Shai White

My background includes a BA in World Religion from Ohio Wesleyan University and a Master’s degree in Oriental Medicine from the Midwest College for the Study of Oriental Medicine.   It’s been a somewhat unusual path to doctoral studies in cancer biology, but what can you do?  I currently study the role of signal transduction pathways in the treatment of prostate cancer with TRAIL, a protein signal for programmed cell death. 

I joined the NSF GK-12 grant to get a chance to study teaching.  I am paired with Mary O’Leary and spend one day every week in the classroom with her and about 75 kids.  In addition to the classroom time, we take a class every semester on the pedagogy of teaching and educational research.  Mary and I have designed a research project to correlate the success of students in learning a new skill with the teaching methodology used.  The design considerations for this sort of question are so different from the design considerations for a signal transduction experiment that I can’t help but feel that understanding only one model or the other is inherently limiting.  I certainly appreciate the chance to think about how to study a variety of subjects. 

In my free time (ha ha) I try to kick back with my boyfriend and the dogs, possibly practicing our instruments for our band called, of course, The Really Bad Band in deference to our abilities.  I picked up the fiddle a few years ago and have yet to sound good although the dogs sing along anyway.  They’re so helpful.

 

Last updated 10/28/04
tempelge@musc.edu