Women In STEM Series – Meet Crystal Auz

Meet Crystal Auz! She is a pre-med major who is a senior here at CCU. Growing up, science classes were her favorite classes. It was around seventh grade when she realized that she loved science and exceled in the subject. She did dread math classes growing up.

Crystal was kind of inspired by someone to pursue her future career. It wasn’t until later into high school that she realized that she wanted to become a doctor because of her orthopedic surgeon she previously had.

She was an athlete in high school and had a labrum tear which was a chronic dislocation in her right shoulder.

Her surgeon opened her eyes to another side of medicine since she got to meet him outside of her regular military insurance. This was a positive experience compared to other experiences that she had which inspired her to become a great surgeon.

To Crystal, being a Woman in STEM is someone who is very determined and focus, that is also willing to make sacrifices. Especially since it is not a normal role that most woman take. She recently, started to think about the balance that she would have to consider with her career and her future family. These questions have increased since she is ending out her final year at CCU.

Whenever she tells people that she is a pre-med major, most people especially older men think that she is going into nursing with her major but in reality, she wants to become a pediatric doctor and possibly look into surgery like neurosurgery which has always causes her to laugh. It made her realize that being a Woman in STEM and striving for higher positions is still something that is not done as much

Crystal’s favorite thing about STEM is the challenge. She really likes being challenged and seeing her self grow within the challenges that she overcomes. She does not like failing but she does like the challenge. Failure is difficult for her but it does drive her to be better and want more for herself.

She mentioned that within STEM, there are not many drawback when people fail, it actually drives them to be better which is encouraging for her.

She has recently noticed that characteristics of those who are pre-med majors which is an interesting dynamic for her which is people who tend to be good at a lot of things but they chose to be good at one thing which is the realm of medicine. Her fellow classmates, have  field encapsulates people to change parts of people because they can do so many things but they chose this field specifically because of the importance of this field and what it takes to be successful.

Her favorite class at CCU has been Developmental Biology. This class has provided the biggest focus on what Crystal is in awe of from the way the body develops, functions, where everything comes from, and the order and a uniqueness of how the body works. She has been able to excel in this class but also learn so much this past fall semester.

She picked her major in the middle of her senior year. She realized that she enjoyed helping people and working with children. These two were what she was bouncing ideas between for what she wanted to do.  people, and liked kids and liked teaching.

At first, she thought she would be an education major because she did love working with kids and also loved teaching as well.

However, she wanted something a little more challenging and something that she enjoyed subject-wise which was the sciences. She also helped others when they were injured naturally. People always asked her to consider nursing but she decided that she wanted to become a doctor which made her decide to become a surgeon.

Some challenges that she had to overcome is that her family did not support her becoming a pre-med because there is a lot of risk and money that goes into this career whereas her parents want her parents to make money now instead of the future so not having 100% parent support has been hard. Also, she mentioned the financial aspect and schooling has been scary and discouraging since doctors don’t make money until 10 years after they became doctors. Thinking about the loans and others has been intimidating but she has been practicing saving and working a lot to help balance out her fears.

Some advice Crystal would give to others is that they should not underestimate the amount of studying and diligence. She wants to warn others about the life changes that comes with this field where you will be sacrificing going out and having fun. Instead, you can find yourself studying more and being focused on school. Prioritizing sleep is also important within STEM because you are not able to reach your full potential. Realizing your passion will make all the sacrifices worth it.

She is able to incorporate her faith through medical missions which is a great way for her to reach others and incorporate her faith. She mentioned that doctors are great people who can build relationships with their patients since they have to know a lot about their patients so that they can help them the most.

One thing Crystal wants others to know about her is that her heart is for the Lord.

It can be hard for her to know what the Lord’s will is vs her drive vs her calling by people, Him but focusing on the fact that she wants to live her life to please and glorify God drives her to live her life.

It was such a pleasure to interview Crystal and get to know her story! Stay tuned for more stories!