Finding Her Niche

By Francis O'Brien
EASTON, Mass.- Julie Mitchell´s desire to help people through medicine, along with her passion for music, has allowed her to refocus her goals as she adapts to college life.
For much of her life, Mitchell, a freshman attending Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., was convinced she wanted to be a history teacher. But during her junior year of high school, she realized she didn’t want to teach, said Mitchell, from Milton, Mass.

A class Mitchell took her senior year of high school inspired an interest in biology, although until recently she had not considered it as a possible major. Mitchell said she enjoyed the labs for anatomy and physiology, especially the dissections which taught her about how the human body works. Although she is currently a communications major, Mitchell said she is now strongly considering switching to biology.

Mitchell’s experiences with Into the Streets, a community service organization she continues to support, also contributed to her interest in biology and the medical fields. During fall orientation at Stonehill, her Into the Streets group visited the Brockton VA Hospital. There they helped out in the psychiatric ward, which was mainly for veterans, in order to assist them in readjusting to life after their traumatic experiences in war.

“My grandpa had served in World War II and was a patient at this hospital during the 80’s,” Mitchell said, “He died before I was born, so I’d like to work where he was a patient, since I never had the chance to know him.”

The impact of cancer on her family may have also played a role in her interest in medicine. Her Aunt Debbie was a two-time breast cancer survivor, and since her mother and aunt are identical twins, there remains a chance of either Mitchell or her mother acquiring the disease, Mitchell said.

“Because I might be at risk, I wanted to learn more about the disease,” Mitchell said, “So hopefully I won’t have to go through what my aunt did. It would be great to someday find a cure.”

As a result of these experiences, Mitchell is now an active member of the Colleges Against Cancer organization at Stonehill.

Music has also long been a major aspect of Mitchell’s life. She played the violin since the fifth grade, both for her school and as part of outside ensembles, and continues to play for the Stonehill College Orchestra, Mitchell said.

Mitchell hopes to continue playing the violin and ballet, even though she does not plan on doing it as a career.She would like to play in a small orchestra or for the Plymouth Philharmonic and also wants to keep up with ballet, but is unsure where she could practice.

“Both music and ballet have influenced me to be an open individual,” Mitchell said “and you can perform art in different ways, from playing the violin to mastering ballet steps. I feel I am surrounded by art everyday!”

Mitchell believes she has changed a lot as a person since she began college. Although she had friends in high school, Mitchell considers herself much more open-minded and social now than she was then, although she feels she is still a little shy.

Yet she did experience a bit of a transition while adapting to college life.

“The first weekend I was out of my comfort zone. It just didn’t feel right,” Mitchell said, “I felt discouraged, like a lost puzzle piece, and wondered whether I could even do this.”

But every day Mitchell was able to meet more people, gradually feeling more at home as she found her niche.

“Although it is still early-only four weeks in, the time before college already seems an eternity away.” Mitchell said.