Bushra Shahid

Hello! I’m Bushra and very flattered to be asked to talk about myself and share some of my experiences I grew up in the UAE and moved to Pakistan for my undergrad, where I majored in Biology from the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). At the time, I wasn’t really thinking about job prospects or what kind of career I envisioned myself pursuing – I had always enjoyed Biology classes in school and thought it made sense to go for something I found interesting.

As I approached my senior year, it slowly sunk in that I had to start thinking seriously about what I wanted to do after LUMS. Unfortunately, my instructors weren’t really the most helpful in this regard and I realized I needed to take some time out to really figure out what I want. And I think that was probably the smartest decision I have ever made because it can be so easy to get caught up in always DOING something (Especially when all your friends are getting great PhD offers). I decided to ask one of my instructors to let me work as a Research Assistant on an Epigenetics research project on Diabetes (minimal pay but what can you do). It was very frustrating because there aren’t many places in Pakistan for research and especially for female researchers, and my parents weren’t comfortable letting me work any place other than my university, so I didn’t have much choice. However, I still learned a lot and finessed my experimental skills.

During this time, I FINALLY figured 2 things out. First, I actually enjoyed research, and this was something I could see myself in. Second, Pakistan, unfortunately, was not the best place for research and I needed to apply elsewhere. With some clarity in what I wanted, I decided to begin the horrendous applications process and somehow miraculously got into my dream program – a fully-funded Erasmus MSc program in Evolutionary Biology from a consortium of 4 universities – Uppsala, Montpellier, Munich and Harvard where I will be learning from some of the best professors in Ecology, Evolution and Epidemiology. It’s a huge opportunity and I am beyond excited to begin this next phase of my academic life. I still feel like I don’t know what I’m doing sometimes, but the one thing I am confident about is that I belong in a lab as opposed to perhaps a corporate field. Hope I stick it out!