Alumna Carolyn Wilke Starts a New Chapter
No one has more scientific curiosity than Carolyn Wilke '18. While pursuing her Ph.D., she knew she would never be content researching one thing, so after graduating, she decided to become a freelance science writer. Using the expertise she gleaned from her time studying, Carolyn asks and answers questions that incite discovery and even wonder.
1. Why did you choose Northwestern to pursue your Ph.D.?
In some ways, it was part location as I was trying to find a place close to family. A big part of why I chose environmental engineering at Northwestern was that I was excited about the research in the department. There was a range of projects that seemed cool and that I was excited about, and it seemed like a great place for me to apply some of the understanding and skills that I had learned previously doing chemical engineering and undergraduate research to these new questions and this new environmental realm.
2. Can you recall a moment from your time at Northwestern that impacted or inspired you?
At Northwestern, there were so many wonderful projects I was working on. There are a lot of core facilities or equipment that research groups all over the University can use. It was exhilarating to be able to learn how to do transmission electron microscopy and to take pictures of my samples—zoomed in—and see super tiny structures. That was fun and exciting.
I also got to go to Argonne National Lab with some of my colleagues to do some characterization to better understand the properties of the materials I was working with. So, I got to use some neat equipment there, and learn about new techniques. In general, I just appreciated all the opportunities available to students and students doing research at Northwestern. It made it a great place to do the kind of work I was doing blending aspects of different fields. My work combined some aspects of microbiology, material science, environmental engineering, and chemistry. So, it was neat that in one place, I had all the tools to take on this project I was working on.
3. How do you feel that the graduate program at Northwestern prepared you for life after your education?
One wonderful thing about graduate school in general and graduate school at Northwestern is that being a researcher teaches you how to investigate a problem, especially one that might not be a solution set out for you.
So at Northwestern, I felt like I got a chance to learn how to do lots of different, experimental techniques, sometimes from my colleagues, but sometimes by puzzling through methods that were listed out in research papers with the help of my faculty advisors or with the help of older graduate students. I benefited from working with other people in the department and learning from them. In general, graduate school offers students the ability to learn how to figure things out. It is a good education in problem-solving.
4. What made you decide to pursue journalism after graduating?
I knew pretty early—in graduate school, I would say. I figured out that I didn't necessarily want to study the same kinds of questions for a long time. Researchers, like faculty at universities or people doing research at a national lab, often go deep into one subject or look at one carved-out area for a long time in their careers, and I know that I really enjoyed pursuing a lot of different interests in science. I was casting out early in graduate school to figure out what career would suit me. I was trying to figure out what might be an avenue for me to explore multiple areas and explore lots of questions in science. And that's how I discovered journalism.
I also realized that I really love the challenge of taking a complex concept and explaining it to someone in a more accessible language. I've always really enjoyed that part of writing. Even in technical writing, there are times when you must unpack an idea or concept, and I've always found that really satisfying. So that was the main reason for me to start looking at journalism. Then in 2017, that summer when I was still a graduate student, I did the AAA's mass media fellowship, a ten-week program where students in the sciences or engineering are paired with students in newsrooms, and you get to spend ten weeks reporting. So that experience cemented for me that I wanted to go into journalism. I had a great summer reporting on all sorts of things, from the chemistry of making wine to how researchers study bumblebees in the high sierras and their health with all sorts of measures. I had a neat experience learning exactly what interested me and being in a newsroom.
5. What is the biggest challenge you faced after graduating? How did you overcome it?
The biggest challenge is that I chose to become a freelance journalist, which means that I work for myself and I'm constantly finding work. The challenge is that I'm always defining what my job is, so it's ongoing. It's a challenge, but also an opportunity because I really like being able to explore and make decisions about what types of articles I want to be writing about or what types of stories I want to be writing.
6. What advice would you give to prospective graduate students?
My advice to prospective graduate students would be to figure out where your interests and passions align with your skills and education. It's been wonderful to take this expertise in science and engineering, which I built upon in my time at Northwestern, and apply it to this field of journalism and writing, which I have a lot of passion for and which I continue to grow in all the time. Often, interesting opportunities lie in the intersection of things. You never know where following your interests or your skills could lead you.
Ask yourself, “What is one thing I’m passionate about?” For me, it’s writing, obviously, and I really enjoy teaching. I'm now teaching a class that's a partnership between Medill and TGS. It's called “Health and Science Reporting and Writing.” It's just so much fun to communicate all that I have learned over the years while doing science journalism to graduate students—students who are in a place that I was not that long ago. I hope this class gives them the opportunity to or provides them with the skills to share their work more confidently and with broader audiences.
Another piece of advice I would give prospective graduate students is to learn how to communicate your work because being able to share it means that you can help other people understand why it's important and why you're passionate about it.