Microbiology pre-med senior pursues passion for patient care

But halfway through her time at Oregon State, she faced an obstacle she’d never seen coming.

“I unfortunately had to go to the ICU with sepsis and pneumonia and have emergency surgery during winter term of my second year. And boy, does that mess some things up,” she recalled.

Out of the whirlwind of emotions this brought, the most potent were shock and fear. Going from worrying about tests to worrying about the safety of her own body was rattling. While in the hospital, Sterrett saw two very different ways professionals approached patient care.

“I had some medical practitioners who did an extremely good job at interacting with me, explaining things to me and making sure I was in the loop, and then I'd have other people who would basically just do things to me in the hospital. Like, do medical procedures and not even speak a word to me, which is — especially when you can't communicate, because I had oxygen in and I had a very hard time talking for the first week that I was there — is scary and overwhelming,” she said.

Fortunately, her partner, roommate and family were there to help her navigate the difficult circumstances. Several weeks later, she recovered enough to be discharged and eventually resume school. It was an exhausting experience to say the least, but when she did return, her resolve toward quality patient care had grown exponentially stronger. It has even influenced the specialty she wants to pursue.

“I think it can be very easy during pre-med to become very detached,” she said. “I like being able to cultivate that relationship with people and build that trust, which you can do as a family practitioner when you're seeing people over long periods of time.”

Support and success

Now that she’s reached the finish line at Oregon State, Sterrett is especially grateful for the work she’s done with College of Science faculty.

During fall term in 2021, she started working with Ryan Mueller from the microbiology department after meeting him at a research mixer. It was a particularly exciting opportunity because the project they tackled was completely new, meaning they worked together to get it running. She even developed a cost-friendly method of creating anaerobic media for bacteria that would otherwise die in the presence of oxygen, a method also used successfully later in a graduate student’s research.

In her microbiology classes, professors Allison Evans and Linda Bruslind brought a joy to teaching and didn’t hesitate to support students however they could. Evans even wrote her a letter of recommendation for her medical school application.

“Allison Evans and Linda Bruslind are the two best teachers at OSU hands down. They are the best people ever,” she said. “Allison Evans is one of the most friendly people you've ever met. She will talk to you whenever, and she's just so nice. Linda's the same way. They're both so happy and excited to help you.”

With the support of her science mentors, the skills of a strong leader and a passion for helping those who need it, Sterrett’s leap beyond her bachelor’s is sure to land somewhere she will thrive.