PERRIN IRELAND

1. What do you enjoy about your job?

I like doodling. It's kind of unbelievable that I'm a fully grown adult who gets to leave work with marker stains all over her hands at the end of the day. Working with scientists who are passionate about their work, and bent over lab benches much of the day, to translate just how exciting and important that work is to general audiences, is such a treat. When I'm live graphic recording science conference and events, being the channel in the room that's pulling those ideas out of the air and manifesting them visually in a way that engages and pleases people- helping to elevate other people's voices through doodles- to get to do that AND have benefits and a roof over my head? I'll take it.

 

2. What led you to pursue your career path?

I was studying biology at Brown and I'm an almost prohibitively visual learner so I really needed the concepts we were studying to be grounded in image, and I was frankly underwhelmed by the resources for visual learners in science. I also have always been a painter and a writer as a way of being in the world. So I started making these watercolor graphic essays in the school paper about the cool science I encountered, because if I could barely understand it, then what about people who weren't even immersed in science every day? My thesis advisor pulled me aside and suggested I stop pretending I wanted to do science and start drawing for the lab, and it morphed into a career path.

 

3. What are your favorite memories of ALC?

Being a tent counselor, and especially leading Nova Scotia- watching young women arrive fresh off the school year, with certain ideas about themselves, their abilities, relationships to each other, and then watching them step into their power over the course of the summer as they took on more and more challenges. I will never forget being on the Dorothea the day we were accompanied by a finback whale for over an hour of sailing. That moment was so important to me because at the Nova Scotia Sea School, they support the students incorporating silence as a practice for how to be in the world- to spend time in silence, to spend time in nature in silence, and together in silence. Oh my beautiful energetic campers struggled with that at first- they would squirm and giggle and practically pee themselves with the silence. That day we saw the finback was towards the end of our sail, and the boat fell entirely silent- we knew each other so well, trusted each other, had learned so much together, and we knew how to manage the boat under sail in silence- and we all just watched that whale, and were with it. Watching those young women be in their bodies, in that silent power, able to recognize and honor the silent power of that whale? There are days I've gotten out of bed for that memory. They are my heroines.

 

4. Did you gain anything at camp that you use today?

I learned how to trust myself. How to use my voice. Looking back, it was very important to go to a place every summer run by women for women- being a woman in science, there aren't as many female role models for me in my career path as there were at camp every day. I learned to let people emerge- I might meet someone and want to make an assessment, but when you spend time in the woods with people you begin to realize everybody has their something, and I learned at camp how to have faith in the individual and try to support them in letting their light emerge. I learned public speaking, lifeguarding, how to cry in front of people, how to be vulnerable, I learned how to light a camp stove- someone once said to me on a Brown wilderness trip, "You've taught me a lot about being in the woods", and I thought, oh yeah AMT is a SUPER rarified brilliant experience. I could go on and on. You'd be surprised how appealing it is to employers to be committed to a camp- when I bust out my ten years stat- working with young women in that intensive environment- knowing how to splint a broken femur on a log? No big deal. Just give me a hanky we'll handle this. Hire me. Thanks.