speaking at somemarriage seminar and I was home
alone with college catalogs.
And they came home and Iannounced that I am going to
Cornell majoring in nutritionalscience.
(05:52):
Right, and this is I had taken.
I was out of high school a yearand a few months and my dad's
like, okay, we'll go to Cornellnext weekend, or like I'll call
up my friend from college, butwe'll take a trip up there.
It's fall.
(06:13):
Who would not want to go toupstate New York in the fall.
And so we did.
I happened to go there.
We stay with my dad's collegefriend.
We sat in a canal info sessionand they told me nothing about
the quality of their education.
It was all about work or whereI'd be a leak Right and I was
unimpressed.
We stay with my dad's collegeroommate who had sent one of his
(06:36):
their children to not roommate,but friend, college friend.
They had sent one of theirchildren to Cornell and they're
like, yeah, it's not worth yourmoney.
But so I decided that I wasgoing to apply to the local
state school, shepard University, do two years there, get all my
nutritional science pre-rex inand then transfer to Cornell.
Zack Johnson (06:57):
All right, and then?
So that's why you studied.
Why should other people?
Dr. Beth Bennett (07:02):
study.
Why should other people study?
There's a lot of reasons.
I mean, you can help peopleLike.
Part of the part of the missionof Jesus is to bring wholeness,
and physical wholeness is notthe end all be all, but it sure
feels good to feel good, and youcan't function if you're sick,
(07:23):
and I think there's a lot a lotto be said for benefiting people
that way.
I would say in general, from aperspective a lot of Sattler
students would be.
It provides access to limitedaccess countries.
I mean, I was invited to give ascientific talk in Iran.
(07:45):
If not, not everybody is goingto get that invitation, so that
would yeah.
It just opens many doors, andnot just internationally but
also locally.
Most research institutions arecalled the United Nations of the
(08:08):
world Up until now.
This may change, but the US hasattracted the world's best
scientists and so you get achance to interact with people
from all over the world.
And who is the best missionaryto their home country?
But the person who's the native.
Zack Johnson (08:29):
And I'm going to go on a little bit of a
sidetrack here, but knowing youand interacting with you I've
seen you.
I mean these were takeadvantage of Boston a lot more
than your average person.
I remember when I first met you, you showed up with yours.
There's always someone you werewith that you had met.
That was really interesting andit's kind of tagging onto this
(08:52):
the US is attracting reallyinteresting people.
I'd love to hear you talk alittle bit about Boston and
studying biology in Boston andsome of maybe the unique
opportunities that exist andjust sort of the benefits of
Boston as well.
I don't know if you can speakto that.
Dr. Beth Bennett (09:11):
You might be able to say that Boston is the
best city in the world.
Zack Johnson (09:14):
Oh, not the best, but maybe that it makes sense.
It makes sense to be here inthe city and it opens a few
doors that might not beavailable otherwise.
Dr. Beth Bennett (09:23):
Yeah, I would say any research institution,
especially one that's in anurban environment.
A quality research institutionin an urban environment draws a
lot of people and draws peoplewho maybe have at least an
intellectual curiosity andChristianity, and that's the
(09:45):
first step in developing andworking shoulder to shoulder
with somebody is the best wayfor the gospel to be shown.
Zack Johnson (09:58):
So you're saying like in a work day?
Dr. Beth Bennett (10:00):
In a work day, Shoulders, shoulder to shoulder
, or having lunch with people,but yeah, I mean my lab mates.
A lab is like a family in manyways, like my lab mates saw me
when I was tired, when I wasgrumpy, I was even chewed out
(10:20):
for something slightly unethicalonce upon a time and in sharing
things that I wasn't supposedto share.
But you get to see how you canyou get that for more details.
Zack Johnson (10:34):
I feel like I have that.
Dr. Beth Bennett (10:36):
I shared my ID to give a collaborator access
to a lab space which heforgotten his ID.
Zack Johnson (10:46):
Okay, it's not as juicy as I thought it was going
to be.
And then I just want to say Iam always do you have any tips
for people to developrelationships in the day to day
life that might lead to gospelconversations?
I feel like you've done that orI've watched you do that really
(11:06):
well, and any tips on that?
That's a different.
Dr. Beth Bennett (11:10):
That is a tough.
I mean, that's your switchingbrain.
Yes, our face is there.
You can read the book Godspace.
