Every Monday, the Elizabethtown College Biology & Environmental Sciences Department hosts a Biology Seminar at 3:45 p.m. in Hoover 212 to help students explore possible research opportunities and jobs that they may be interested in pursuing. Etown alumna Dr. Heather House was invited to speak on Feb. 20 to talk about her experiences as an emergency room (ER) physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. House, who was out of the closet during her time at Etown, was invited by Etown Gender-Sexuality Alliance (GSA) to a dinner get-together to discuss how Etown has changed since then and to learn more about her job experiences.
House’s wife, Lauren, was also present and talked about being a state bureau director in health and human services. She specifically works with adults with intellectual disabilities. This job was of interest to many students who attended the dinner, as it was interdisciplinary and involved many students’ majors and interests.
During the presentation, House showed a slide of photos to the attendees, talking about the many memories she had about her journey as an undergraduate, a medical school student and an ER physician. One of the photos showed a group of students enjoying some food on someone’s lawn. House said she could not recollect whose lawn this was, and in a moment that put a smile on everyone’s faces; Etown biology professor Dr. Jane Cavendar said that this was a student gathering at her house.
One thing that House kept stressing is that medical school is definitely going to be a hard journey, but it surely will be worth it in the end. She said that even though she would be tired and stressed a lot of the time, this did not mean that she did not have fun during her medical school years, as she built some of her closest connections during her time there.
An attendee asked about how House had come to her decision of committing to a specific medical school. Some of the people in the crowd already had medical school on their minds, as they were biology pre-med students with hopes of getting into their dream schools. House told everyone that they should focus on making sure that they pick a school that they truly like, as opposed to picking a school they think they would not like simply because it is a big name school.
After the presentation, House headed to the Mosaic House with her wife and Etown biology professor Dr. Diane Bridge for the Etown GSA and Ubuntu program dinner. Associate Director of Diversity, Equity and Belonging Darcey Mils teamed up with Etown GSA president Samhar Almomani in order to have students join House and her wife for dinner and ask them any questions they had about their career paths.
Students, faculty and staff were invited if they were members of Etown GSA or the Ubuntu program. Some of the people in attendance were Area Coordinator Eugene Thomas, Deputy Title IX Coordinator Gabrielle Reed, Executive Director of College Engagement Mark Clapper and Senior Advisor for College Diversity, Equity & Belonging Dr. Kesha Morant Williams.
“I am so happy that we could all come here together and meet some amazing people,” biology pre-med major and Etown GSA secretary Alysse Smith said. “I was excited about this event not only because I looked forward to learning how the Etown LGBTQ+ community was like at the time Dr. House graduated but also to learn more about her medical school journey.”
Everyone at the event seemed to enjoy a night filled with Panera food, foosball competitions and building meaningful connections with people. Bridge expressed interest in bringing House and Lauren back in the future, especially for a presentation about Lauren’s experiences and her career.
Etown GSA meets weekly and hosts a number of events monthly. To keep up with the latest events, email GSA@etown.edu to be added to the mailing list.
