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Felicia Rice
Felicia Rice
01:13

Felicia Rice

Mayo Clinic Hospital

Phoenix, AZ USA

"Believe in yourself and know that you can do it...So what if you’re floundering? You’ll only be floundering for a little bit of time."

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Felicia's work combines: Science, Medicine, and Problem Solving

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Day In The Life

Microbiologist

I study patient cultures to help solve patients' issues.

01:37

Day In The Life Of A Microbiologist

My Day to Day

As a microbiologist, I work closely with infectious disease and study things that most people don’t like to talk about (wound cultures, sputum, urine, etc.). I receive specimens from the hospital and then I spend most of my day reading those cultures to help solve patients’ problems. I also spend time working with our instruments, including troubleshooting the machines when they start to fail.

Skills & Education

Here's the path I took:

  • High School

  • Bachelor's Degree

    Biology/Biological Sciences, General

    St. Mary's College, Notre Dame

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Life & Career Milestones

My path in life has been direct

  • 1.

    I grew up in Indiana.

  • 2.

    My dad was an orthopedist, so I grew up around that field and realized early on that I wanted to do something similar.

  • 3.

    I earned my undergraduate degree in biology at St. Mary’s College in Indiana and then did a one-year certification program in Chicago.

  • 4.

    I got pregnant when I was still in school and realized that I probably wasn’t going to end up becoming a doctor and practicing with my dad as I had originally planned.

  • 5.

    After graduating, I took a couple of years off to spend more time raising my children.

  • 6.

    When I went back to work, I moved around through various jobs in the medical field to try and find something that would be fulfilling to me—I ended up really liking microbiology.

  • 7.

    I didn’t want my children to experience a bumpy childhood, so I spent a lot of time working the third shift to ensure that I could be with my children during the day.

  • 8.

    I eventually felt like I needed a change of scenery, so I moved with my children to Phoenix, Arizona, to work as a microbiologist for the Mayo Clinic Hospital—it’s been a great experience so far!

Defining Moments

Experiences and challenges that shaped me

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  • I'm a single mom, which has been difficult in and of itself at times. Additionally, my children are mixed race, so it has also been a struggle to see the racial discrimination they experience.

  • As a single mom, I didn't want my children to have a bumpy childhood. I spent a lot of time working third shift and sacrificing sleep so that I could take my children to school, be with them in the afternoons, and go to all of their extracurriculars.

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