They have a good, a number ofgood strategies in that one, but
I think just being authentic isa good.
Being authentic and non nonpreachy If you're devoted to
(11:32):
Christ, like it's going to comeout.
Zack Johnson (11:34):
What do you mean by non preachy?
I understand that, but it's saymore on that.
Dr. Beth Bennett (11:41):
I remember in graduate school actually having
conversations that just flownaturally, Like what did you do?
This weekend?
Had a conversation in graduateschool talking about my cousin's
wedding that turned into aspiritual conversation, things
(12:02):
like that.
Zack Johnson (12:04):
And so kind of at this, I think, a conversational
level.
There's this idea that you cantell when people start a
conversation and they're tryingto get to an end result.
So not doing that.
Yes genuinely Having legitimateconversations, yes, rather than
having a.
Dr. Beth Bennett (12:23):
And it gets into the whole idea that Jesus
did most of his teaching byasking questions, not by
lecturing to people.
Zack Johnson (12:29):
I agree.
Dr. Beth Bennett (12:30):
Maybe I'm lecturing right now.
Zack Johnson (12:31):
No, you're not All right, let's go back to bio.
So you became the programcoordinator for the bio program,
I think three years Wow, it'slike that long ago.
Maybe two, two years ago andthen one of the big initiatives
was to establish multiple trackswithin the biology program.
Do you want to speak a littlebit to that and what the tracks
(12:54):
are and why you did things likethat?
Dr. Beth Bennett (12:56):
We did it because not everybody has to be
an MD is cut out to be an MD.
There's a whole diversity ofcareers open to somebody with a
biology degree and there's justdifferent nuances of what each
need.
For instance, if you're goinginto research, human
(13:17):
pathophysiology is not going tobe as important as if you're
going to PA school, as somethinglike physics is going to be
more important to, say,occupational therapists but less
important to, maybe, somebodywho's going into nursing.
Zack Johnson (13:34):
So what are the tracks?
Do you have them off the top ofyour head?
Dr. Beth Bennett (13:37):
So pre-med, that's what we started off with.
So the pre-med track, perhapsthe most rigorous.
You only have two freeelectives.
We work really hard to keepthose free electives for our
pre-med students.
The basic human biology, whichis the same thing as the pre-PA
track.
So somebody who wants to be aphysician's assistant or just
(14:01):
have a biology degree forwhatever graduate program or
what they want to work as alobtak, sort of like the plain
vanilla, gets you everything youneed for the broadest breadth
of options.
So that's two.
Pre-research, again, less onanatomy and physiology, more on
some of the harder math andscience.
Let's say pre-PT or DPT.
Zack Johnson (14:26):
Doctor of physical therapy, ot, occupational
therapy and BSN nursing, so eachdifferent track is tailored to
a student's interests.
Dr. Beth Bennett (14:38):
It is tailored to the needs to get into
post-boc programs.
So it's whatever you need toget into.
So, for instance, pre-bsn, it'sset up that if somebody wants
to do an accelerated nursingprogram after they graduate from
Sattler, there's usually 10, 11months accelerated nursing
programs, mainly clinical work.
They get all their book workout of the way.
(15:00):
These are all the courses theyneed to get admitted.
Zack Johnson (15:05):
And so, in general , this is a hard question.
I feel like this is more of amarketing thing, but what are
the career fields you can getout of a biology major?
There's a lot of them.
Dr. Beth Bennett (15:18):
Yes, I mean everything that I listed.
And I mean with medicine.
I mean we also talk aboutdentistry.
We're talking about tomatry,podiatry, ophthalmology, every
subtype within that, ordiversity.
Dentistry is a great option.
It gives you a good quality oflife relative to some types of
(15:43):
hospital medicine.
Zack Johnson (15:44):
I have a best friend who encourages all his
children to be dentists.
Really, if it kind of makessense.
Dr. Beth Bennett (15:51):
Yeah, there's a high suicide rate, but if that
doesn't bother you, Indentistry.
Yeah, because of the paininflicted.
Zack Johnson (15:58):
I did not know that.
On the people practicingbecause they inflict pain.
Dr. Beth Bennett (16:03):
Yeah.
Zack Johnson (16:06):
I'll make sure they go and update mine.
Dr. Beth Bennett (16:10):
I think it could be circumvented.
But yes, I would say dentistry.
My roommate in graduate schoolwas a dentistry student.
My father-in-law was a dentist.
