PhD Journal Of A Ghanaian Woman in Stem

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  • A Good Spring Semester and the End of my Third Year

    As I wrap up this semester, I am taking some time to reflect on the past year as a scientist. It has been a memorable, yet trying year. I have felt disappointment and joy. I have been excited about my work, yet quietly questioned whether I belong in it. It is a strange combination of…

  • “Enjoy your failures”

    I was recently in the company of a successful scientist. He shared a lot about his journey, the choices he’d made, the turns his career had taken. He talked about many things, but three words stuck with me: enjoy your failures. After that, I barely heard the rest. The phrase kept ringing in my mind.…

  • What’s Been on My Plate Lately

    Food has a way of telling you where your head is at. Not in a dramatic way, but in a reflective manner. What we crave can be telling of who we are. It is true that “we are what we eat”. The one meal I’ve been making lately is boiled yam with kontomire stew. Kontomire is…

  • Home 🇬🇭

    12 days home. 12 good days.  After 2 years 5 months and 15 days, I flew back home. After being away for so long, 12 days in Ghana felt both short and deeply full. Not like any place, but a place where I belong.  Sitting with family, catching up, watching how everyone has grown, life…

  • ’25 Wrapped

    Reflecting on 2025, it has been a year truly for the books. A year so profoundly challenging in many ways, yet deeply rewarding. As a scientist, my biggest lesson was making peace with the understanding that not every problem has a solution. I am learning to show up with greater consistency in how I approach…

  • Onwards

    Lately, my research has been a cycle of hard work and unexpected results, testing my belief in my own progress. Despite long hours and countless experiments, I’ve had more dead ends than breakthroughs. While I’m blessed with a support system that remind me I’m on the right path, it’s hard to silence the doubt that…

  • A Lasting Lesson, A Little Win

    As I begin the third year of my PhD, I’ve been reflecting a lot on the pace of research and how often it feels like two steps forward, one step back. A friend and college recently told me that it’s called ‘re-search ‘because you have to keep searching, again and again, to uncover the truth. Lately that…

  • What Exactly Is My PhD About?

    At the most basic level, what makes each of us unique is our DNA. Think of DNA as the instruction manual for building and running your body. A complete set of these instructions is called your genome. Unless you have an identical twin, your genome is entirely your own! And the fascinating part is that every…

  • One Step Closer: Officially A PhD Candidate

    Two nights ago, my mind was a mess. “You’ve been preparing for this for weeks” I told myself. “So why do you feel like you’ve retained nothing?” Today, the day after, here’s the update: I passed with a unanimous “Yes” from my committee! God is good. It still feels surreal. Now that I think back…

  • Second Year Into My PhD

    It’s hard to believe I am in my second semester of my second year and we’re already four months into 2025. Time is flying! These past few months have been a whirlwind of learning, adapting, and growing, especially as I navigate the second year of my PhD. There’s been a lot of research (of course), but also…