Alexandra Noel

I would attribute my success to perseverance and determination. I think those are the main key characteristics that somebody needs to make it. A lot of times, people will say, oh, it's because you're smart. And I don't believe that you need to be the smartest. I think you really need to be perseverant and determined, because at the end of the day, it's really perseverance that will bring you to your goal. Just like my major achievement of getting my first R01 - it took me several attempts to get that. I think I tried 3 years to get it. So when I got it, it was like, oh my god, you know, I made it. Everything that we do in science, a lot of time, you won't get it on the first try, but you just have to continue, learn from the experience, from the previous experience where it didn't work out, improve, resubmit, and go through the process again. When it comes to challenges and how to overcome them, I see those challenges not necessarily as setbacks, but as opportunities for growth and learning, and I apply the lessons learned in my next attempt. I've also been fortunate to have a great mentoring team, both officially and unofficially. I had great female mentors who helped guide me and showed me how to navigate academia. It takes a village to raise a kid, and I think it also takes a lot of people to raise somebody in academia.

One of the best pieces of advice I've received from my mentors is to learn early how to say no. A lot of times when we're women in academia, and in certain fields where we're the minority compared to men, we could be asked to be on a lot of committees because we're productive and we deliver. But that could be overwhelming if you keep on saying yes to everything. My mentors showed me that you need to have a balance - you need service, you need to be in those committees, but you cannot do everything at the same time. Sometimes it's hard when you have to say no when your department head asks you to be on another committee, but there are ways to say no. I'm still learning - I'm not perfect yet, I'm better, but I'm not perfect yet. It's a continuous learning process in academia. The advice is really about maintaining a good balance and focusing on what's important for you at your current stage, and for that, sometimes you need to learn how to say no.

I would tell her to don't give up. Be perseverant. I think perseverance is very important when you go into research, when you decide to do a PhD. You need to be perseverant, and you need to be determined. I think those are the main key characteristics that somebody needs to make it. A lot of times, people will say, oh, it's because you're smart. And I don't believe that you need to be the smartest. I think you really need to be perseverant and determined, because at the end of the day, it's really perseverance that will bring you to your goal. Just like my major achievement - it took me several, several attempts to get that first R01. I think I tried 3 years to get it. So when I got it, it was like, oh my god, you know, I made it. Everything that we do in science, a lot of time, you won't get it on the first try, but you just have to continue, learn from the experience, from the previous experience where it didn't work out, improve, resubmit, and go through the process again. Perseverance and determination are key abilities that people need to have if they're going to be successful in this type of field.

In terms of challenges, there are a lot of mini challenges that you have to face every day - whether it's an experiment that doesn't go the way you thought it would go, or you submit a grant proposal and it's not accepted or not reviewed because it was not scored high enough. All of these things are little challenges, but what's important when you face these challenges is to learn from the experience. Every opportunity that was given to you is an experience and a time to learn, and if it didn't go the way you want it, how do you take that information as a learning experience to improve the next time you're going to face a similar situation? I see challenges not necessarily as setbacks, but as opportunities for growth and for learning, and I apply the lessons learned in my next attempt. Sometimes you need distance because you could be emotionally affected by that challenge - take a bit of distance, and then come back and reflect on that learning opportunity and what could be done better or improved the next time. One of my greatest opportunities is that I have the ability to help other people. As a mentor to grad students and undergrads who work in the lab, I've had students tell me they never thought they could see somebody who looks like me doing something that they could have the possibility of doing. For me, it's been an opportunity to maybe be a role model, just by being there and doing what I do, as a woman of color. Students have told me they didn't think about science, but when they joined my lab and saw somebody who looked like them being successful, it opened their mind into what they can do after their degrees. That's been very heartwarming because it was not necessarily intentional, but I got the opportunity to touch someone and maybe frame their career trajectory.