It's actually a good quality oflife.
You don't have to be on call aweekend.
Spend the time.
Zack Johnson (16:23):
And then I just wanted to give your department a
shout out.
Many of our one of the bigtests that students prefer for
is the MCAT.
What does the MCAT stand for?
I don't know.
I should look that up.
Does it stand for anything?
Dr. Beth Bennett (16:39):
Medical college admissions test.
Zack Johnson (16:41):
And so a lot of our, some of the students I've
known, spend a lot of timepreparing for that, and can you
talk a little bit about thatprocess and then some of the
results you've seen with thestudents you've worked with?
Dr. Beth Bennett (16:53):
So you want me to say what our median MCAT
score is.
Zack Johnson (16:57):
You say it Damn.
It's what I want.
Dr. Beth Bennett (17:02):
The median MCAT score is the 98.5
percentile currently.
Zack Johnson (17:06):
I think it's the highest.
I think it's the highest in thecountry, really.
Yeah, somebody can do it.
Dr. Beth Bennett (17:12):
There's a lot you could do when you have a
limited end.
Zack Johnson (17:16):
I'm going to milk it.
While we have it, enjoy it.
Dr. Beth Bennett (17:19):
But yeah, so our students have done well and
we actually last year we had ourfirst student get into PA
school Directly out of Sattler.
It's actually harder to getinto PA school admissions or
lower than med school, sothere's actually a 7 percent
success rate of going directlyfrom undergrad to PA school.
(17:40):
Oh really, and one of ourstudents hit that.
Zack Johnson (17:43):
I did not know, yes, so what's usually in?
Dr. Beth Bennett (17:46):
between.
Usually people have to work forseveral years in a clinical
setting.
Zack Johnson (17:50):
I didn't know about that.
Dr. Beth Bennett (17:51):
Yeah, that's exciting, yeah.
Zack Johnson (17:54):
And then this is another sidetrack, but not
really so.
There's obviously the academicside of career and things like
this and then but you mentionedbefore that a bio degree can
open the doors to cross culturallet's just say missions,
opportunities.
Are there any models or storiesyou know of like medical
(18:16):
missions, done right in a goodway, that you like to talk about
or inspire you?
Dr. Beth Bennett (18:22):
Medical missions yeah.
Zack Johnson (18:23):
Precisely or anything.
I'm not clinical Anything inthe sphere of biology.
Dr. Beth Bennett (18:30):
I would say in general, just the idea of well,
when I was at HopkinsInternational Fellowship they
had people come from all overthe world and we saw numerous
people become believers andseeing them go home and the fact
that they were able to have intheir home communities.
Zack Johnson (18:55):
Yeah, that makes sense.
And even being like amissionary doctor, do you have
any thoughts on that?
Dr. Beth Bennett (19:04):
It gets you in the country and it depends on
how you do it.
Are you actually caring forpeople?
What's the setting?
How much are you pushing peoplethrough as fast as you can?
Are you integrating into thelocal community?
Are you planning churches?
(19:25):
How holistically are you doingyour job?
There's a time I mean not tosay that if you just run into
the front lines wherever andhand out medications or do
surgeries as fast as you can,there's nothing wrong with that
(19:45):
Right.
But the more holistic your job,I think, the better the
benefits other people.
Zack Johnson (19:52):
Yeah, that's right .
Right, change your tracks again.
So here at Sattler we have thispearl moment where we invite
people to give pearls of wisdom,and I've heard you share some
pearls and I think it's been anaudience favorite when I ask is
there any pearl that stands outto you that you either that
(20:17):
you've heard or you've given,that you like to talk about just
wisdom that you've encounteredin your life that you like to
share?
Dr. Beth Bennett (20:25):
I know it's hard to think of something on
the spot, but the one that's themost clear cut would actually
be the house fire that I had.
Zack Johnson (20:35):
Tell us about it.
Dr. Beth Bennett (20:36):
Forget if you were around for that one.
When I was post-doc at Hopkins,we had spent an evening with
the Veritas Forum and they hadRavi Zacharias before back when
we still thought well of him andNabil Koreshi over to speak
(20:58):
about the problem of if there'sa good God, why is there evil in
the world had a great, greattime.
I think the Muslim StudentAssociation and some of the
Christian Student Associationsort of went together, had a
blast.
