My "Genetic Counseling: Career for the Future" Journey

Picking up where I last left off in the tale of my journey, in the spring of my junior year of undergrad, I took the University of South Carolina's online course, "Genetic Counseling: Career for the Future." I had found the course when I was browsing USC's program page. At this point in my journey, I had no genetic counseling exposure, so I decided it was a good option for me. I believe at the time I took it (2019), it was only offered in the spring. Now, it is offered in the spring, summer, and fall. I would recommend taking it during a time when you have a light course load. For me, I had waited until I had finished orgo 1 and 2, cell bio, and genetics before taking it. This particular semester I was only taking 12 credit hours, so it was the least stressful spring semester I had before applying to genetic counseling programs.

The class was all held on USC's blackboard platform. I wish I still had the syllabus so I could go into more accurate detail, but I'll try my best to recall the general aspects of the course. Every week you would have assigned readings that were usually articles related to genetic counseling or the topic of that week. You had to make a post each week (I think about your thoughts on the required reading) and comment on two other students' posts. There were also weekly lectures posted from the GC program staff that would cover different topics or show real or simulated genetic counseling sessions. I believe you also to make weekly blog posts that were different from the post I already mentioned, but I can't remember what exactly those posts were about. You also had to purchase A Guide to Genetic Counseling, and there were assigned readings from that as well. During the semester, you had to keep a running dictionary of new terms that you learned from the textbook that you would submit twice.

The class ran from early January to late-March/early-April, and each week would cover a different topic. For me, some weeks were more interesting than others, because they covered topics I hadn't come across in my journey yet. I entered the course thinking that genetic counseling really only pertained to pre-natal and pediatric situations, and I thankfully came out of it knowing that there were GCs that specialized in adult genetics, cancer genetics, laboratory genetics, and specialized clinics. Learning about these different fields of genetic counseling was a really eye opening experience. I was even more sure that genetic counseling was the field for me because of the flexibility and the ever-changing nature of the field. I wanted a career that wouldn't be the same thing day after day, and this course showed me that even staying in one specialty would provide a constantly evolving work-life.

After the course explored the different specialties of genetic counseling, it went into ELSI, or, ethical, legal, and social implications. I found these topics super interesting because I had just taken a medical ethics course that fall and enjoyed discussing different viewpoints with my classmates. The course ended with a week on grad school, and there was an assignment to research programs you were interested in and make a spreadsheet comparing details across those programs.

Some of the more daunting assignments that occurred later on in the course included a book report, interviewing a genetic counselor, and interviewing a genetic counseling student. The book report ended up being a lot less troublesome than I thought it would be. I was originally worried about it because I had not taken an English or literature class in undergraduate before that semester, but the book report was really lax with its requirement and prompt. I chose Pretty is What Changes for my book report, and I would definitely recommend it! It follows the author through her journey of getting genetic testing, discovering she has a BRCA mutation, and the choices she makes after.

The interviews were daunting for me because I have email anxiety. I went to NSGC's find a genetic counselor tool and looked at genetic counselors in my state. I chose one that was open to student contact that was a part of the GC program closest to me. After emailing back and forth for a while, we could not find a time to talk before the assignment was due. I remember panicking because I had spent so much time trying to set up a time with her that I only had a few days until the assignment was due. I went back to the NSGC tool an found another GC in my state, this time a GC that worked at the biotechnology center in my home town. We set up a phone interview for as soon as possible, and I asked her a few questions about how she found genetic counseling, where she went for undergrad, etc. Knowing what I know now, I probably should've prepared more questions for her, but coincidentally, after I hung up, I received an email saying that I would be working with her and the rest of the genetic counseling team that summer.

The GC student interview was not as nerve-wracking for me, but it was difficult for me to find a student to interview. Most students don't have their emails available like practicing GCs do, so I eventually emailed a program I was interested in asking if there were any students that I could interview, and I ended up emailing the student a couple of times getting a good feel for her journey and what I needed to do to prepare for the upcoming application cycle.

I apologize if this post comes off a little unorganized; it was hard to remember exactly what all I did in those 12 weeks! Overall, I would definitely recommend the course to anybody who is interested in learning more about genetic counseling and have not yet received any exposure. It does cost around $500, so while I do recommend taking the course, there are definitely other ways to gain exposure for less money. If you do decide to take the course, definitely make sure that you make room for it in your schedule!

My next post about my journey to GC will discuss my summer internship as a genetic counseling intern! If you want to hear more about my journey, please feel free to subscribe to the blog at the bottom of the page, or you can follow me on Instagram @journey2gc!