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Changing Career Paths Dr. Sheryl L. Walker details some of the lessons she has learned throughout the trajectory of her career and why it pays to expect the unexpected
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ife is never a straight path. And much to my dismay, when I was 18 and a freshman at Michigan State University (MSU), my lifelong dream of being a veterinarian was completely dismantled: I passed just one point above flunking chemistry in college. I was aiming for ei ther a zoology or prevet med degree but both required several hard sci ence courses, including chemistry, biology and physics. So, after a very young midlife crisis, or so I thought at that time, I changed my major to psychology. I decided I wanted to be either a child/school psychologist or criminal psychologist. That is, until I trav eled to Australia and did an independent study on the communication/ behavioral differences between dingoes and wolves. The animal behav ior flame was ignited yet once again, and I took all the animal behavior, animal welfare, and applied anthrozoology courses that I could fit into my last three semesters at MSU.
2006: From East Lansing to Kalamazoo, Michigan Three weeks before graduation, fascinated by my professor’s knowledge and expertise as he talked about indicators of behavioral welfare in chickens, I received a call from a contract research organization in Kala mazoo, Michigan. They invited me to interview for a research technician position in reproductive toxicology working with rats and mice, and within a week, I received an offer.
© Sheryl Walker
Having taken a somewhat circuitous route, author Dr. Sheryl Walker (right) is now close to applying to be a certified applied animal behaviorist, a goal of 19 years
ral skills of being organized, detail oriented, and in control over my workload. During that time I became a certified registered quality assur ance professional – good laboratory practices (RQAPGLP).
2010: From Kalamazoo to Lafayette, Indiana 2007: From Psychology to Behavior Analysis I have always loved learning and loved school. I took a year off formal education and attended my first professional conference. It so hap pened that Western Michigan University was 20 minutes away and had a behavior program in their psychology department. Before too long, I had begun the adventure of a master’s in behavior analysis. Full time in graduate school. While working full time. While raising a puppy during the last 10 months of my program. Some say I was crazy. I say I was (and still am) goal oriented. It’s all about perspective!
2008: From Research Technician to Quality Assurance Auditor About a year into my master’s, I changed departments and was intro duced to the field of quality assurance. I loved it. It catered to my natu
I wasn’t quite satisfied with my formal education, so I started looking for companion animalrelated Ph.D. programs. I contacted Dr. Janet Sieg ford at MSU to see what type of animal research programs were there – all large animal. Interesting, but my passion was companion animals. She sent me towards Dr. Andrew Luescher, a boardcertified veterinary behaviorist and director of the Animal Behavior Clinic at Purdue Univer sity’s College of Veterinary Medicine. I emailed him, and within five months, I had accepted a graduate research assistantship in the Mad die’s Shelter Medicine Program at Purdue University. I spent four and a half years learning how difficult a Ph.D. really was as well as seeing some of the worst of humanity at an open admission an imal shelter. Nevertheless, it gave me the chance to combine dogs, shel ters, and academic research and I was grateful to be doing what I did.
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