At the end of the evening I wassort of tired and one of my
(21:19):
friends offered me a ride homeand they were super nice people
so I decided to take them up onthe offer and I lived on a
little Roe Street in Baltimore,one way street and we get to the
one cross end of my street andthere were fire trucks there and
I didn't think anything.
And we get to the other end andthere's fire trucks there.
I decided to jump out the carand I knew that my housemate was
(21:42):
actually baking pumpkin pies asmy birthday gift for the
International FellowshipThanksgiving dinner the next day
.
They thought Mennonites weregood pie makers and therefore I
should be able to bake pies, butshe volunteered to pick up the
slack for me as my birthday gift.
And, sure enough, instead ofsix pumpkin pies for my birthday
(22:04):
, I got what at the time lookedlike a gutted not completely
gutted a kitchen.
Gutted stove, gutted, lots offire, damaged house.
I'll put it that way.
Zack Johnson (22:20):
And what's the pearl?
Dr. Beth Bennett (22:25):
It was a contradiction of just being at a
talk, of hearing about thegoodness of God in the face of
evil, and I had to immediatelyapply what I heard to the
situation.
So about two months later, whenone of my Persian colleagues
stopped by my house after we hadhalf moved back in and opened
(22:45):
the door to the remodeledversion, first words out of her
mouth for congratulations.
So instead of six pumpkin piesfor my birthday, god had decided
to give me a $30,000 remodeledkitchen.
Zack Johnson (22:58):
Hey, so there's a silver lining, a huge one, yeah.
And then, speaking of pumpkinpies, that's one of my favorite
foods.
You're probably the only personthat mentions food in their bio
.
I don't quote me on that, butyou mentioned that from your
father, who was Italian-Americanheritage, came into
(23:22):
appreciation for travel, goodstories, pasta and other
intriguing foods.
Is there anything more there?
What kind of intriguing foodsare you talking about?
Dr. Beth Bennett (23:30):
I do like trying diverse cuisines,
especially hanging out at theHopkins International Fellowship
we had a different ethniccuisine almost every week and I
enjoy trying and trying to cook.
Zack Johnson (23:49):
What's some of your favorite?
I'm just curious.
Top five, top 10.
Dr. Beth Bennett (23:53):
Top Ethnicities.
Zack Johnson (23:56):
Yeah.
Dr. Beth Bennett (23:57):
Ethnicities.
Well, I mean, my mother claimsI inherited all my father's
taste buds and none from her.
I do really like Italian foodand then it's just sort of a
radius out from there.
I would say Middle EasternGreek version would sort of be
the next Turkish, as long as youuse tomatoes.
(24:20):
My father's cooking advice wasif it doesn't taste good, just
add more garlic.
So anybody that uses garlictomatoes, eggplant you have a
likelihood of being good.
Zack Johnson (24:32):
The studying biology make you a better cook.
Dr. Beth Bennett (24:35):
It's actually interesting.
A lot of biologists do tend todabble in cooking.
There was actually an IPI ingraduate school, as wife worked
for a restaurant in Baltimorewhere the PI was actually a few
months away from graduating fromHopkins biophysics program and
(24:56):
just didn't feel like writinghis thesis.
So he just dropped out andstarted a restaurant.
Zack Johnson (25:01):
That makes sense to me, and then just Just a lot
of us just mixing things up andthen tying this back to sort of
a previous conversation.
Have you found that food islike an entryway to friendship?
Yes, and how?
Dr. Beth Bennett (25:15):
Because everybody has to eat.
Zack Johnson (25:17):
And so how do you become sort of, how do you
leverage that interest to makeconnections with people?
Dr. Beth Bennett (25:24):
It's at least one conversational starter when
you're a nerdy lab person whohasn't left the lab to do much
else in life.
Zack Johnson (25:34):
And would you make food together or would you go
out to a?
Dr. Beth Bennett (25:37):
restaurant, sometimes having them teach you
how to cook their ethnic food.
Zack Johnson (25:43):
And do you do that at their abode or your abode?
Dr. Beth Bennett (25:46):
It depends.
Okay, got it Not in the lab.
Zack Johnson (25:49):
Not in the lab, but how would that?
Dr. Beth Bennett (25:52):
That would be a biosafety concert.
Zack Johnson (25:54):
That's right.
And then so you mentioned onebook called Godspace.
Are there any other areas ofjust books, or any books or even
other things that you consumeon a regular basis?
Zoom, consu, sure, media booksnot necessarily media podcasts
(26:17):
that you like to talk about Ifnot?
