Judith Simcox, Ph.D.: Journeys are full of challenges and hardships. You reach these moments where you’re kind of standing on the precipice of the unknown.

I went to Carroll College in Helena, Montana. This very small liberal arts school. During the summer transition from my junior to senior year, I signed up for the Peace Corps to go teach at a girls’ school in Africa. There’s a lot of tests that go into that and a lot of bloodwork. And right before I was supposed to leave, I ended up being diagnosed with cancer. Specifically cervical cancer.

Instead of having this great life adventure, I was completely paused. I had to move back in with my mom, get treatment. So much of my identity was completely stripped away from me. For the first time ever, I had to fundamentally ask myself who I was and what I wanted to do. Not what other people wanted me to do, but what I wanted to do.

At college in my biology class the first year, in the very first semester, there was a professor that became really an important figure in my life, Gerry Shields. He spoke about speciation. How species emerge. And I was so fascinated after his lecture that I just went up to him and started asking him all sorts of questions.

After we spoke for about 30 minutes, he said, “Why don’t you work in my lab?” It was only later that I found out that he actually didn’t have the funds to pay me in the lab. He paid me out of his own pocket. When I asked him why he would do that, he said, “You know, some risks are always worth taking.”

In so many ways, Gerry Shields changed my life. Now I had my own lab. I’ve trained undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. It’s been a really long challenge for me to really consider myself a mentor, but it’s something that happens over time.

One thing that I bring into being a mentor is the understanding of how to help other people from underrepresented minority groups. I get to take chances on people. And I get to make a place for them in my lab. It is so fun to be part of somebody’s journey.

Everything’s a risk. You don’t know how it’s going to work out. There’s no sure bets, even in people. Some risks are just worth taking.