Alumni offer advice on career paths, community building
By Laura Gallup, Student and Campus Life
After graduating with an engineering degree from Cornell, Danya Contreras ’13 entered the workforce but quickly realized her true calling was medicine. After seven years of perseverance – including earning a master’s degree while working full-time –she received an acceptance letter to SUNY Upstate Medical University.
“I took the MCAT, but didn’t make it the first time,” said Contreras, one of two featured speakers at the “REALTALK: Thriving through Community” speaker event held Oct. 24 at Barnes Hall Auditorium. “But I didn't give up, because I knew I would not be happy in life if I wasn’t a doctor.”
Hosted by the Gender Equity Resource Center (GenEq) and the Cornell chapter of the Delta Gamma Sorority, the third annual REALTALK series aims to bring young, successful female and gender-expansive alumni back to campus to share their stories.