Dr. Beth Bennett (26:20):
Yeah, another book on that subject, I think
would be Once I Was Lost.
I don't think I'd forget theauthors, but it's by inner
varsity press.
Zack Johnson (26:31):
Okay, what's that?
What's that?
Dr. Beth Bennett (26:32):
It's the five thresholds of postmodernist must
cross to become a believer.
Okay, so analogous to you.
Know we talk about sewing andreaping, but it sort of puts
that sewing and the early stagesinto categories.
It's not just when someonemakes a decision for Christ,
it's each of those early things,excuse me, like learning to
(26:55):
trust the Christian Right,having intellectual curiosity,
being willing to change.
Zack Johnson (27:01):
Got it.
And then I'm going to say oneof the harder questions for the
end, if you're ready.
It's not a hard question, but Ithink it's one that a lot of
people might resonate with and Iwant to ask it if you're a
young lady and you have a visionfor career and family and
studying biology, but there'ssort of a you feel like you have
(27:23):
to choose between the two, howdo you approach that decision in
life and can you help menavigate that tension as to why,
if you have a mind for a family, studying is it necessary?
You shouldn't preclude or justclose the door on studies?
Definitely not.
(27:44):
Does that make sense?
So tell me about it and howyou've gone about your mother.
You have a family.
Dr. Beth Bennett (27:49):
Yeah.
Zack Johnson (27:49):
I'd love to hear how you balance all these things
.
Dr. Beth Bennett (27:52):
You can ask me in 20 years it's for my
analysis of whether I dideverything right Maybe 40 years.
So what do they say?
How your grandchildren turnedout?
Zack Johnson (28:01):
Right.
Dr. Beth Bennett (28:04):
Yeah, parenting is as hard as a PhD or
harder, but I think, whether itbe medically relevant topics or
just whether it's learning howto think, how to deduce,
teaching your children how todeduce logically At any point, I
mean, getting an education isnot a lost cause, right?
I mean, thankfully I didn'thave to go into debt at all, and
(28:30):
that was definitely helpful.
But learning how to think andbeing able to train your
children how to think is never alost cause.
It definitely helps to marry aguy who is invigorated by your
studies instead of intimidatedby them.
(28:52):
I think my husband actuallyenjoys my teaching Maybe not as
much as I do, but notably enjoysit just because of the great
conversation starters it is.
His degree is in chemicalengineering, and so we have some
overlap, I think, in at leastcarry a scientific conversation
on some topics.
(29:13):
So, yeah, I mean Sattler isgood because they respect family
.
Zack Johnson (29:22):
Right, and I think that's just an institutional
tension that we're trying to.
We're a new institution, buthow do you respect family while
having a deep respect forintense study?
Dr. Beth Bennett (29:35):
Yes.
Zack Johnson (29:37):
I mean.
So there's some people that medschool is a huge time
commitment with your wife, a lotof time, and I feel like
there's a way to balance thoseright, where you can do both
without losing one or the other.
I mean, we have to believe thatright.
Dr. Beth Bennett (29:52):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean I would like to thinkthat there is.
I mean, there's only you onlyhave so many hours in your life,
but what can you do and howmuch can you do in that time?
I mean, I prep for class whilemy children sleep.
That's how I calm myself downin the evening.
Zack Johnson (30:15):
By prepping for class.
Yeah, I like it.
Dr. Beth Bennett (30:19):
I don't like bed Over break.
I had some issues actually thatI just couldn't fall asleep
because I didn't have anythingto calm myself down to study.
But so yeah, there's a balance.
I mean, I obviously couldn't be.
I would not want to be aphysician.
That's why I'm teaching atSattler and not working in
(30:43):
research, because they expect 30or 60 hours in the lab in
research and I just didn't wantto do that.
And teaching is much moreforgiving and on a part-time
basis it's possible.
Zack Johnson (31:02):
Right.
Dr. Beth Bennett (31:04):
I know other people, I mean, who are
attending positions but havepicked polemology or something
that's less demanding, less oncall time.
Zack Johnson (31:13):
I'm not going to no, not polemology.
I think I Polemology,polemology or lungs, lungs,
lungs.
Yeah, I just just for theaudience.
You know I'm kidding.
Yeah, and then how many?
Children, do you have Three,and what are their names?
Dr. Beth Bennett (31:33):
And it's David IV, Angelina and Miriam.
