Laura Schoenhals

What’s the most important leadership lesson you’ve learned?

True leadership is true love. Leadership is done best when it is truly service; this means leadership is a sacrifice. Leaders inspire their followers by example, which also allows them to fully respect and facilitate the freedom of their followers.

What do you consider to be your most important career achievement or milestone?

My most important career achievement was being accepted to graduate school. This was one of the first times I really tried to do something I wasn’t sure I was capable of. I’ve been encouraged to keep knocking on doors and applied for several grants as a result, one of which I was awarded!

What do you aspire to accomplish in your career and why? What obstacles will you overcome?

I want to become a professor of neuroscience so that I can encourage other students to try for their goals. I received a lot of support from teachers and professors throughout my life, and I would like to pay that forward. One obstacle I anticipate is balancing this goal with family time.

Describe an amazing opportunity in your STEM career.

I earned the Research! America MicroGrant, so I worked with my school’s Biomedical Graduate Students for Diversity (BGSD) organization to run children’s activities at a local farmer’s market and host a science coffee hour for the community. Now, I’ve jointed BGSD as co-outreach coordinator.

How was AWIS helped you professionally and/or personally?

AWIS provides me with inspiration. In my lab, I am the only woman, so it is helpful to know that I am not alone in difficulties I experience. Communication styles differ person to person, but it is nice to find encouragement to keep working through this, and that it is not all in my head.

What is your favorite word? (only one word)

Serendipity

How do you define it?

Serendipity is when things happen to happen well.

How has this word influenced or inspired your career?

Serendipity encourages me to remember that although things can go wrong outside of my control, they can also go right. So, I can set aside time for exploration and enjoyment and relax my imagined control over my life. Then, I have time for people and activities that really matter.

How does AWIS impact your career journey?

AWIS shows me different career paths and opportunities. I read about a psychology professor who originally had been highly involved in dance and is now running the program at her university. I thought, “Oh! I could do that too!”

What are you currently reading or listening to?

Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky

What do you consider the best professional or personal advice you’ve ever received?

Don’t count yourself out before you’ve even tried. This is a variation of ‘fake it ‘til you make it’, but acknowledges that your skills are real, rather than building on imposter syndrome.

A Colorado native, Laura Schoenhals has always loved movement. She started dancing at the age of seven, and has no plans to stop. She moved to Pennsylvania for a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Dance at Eastern University. Now, she investigates the neural underpinnings of locomotion as a PhD student in the Danner Lab at Drexel University. In her free time, she loves dancing, baking sourdough, and singing in the church choir.