{"121381":{"#nid":"121381","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Shepler Draws from Experience to Guide Students","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhen a distraught student who is having second thoughts about majoring in chemistry comes to Carrie Shepler, she\u2019s able to provide him with meaningful advice \u2014 because she\u2019s been there herself.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI had a plan and ended up no where close to following it,\u201d said Shepler, who is director of freshman chemistry. \u201cBut this change of plans has helped me to better relate to many of the students that I\u2019ve worked with.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBefore her self-described \u201cmid-college crisis,\u201d Shepler wanted to become a nuclear medical technician, a job she\u2019d learned about after her father had a heart attack and had to undergo regular stress tests to check for blocked arteries.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe technician was the one responsible for administering the radioactive dye that was injected into her father for the tests; Shepler was fascinated with the process.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut after her first year of graduate school, Shepler had become more interested in teaching (after working as a teaching assistant), and she realized she wasn\u2019t interested in doing lab research for the rest of her life. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EYears later, as a teacher and academic advisor, Shepler has found her \u201cdream job.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMy mentors listened to me when I wasn\u2019t sure of where to go next,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m thankful that my job allows me to do the same for students who are in the position that I was in.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERead on to learn more about Shepler and her time at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow did you end up at Georgia Tech?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAbout four years ago, I was working as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Georgia, teaching and doing research in chemistry education, when I was invited to interview for a position as chemistry and biochemistry undergraduate program coordinator at Tech. I didn\u2019t think I would be offered the job, and I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d take it if I was because there wasn\u2019t enough teaching involved. But after being offered the job, my mom convinced me that what I loved most was interacting with students \u2014 which was a huge part of this job. So I accepted and eventually moved to my current position, which allows me to focus more on teaching. I\u2019ve been in my dream job ever since.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat does your job entail?\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003EI teach Tech\u2019s freshman chemistry courses each semester, but really I only spend about 10 percent of my time in the classroom. A lot of my days are spent in office hours, advising, writing recommendation letters and taking care of the logistics to ensure that everything goes smoothly for other instructors teaching this course.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat have you learned from your students?\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E \u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003EStudents often remind me to follow my own advice. For example, sometimes it takes me telling a student to stop worrying about sweating the small stuff to remind myself that I need to do the same.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat is the one piece of technology you can\u2019t live without?\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMy laptop \u2014 it goes everywhere with me.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhich do you prefer: Facebook, Twitter or a world without all of this social media stuff?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EA world without it. I use email so frequently in my professional life that I don\u2019t want to bother with social media in my personal time.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhere is your favorite spot on campus?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI like the rooftop garden on top of the Clough Building, and it\u2019s convenient because my office is in the building.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat was the biggest risk you\u2019ve ever taken, and did it pay off?\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003ETaking the job here at Tech, since I wasn\u2019t sure if it was right for me. But it certainly did pay off!\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EIf you could have dinner with one person, dead or alive, who would it be?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EPresident Obama, because I\u2019d love to gain a better understanding of the pressures of his job.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EIf you were stranded on an island, what is the one book you would want with you?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cTo Kill a Mockingbird\u201d (by Harper Lee), because it\u2019s my all-time favorite book.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETell us something about yourself that others might not know.\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003EI met my husband at nuclear chemistry summer school in college, which sounds like such a geeky way to meet your significant other.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhen a distraught student who is having second thoughts about majoring in chemistry comes to Carrie Shepler, she\u2019s able to provide him with meaningful advice \u2014 because she\u2019s been there herself.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"When a distraught student who is having second thoughts about majoring in chemistry comes to Carrie Shepler, she\u2019s able to provide him with meaningful advice \u2014 because she\u2019s been there herself."}],"uid":"27445","created_gmt":"2012-04-02 13:37:23","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:11:56","author":"Amelia Pavlik","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2012-04-02T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2012-04-02T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"121001":{"id":"121001","type":"image","title":"Carrie Shepler","body":null,"created":"1449178279","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:31:19","changed":"1475894743","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:43","alt":"Carrie Shepler","file":{"fid":"194384","name":"carrie.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/carrie_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/carrie_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":91809,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/carrie_0.jpg?itok=1sNP82BA"}}},"media_ids":["121001"],"groups":[{"id":"1259","name":"Whistle"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"29021","name":"carrie shepler"},{"id":"29031","name":"freshman chemistry"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:amelia.pavlik@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EAmelia Pavlik\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications \u0026amp; Marketing\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-385-4142\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}