Zack Johnson (31:37):
And so you're able to teach and be a mother at the
same time.
Dr. Beth Bennett (31:45):
You can critique.
Zack Johnson (31:46):
You can critique, I'm not criti.
I'm not criti, I'm notcritiquing.
Dr. Beth Bennett (31:51):
Currently trying to do both.
Zack Johnson (31:53):
Good yeah, I think it's just something that I'm
encouraged by, because a lot oftimes, people there's like you
can only do one or the other andI.
Obviously you have to balanceit.
Dr. Beth Bennett (32:05):
It helps.
It helps that I got married notat 25 and sort of had built a
fairly good foundation before Igot married and had taught
classes a couple times before.
I had three children and thingslike that add to it.
(32:27):
We have a good support networkand I have a good husband.
Zack Johnson (32:34):
That's great.
And then all covers travel,because I know you've traveled.
You mentioned Iran.
Dr. Beth Bennett (32:41):
I did end up going there.
Zack Johnson (32:43):
I was going to ask you that you did not end up
going.
Dr. Beth Bennett (32:45):
My PI cared about me and told me I shouldn't
go.
I got the invite at what was it?
A week or two before the USissued a travel advisory and PI
stands for.
Oh, principal investigator.
Zack Johnson (32:57):
Which is at what?
Dr. Beth Bennett (32:58):
So it is a person who gets a grant from the
NIH Got it.
So, basically, if you're inresearch, so in research I did
graduate school, got my PhD andthen I worked as what we call a
postdoctoral fellow.
It's, in essence, the PhDequivalent of medical residency.
(33:18):
So you're working undersomebody.
Zack Johnson (33:21):
So your PI didn't advise you not to go to Iran?
Yes, but I know at least lastyear you were in the UK, is that
right?
Yes, what were you doing in theI was more for family.
Dr. Beth Bennett (33:33):
Okay got it.
I was at a conference inSwitzerland, a conference in
Portugal, traveled to seefriends colleagues, stopped by
Turkey, spent some time in Egypt.
Zack Johnson (33:55):
And was your travel fueled by your studies or
motivated by your studies?
Dr. Beth Bennett (34:01):
A lot of my travel has been either to
scientific meetings when I wasmore active in research, or to
see my friends Got it.
I'm still waiting on my weddinginvite from India.
One promise when somebodyactually gets engaged.
Zack Johnson (34:18):
So you are selfishly motivated and shit.
And then just to wrap things uphere, graham, do you have any
questions that I missed?
Is there anything, any otherbig topics that you might want
to talk about with the audience?
Dr. Beth Bennett (34:34):
Yep, yeah, I mean I would say I touched
briefly on careers in science.
I mean there is nursing,there's non-health related
fields and there's also publichealth, there's hospital
administration, there's sort ofmedical administration, the
business end of medicine, theintersection of biology, patent
(34:56):
law.
So even on the satellite, anumber of our graduates are
working or worked as lab techsfor long or short term, just
with a basic bachelor's degreein biology.
So you can do that.
If you want to hang out inBoston, you can probably do that
the rest of your life.
Techs have the best data.
Zack Johnson (35:15):
So maybe I can drill into another comment now
that it just resurfaced.
Some Christian communities dohave a distrust for the medical
community and I'll just sayscientific literature and I hear
it in politics right nowresurfacing every once in a
while how do you navigate, howto interact with the distrust
(35:39):
for the medical community inscience Especially?
I'll get into, like theChristian, the Christian pockets
that you tend to find that.
Do you have any thoughts onthat that you're willing to
share?
Dr. Beth Bennett (35:51):
It makes no sense to me, because God created
the world, god created order.
Science is a manifestation ofthe characteristics of God.
I'm not sure.
I'm not sure that's a wholephilosophical discussion.
(36:12):
As far as it started, weactually had a student who
enrolled here as a pre-medstudent just because of that
issue, to sort of address thatquestion.
So I think it's lack ofeducation.
We're not just.
(36:33):
These words have definitionsand I would say, not knowing
what certain terminologies mean,here's a great one.
One of my friends from mychurch in Baltimore was a
nuclear medicine technologist.
So just the idea of a nuclearmedicine technologist.
Zack Johnson (36:55):
You use a lot of big words.
So we're Graham and I arelearning.
Dr. Beth Bennett (36:59):
He ran an MRI machine Like what's the big deal
?
