Vivien Qiao S’18: Discovering Your Unique Path
Scientist, Vivien Qiao S’18, shares her unique journey towards an MD/PhD and explains how there can be many paths to one goal.
In high school, Vivien Qiao knew she wanted to pursue a career in biochemistry and medicine. With the influence of the Mountain School, she found a way to pursue this path on her own terms, realizing that there are many avenues to the same goal. In this profile, you will learn about Vivien’s unique journey towards an MD/PhD, how TMS impacted her trajectory and what wisdom she has gained along the way.
Written by Kiran Park S’23
“Knowing you can deviate from that traditional path and still reach the same goal is comforting”
Even before she came to the Mountain School in Spring 2018, Vivien Qiao knew that she wanted her career to be in biochemistry and medicine. Not only did she have an interest in learning about the human body and the most effective ways to treat it, but both of her parents were chemists, as well. Now, as a double major in Engineering and Biochemistry and a Goldwater Scholar at Smith College, Vivien has been working in lab to perform biochemical research. During her time at the Mountain School, she learned the importance of thoughtful, intentional decision making; with this value, she was able to choose the path that best fit her goals for her future.
The Mountain School was a novel experience for Vivien. She grew up in suburban Massachusetts, a far cry from the sparsely populated farmland of rural Vermont and didn’t consider herself to be very outdoorsy. The hands-on, nature-focused curriculum of the school was a change from her sending school. The idea of calling teachers by their first names was foreign to her. But gradually, the TMS culture of trust and intimacy, unfailingly apparent in each semester, came about, allowing Vivien to feel comfortable to push herself out of her comfort zone and try new things. She recalled the feeling of existing in such a healthy and supportive environment, saying it “...helped me grow as a person and be aware and reflective of my experiences.” The Environmental Studies program played an especially important role in this: not only was she taught to look past the surface of something and learn its deeper story, but she discovered that learning didn’t have to take place inside a classroom. This alternative style of schooling was, in a way, one of Vivien’s biggest takeaways from TMS, helping her to realize that learning didn’t have to be traditional. She remarked on the “specific, linear MD path” that most undergraduates follow, and how she didn’t want to pursue a postgraduate degree in the same fashion. Instead, Vivien balanced her time between academic pursuits and other, more recreational interests. “Knowing you can deviate from that traditional path and still reach the same goal is comforting,” she said.
Vivien is currently a part of the Moore Lab at Smith, researching protein engineering. Her work focuses on making slight changes to the genetic sequencing of proteins to enable their attachment to drugs or imaging agents that are meant to be delivered to cancer cells. The goal is for the packages carried by the proteins to be internalized into those cells, allowing for more targeted cancer treatment. Vivien plans to take two gap years after college to continue doing research, then pursue an MD/PhD. Further in the future, her dream is to be employed at a teaching hospital, working with medical students and passing down the idea that there are a million different ways to learn, and a million different ways to achieve a goal.