Discovering career options at The Field Museum

It’s amazing what you can learn from some algae.

Tammy Basso (CSH ’16) spent the summer of 2015 organizing, imaging and entering data on hundreds of specimens of algae, mosses and ferns in the botany department at The Field Museum. At first the variety of samples overwhelmed Basso, at that time a senior majoring in environmental studies and double-minoring in biological sciences and economics.

Then she started discovering things—like the 110-year old algae sample from the park where she used to hike with her father.

“I learned that you really have to conserve everything,” said Basso, who explored departments throughout the Field Museum and its neighbor, the Shedd Aquarium. “It helped put the whole thing into perspective for me. I’m databasing this and organizing this because it’s going to be useful to some person someday, and that day might be tomorrow.”

Basso was one of the recipients of the Dean’s Undergraduate Fellowship in the College of Science and Health . She learned about the 10-week paid research internship during a presentation by a staff member from DePaul’s Career Center. A classmate encouraged her to apply. Two of her professors wrote letters of recommendation, and Basso had her résumé reviewed at a DePaul workshop.

“I wanted an internship so that I could get research experience for future employers to see,” Basso said.

Through the internship, she discovered both the fun—the special badge that accesses the secret elevator to the Field’s little-known third floor—and the reality of working for a major research institution.

“Both of my bosses–one has a PhD and one has a master’s– had to database just like us,” she said.  “I don’t think people realize when they go to work in research institutions that they’ll still be doing hard work like that.”

As a bonus, Basso got lots of tips about life after college from Yarency Rodriguez, a 2014 DePaul alumna who works at The Field Museum.

But the most important thing that Basso discovered was that her degree and her interests in sustainability, education and non-profits could lead to careers she’d never dreamed of—for example, chief curiosity correspondent.

“It helped me realize that there are so many more opportunities outside of what I thought I was going to be doing with my degree,” she said.

“I’m glad that DePaul encourages experiential learning.  I think it’s something you don’t know you need until you do it.”