The road less traveled
Above: Despite a last-minute career change and the uncertainties COVID-19 has caused, Kroc feels her experiences studying abroad and leading the Science and Engineering Student Board in CSE have given her a unique leg up in her career after graduation.
CSE senior aims for a career in healthcare
May 6, 2020
Samantha Kroc has dreamed of being a pharmacist since she was a sophomore in the College of Science and Engineering. When she became an emergency room scribe this year, she realized a career in pharmacy wasn’t exactly what she wanted.
“It’s a little scary to possibly come out of school not only not having a job, but also not having a job that you enjoy,” said Kroc, who is a senior majoring in chemistry. “When you spend that much money on school, it would be hard and a little devastating.”
So, she switched gears. Kroc decided to attend grad school to become a physician’s assistant (PA). Then, COVID-19 hit.
“I had started as a scribe this semester with plans to be a [Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)] after graduation because the training would be hard to do while taking classes,” Kroc explained. “This has all changed since I'm not able to complete the class to become a CNA [during COVID-19], and I have had a lot of hours taken away at my current job because [the hospital] needs to save money.”
Kroc is now finishing up her last semester virtually in Gurnee, Ill.
With the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19, she may have to take two gap years instead of one. Although chemistry is not the most common degree to have going into PA school, Kroc thinks her time in CSE has given her unique experiences that will set her apart from other graduates.
Feels like home
It was the University of Minnesota’s prestigious program in chemical engineering that caught Kroc’s eye, but she switched to chemistry upon discovering her interest in healthcare.
“When I came to campus and did a visit, I just felt more comfortable,” Kroc said.
“I found that majors [in CSE] were pretty small—about 150 people—so you kind of get to know everyone in your major,” she said.
During her freshman year, Kroc joined the Science and Engineering Student Board’s (SESB) first-year initiative, and by her sophomore year, she was the program’s director.
“I really like mentoring people,” she said. “I chose to [lead the first-year initiative] because I got to mentor a lot of first-year students who didn’t really know what they were doing—just like I didn’t know what I was doing [as a freshman].”
This year, Kroc served as the SESB president, putting in 10-15 hours per week and overseeing student board members from every CSE department.
Event planning is her favorite part of being involved in SESB. She enjoys seeing her college community grow and connect.
“It’s helped me evolve, too, as a leader and as a student,” Kroc said. “My freshman year, I’d say I was pretty timid and quiet. Working my way up to a president role is something I never pictured I could do. It’s been really helpful and exciting to see myself grow.”
Setting yourself apart
Learning abroad is another highlight of her undergraduate career.
As a junior, Kroc traveled to Bocas Tel Doro Islands for CSE’s Panama Global Seminar on water quality. There, she—and several other chemistry majors—interacted with local residents, took water samples, and studied them for attributes like pH level, turbidity, and bacteria presence.
During the one-week course, Kroc was tasked with performing ethnographic surveys of the communities they visited, which included asking the local residents where their water came from and if it made them feel sick.
“It definitely helped to see a different perspective and different way of life,” she said.
“[The locals] weren’t necessarily doing the chemistry with us," she added. "But, they helped us with a lot of the experiments, so it was really cool to be able to teach someone something else too.”
Kroc believes her experience doing fieldwork, especially in another country, will greatly benefit her future career.
“Who can say that they did a chemistry class in Panama?” She added. “We were in the middle of islands I’ll probably never be back to in my lifetime. That was really exciting.”
After graduating this May, Kroc plans to build upon the skills she learned in CSE—to eventually land herself in PA school. She hopes that her Class of 2020 can one day have an in-person commencement to celebrate their accomplishments together.
“I still got all of the opportunities I wanted to get out of [CSE],” she said. “I think I have a very unique perspective that’s different from most in the pre-med or pre-healthcare field, which is why I’m really glad I chose to stay in CSE.”
Story by Olivia Hultgren
Read about other graduating seniors and their CSE experiences:
Breaking through the comfort zone
A bright future in academia awaits
Bring on the internships, says SWE president
From the 'sandbox' to the real world
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