Or actually I was.
When I was at Hopkins I ran toPhilly to do some work with a
collaborator at Fox Chase and Iactually had nucleosomes and we
got done a little bit early andI was with my grad student that
(37:20):
I was training and she was fromAustria and I'm like we're done
early, before our training,let's go see the Liberty Bell.
And so we're carrying this icebucket with this little
teeny-tiny test tube ofnucleosomes and all of a sudden
there's a metal detector andsecurity.
I'm like what do I tell them isin there?
(37:41):
If I say nucleosomes, they'regoing to freak out that it's
radioactive.
And it's just nucleosomes, it'sjust proteins and I forget.
I might have just said protein.
I forget what I said.
But there's a lot.
A lack of education leads to alot of mistrust of names.
Just in biochemistry class onMonday we were talking about I
(38:06):
actually failed to mention thisto the class, but we're talking
about niacin, nicotinamide andhow it was basically renamed to
keep it away.
So people want to associate itwith nicotine.
Zack Johnson (38:22):
Right, what is, what is?
Dr. Beth Bennett (38:25):
Vitamin B5.
Zack Johnson (38:26):
Okay, got it.
Did you know that?
No, I'm just thinking.
Sure, I'm not the only one inthe room.
Dr. Beth Bennett (38:33):
So yeah, just renaming to make it palatable
that if somebody is readingtheir list of ingredients in
their bread they're not freakingout that they're ingesting
cigarettes.
Zack Johnson (38:47):
So maybe I'll just get, because this is such an
interesting conversation.
Do you think that science is?
There are elements of sciencethat have political motivations.
I know that that's sort of anew trend that I'm seeing that
people think that.
Yeah, it came out during theCOVID era.
(39:10):
Some of the COVID era talksabout hey, the government is
trying to manipulate science forsome.
Dr. Beth Bennett (39:19):
What data do you have to support that
hypothesis?
Zack Johnson (39:22):
Do I have?
Dr. Beth Bennett (39:23):
Yeah, for what data is being presented to
support that hypothesis?
Zack Johnson (39:27):
That the government is yes, that
hypothesis.
Dr. Beth Bennett (39:30):
Usually there's some preliminary data
that leads to be associated withit.
Zack Johnson (39:33):
Well, I'm just trying to represent the audience
I know here, so obviously youneed to have data to have it
explained yeah, there's also.
Dr. Beth Bennett (39:42):
I mean there's how you present the data.
People do do fraudulentscientific work.
I'm not saying that.
I'm not saying that frauddoesn't happen.
I'm not saying that errordoesn't happen, right, but
releasing info into the publicdomain.
There are evil people in everyfield, but the vast majority of
(40:10):
scientists I've worked with areactually very well-natured
people.
I mean, I've had goodexperiences, but especially in
research.
Yes, you do need to survive.
There's NIH policies that maypush for publications, but I've
worked with a lot of justgolden-hearted people and
(40:32):
research and the scientificcommunity.
You can always, if you havequestions about somebody's data,
you can Try to replicate it.
Zack Johnson (40:46):
So and then, just for this is a hard question but
for your average person whomight not pursue a PhD, what is
one way to sort of take a steptowards being able to educate
yourself, towards understandingscientific literature?
And I know that's a hardquestion, but if one of the
(41:11):
problems is lack of educationand how, what's one way to sort
of bring yourself to understandthe other perspective better?
Dr. Beth Bennett (41:20):
Get a biology textbook and read it.
Zack Johnson (41:22):
There you go.
Dr. Beth Bennett (41:23):
Or you could come to Sattler.
Zack Johnson (41:24):
That's a great change to you.
I mean, I'm asking you At leastat Sattler.
Dr. Beth Bennett (41:28):
I mean, one of the advantages of Sattler is we
make all students take freshmanbiology just so they have a
basic, have at least some of thebasic vocabulary.
Zack Johnson (41:38):
And we've worked.
We've had conversations abouteven being able to consume
literature about studies andcontrol trial random, randomized
controlled trials andunderstanding the really I would
say phenomenal things we canlearn through controlled trials
and take statistics to issomething that I would say to do
(42:02):
.
Any other comment in thatgeneral sphere of thought about
trust, that sort of science isan the enemy.
Right now it might be a falseenemy.
Dr. Beth Bennett (42:15):
Scientists are humans.
