Carol L. Covin–No One Else Is Going To Do It. She is 2010 Hot Mommas the STEM Award winner!
Hello, this is Li! I am excited to write about her case! She studies Chinese without any previous Asian Language experiences! If she happens to read my post, I want to say (hello in Chinese) to her!
P.s. Please pardon my English grammar errors. I am an international student, posting from Beijing, China this summer.
Carol as a role model
Carol had been inspired by her friend about promising cancer treatment seven years ago. As a software engineer major, she has no background knowledge in cancer treatments. However, she enjoys taking challenges on a new field since college. We understand that no one expected an inexperienced person to be successful in a new field immediately. Carol studied Chinese, whereas she previously had no knowledge of any Asian languages. When she was hired as a programmer, she had no experience related to computer science. Also, without any publishing skills, she wrote her first book and even found her own publishing company. Curing cancer was just another case in that long line. No one could imagine a software engineer to cure cancer.
Overcoming challenges
How does Carol become an expert in each field? Dedication! She is so dedicated in researching the treatment that she devoted all her spare time into it. Carol says, “when I started out, I could only talk for 5 minutes before someone realized this wasn’t my area, then 15 minutes. Now, they don’t ask me anymore.” After she was informed by her friend about the private library which has the protocol, Carol spoke to the librarian and found more resources. After thousands of sleepless nights, Carol came up with a 30-page abstract of what she had been able to glean from almost 300 articles related to cancer treatment.
My career learning from Carol
Firstly, I am surprised by her interests in studying Chinese at the beginning. As a Chinese, I feel my language is one of the hardest one to learn. Also, I am more shock by her decision for seeking cancer treatment. To me, most cancers target with “death.” This might be my stereotype, but cancers are too hard to cure. However, Carol always picks the hard one. She puts much time on doing fundamental work, which is researching and organizing. Her dedication is surely something I admire the most.
Li’s friend Halley’s comment
Halley was a patient that I met in my mom’s hospital. I told her about Carol’s case, and she said to me “this lady owns a brave and kind heart!”