Case McNamara
Science is often about terms, formulas, equations and the scientific method.
But for Case McNamara, being successful studying chemistry at California State University at San Marcos was more about people than the periodic table. And the people who were most important were the ones he learned with and from.
McNamara points out that all his major classes at CSUSM were taught by professors, not teaching assistants. The largest class he had in an upper division chemistry class had 12 students in it. Because of their small numbers, chemistry majors formed a community and worked and studied together. McNamara said when they did hit a roadblock professors were more than willing to help.
McNamara said he viewed professors more as experienced teammates as opposed to bossy head coaches. While students might think of professors who are available and committed to teaching as an unquantifiable intangible, his relationship with professors produced results he’s still reaping.
“In one sense it gave me greater self confidence that I was able to relate and talk with these professors as peers and that they weren’t necessarily up on this pedestal and were people I couldn’t relate or talk to,” he said. “The social aspect came in and helped augment the academic aspect. My confidence and ability to have confidence be successful in my field relates directly to those relationships with the professors. “
Like the one he had with Dr. Jose Mendoza. McNamara participated in undergraduate research for two years under Dr. Mendoza’s guidance. McNamara said he got more out of the experience than just personal training, a published paper and weekly progress report meetings with Dr. Mendoza, which he found invaluable as well.
“The valuable aspect was the experience and self-confidence I got from doing it,” he said. “I became familiar with new techniques and they were reinforced by what I learned in my upper division courses. More importantly, my experience with him helped teach me the critical thinking skills required in scientific studies. I was able to translate those skills and experience to my graduate studies. Without that experience I would have been ill-prepared.”
And when McNamara was thrown into teaching as a graduate teaching assistant, how that experience contrasted with his own really hit home.
“It wasn’t until I went to graduate school with a great reputation and I was a TA myself - and the TA’s are doing the bulk of the teaching - that it really hit me,” McNamara recounted. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘Hey, I just got my bachelors and now I am teaching these kids. So, I knew looking back, that I had received high quality of instruction and that I benefitted directly from the knowledge of my professors.”
McNamara is in the last of year of pursuing his Ph. D. at the University of California at San Diego where he searches for a better drug for treating malaria as a member of Scripps Institute for Research and the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Foundation. While he hopes to become a tenure track professor at a university or get a research investigator position at the genomics institute in the near future, McNamara feels well-prepared to tackle any opportunity that might came along. But he doesn’t think he could have done it without the people he learned with and from.
