Jessie's bio

Hello- my name is Jessie Stuart and I’m a junior majoring in Biology and English. I’m from Connecticut, but I do think the west coast is the best coast and I hope to spend the rest of my life out here. I’ve always wanted to be a doctor, but to me being a good doctor means being a good human more than it means being good at physics, hence my decision to major in the humanities. I also just love reading and want to become a better writer. After I graduate I’m taking a year off before med school, and my plan is to go live in a ski town and be a lifty or a waitress or something and ski/hike/run/write a lot. I’d love to help (in some small way) fix our country’s obesity epidemic because I think it’s a very scary problem, and I’m hoping that I can accomplish that not only as a doctor but as a writer. Right now I’m reading The Best American Scientific Writing of 2012, which is pretty nerdy but also incredibly interesting and helpful because writing about science is exactly what I want to do.

I do think there’s such a thing as a new story because of how dramatically and rapidly our society is changing. I recently read an article about the ethics of terminating a pregnancy because you know the child has a horrible illness—that’s a story and a problem and a spectrum of emotions that didn’t exist 20 years ago. I think that technology allows us to better understand—for better or for worse—fundamental truths about human nature that open up new pockets full of potential stories. Our ever-expanding knowledge of ourselves and the world around us means that new stories are being written every day, and I really do believe that.