They make mistakes, but ifthey're releasing information, I
would like to believe that mostscientists are releasing
information that is to the bestof their current knowledge,
right.
Zack Johnson (42:28):
Good Any other.
Sorry, I took it.
Dr. Beth Bennett (42:32):
No, it was actually a good.
That was a good topic to cover.
Zack Johnson (42:35):
Any other areas that you feel like you really
need to hit on, or any otherlast words for the audience At
all.
Dr. Beth Bennett (42:43):
So you're going to ask me what to name
this flycast.
Zack Johnson (42:47):
I could.
I think I'm actually trying toyelating a name.
Oh what if you haverecommendations?
Dr. Beth Bennett (42:53):
My husband recommended proffered golden
apples Wait what.
What was it?
It was like golden apples.
Wisdom is like golden apples.
Zack Johnson (43:03):
Proper.
Dr. Beth Bennett (43:04):
Proffered.
Proffered Offered.
Zack Johnson (43:07):
Golden apples, what?
Dr. Beth Bennett (43:09):
do you think, Graham, it might be above?
Maybe it's above, maybe it'stoo hard to grasp.
Zack Johnson (43:15):
No, but yeah, I really want to thank you for
being here today and come andstudy biology at Sattler.
It's a phenomenal.
I think it's a phenomenalprogram.
Dr. Beth Bennett (43:26):
And I think we have some of the best placement
of graduates too.
I mean, I don't know the statsand I'm biased.
Zack Johnson (43:32):
So we have people in medical in Texas, we have
people in medical inPennsylvania, we have a student
PA school in Pennsylvania, andthen we have a student
interviewing everywhere that Iknow, or an alumni or even a
reviewer.
Dr. Beth Bennett (43:45):
Yes, and a lot of our graduates, if they have
taken a gap year, have gottengood jobs we have with Sattler's
capstone requirements.
Some of them have stayed onworking as texts in the lab here
in Boston where they did theircapstone.
Zack Johnson (44:02):
Got it.
Dr. Beth Bennett (44:03):
So yeah, that's one of the benefits of
Sattler's.
We push students to getresearch internships, but then
if they do get one, it does helpthem.
Zack Johnson (44:14):
Yeah, I know we have current students with
internships at Dana-Farber,which what is for the
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Dr. Beth Bennett (44:21):
It's one of the top cancer institutes,
probably in the US.
Zack Johnson (44:26):
We got another student who's just got an
internship at MGH recently andso, yeah, it's a great.
Dr. Beth Bennett (44:33):
A bunch more that hopefully by summer we'll
have something landed.
Zack Johnson (44:36):
And it's a great door opener.
I think from the outsideBoston's really intrigued by
Sattler's students I love.
It seems like we don't quitebelong here.
You know what I mean by that.
Dr. Beth Bennett (44:48):
View some stories have filtered back to
you.
Zack Johnson (44:50):
Yeah, people are like what are you doing here in
Boston?
And I often am really excitedto see our students make
connections into these reallywell-run institutions.
And, yeah, thanks for all your.
Dr. Beth Bennett (45:02):
You have great students.
Zack Johnson (45:04):
Yeah, so keep that in mind.
Thanks for all your workdeveloping the students.
And Beth lives in Pennsylvania,so you come back and forth, so
thanks for all the travel you do.
And if this is the question,can people follow you anywhere?
Follow me, I don't want tofollow.
Don't try to find.
(45:25):
Don't try to find.
That's online.
You can find a bio on ourwebsite which we need to update.
Dr. Beth Bennett (45:30):
You can email me if you need.
Zack Johnson (45:32):
It All right, I should, you can email you need
information or have any otherquestions.
Well, that wraps it up today.
Any announcements?
I'll just announce we launchedIntrustment on Monday, so every
accepted students gets a fullyfunded tuition offer Really big
deal.
It's called Intrustment, sothat'swe have limited spots
(45:52):
available for the season.
I'm not going to mention howmany, but we aren't fully yet.
So if you're interested inapplying, apply at satireduapply
and then the bio concentrationscan be found under, I think,
academics on our website, incase you want.
Dr. Beth Bennett (46:09):
That sounds right.
Zack Johnson (46:10):
In case you want to, or you can email me, or
email Email works great, allright, thank you, dr Bennett, or
thanks Beth.
Dr. Beth Bennett (46:16):
Thank you, Zach.
Zack Johnson (46:18):
Thank you.
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