Alum Shares Wisdom From Career Journey

Sometimes the path you think you'll follow after you leave grad school isn't the path you end up taking-and that's okay.

Jason Marvin stands at a podium delivering his talk. The slide behind him reads: Looking back: Takeaways and advice. If I could tell younger, overthinking me it would all work out. Looking good on paper isn't enough: seek conversations, not just credentials. Build relationships with intent: create opportunities for authentic relationships to develop. Keep reassessing: being good at something doesn't mean it has to be your calling.

Credit: Provided

Jason Marvin, Ph.D. '22, gives the alumni keynote at the 2026 Summer Success Symposium.

During the Summer Success Symposium alumni keynote session on Aug. 18, Jason Marvin, Ph.D. '22, spoke about his journey from earning his doctorate in biomedical engineering with the goal of becoming a professor to instead becoming director of partnerships and external relations at the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

"What I do now is nothing that I imagined I would be doing during my graduate training, and it wasn't even something that was on my radar until much later," he said during the talk, titled, "Finding Your Way: A Scientist's Serendipitous Career Path from Academia to Science Advocacy."

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