As students of California State University, Stanislaus, we can often feel overwhelmed by course material and work. It’s very rare that we feel bored with a class as a result of already knowing everything that is covered, but for sophomore biology major Britney Johnston, boredom due to lack of challenge is so far a common occurrence.
“Bio 1 was definitely boring because it’s exactly the same thing as AP Bio from high school,” Johnston said. “I was correcting Dr. Wolf back and forth, constantly. He got so mad at me a few times. But he was wrong and I would show him in the book. And then he would get even more upset. It’s just because things have changed since he’s been in college, but that class was a breeze. Bio 2 was the first challenging Bio class that I’d had because essentially you’re memorizing the entire tree of life. […] That one was a little challenging.”
At the moment, Johnston is working on her chemistry minor with a 3.744 GPA as some of the classes required for the minor are also prerequisites for her biology classes. It made sense to her to go the extra mile and get a chemistry minor when all she had to do was take a few extra chemistry classes. The difficulty level of organic chemistry, that other students might be intimidated by, doesn’t faze her at all. In fact, she’s excited to be taking those classes as she explained that the more specific a class is the more you learn.
Johnston’s science-inclined mind made her experiences with the subject enjoyable from her seventh grade biology class at Neil Hafley Elementary in Manteca.
“I was such a nerd,” Johnston said. “I read the whole book. It just kind of happened.”
In her eighth grade year, her science teacher noticed her love for the material and decided to work on more advanced concepts with her. Though she didn’t understand why her teacher taught her how to balance chemical equations, she enjoyed learning something new.
Despite Johnston’s dream of being a zoologist being heavily tied to biology, she explained that her chemistry teacher in high-school was the one to give her the final push into absolute love of science. It’s clear to Johnston that her desire to be a biology major and love of science stemmed from her initial dream of being a zoologist when she was a child. Her favorite television programs were on Animal Planet, rather than Cartoon Network.
“When I was about seven years old, I was at the county fair and they had the FFA there from UC Davis,” Johnston said. “And my mom, she told me, ‘Go talk to the guy in charge.’ […] So I went to go talk to him […] and I told him what I wanted to do. I was like, ‘I want to be an animal doctor.’ And he’s like, ‘Oh like dogs and cats, or lions, tigers and bears?’ And I was like, ‘Lions, and tigers.” And he’s like, ‘Ok you want to be a zoologist.’ […] I knew what I wanted to do since I was young but I didn’t know that I had to do biology to do it.”
Johnston’s absolute favorite thing about being a Biology major is the she can apply her knowledge outside of the class room. When she’s at her job at KFC, she’ll get into arguments with customers over why and where light and dark meat is located on a chicken. When she’s with friends, she’ll get questions about sicknesses or pets. To her, everyday life is full of connections to the biological concepts that have been reinforced through college.