Two APU alumni speak on their experiences as Christians in the STEM field
The Department of Biology and Chemistry hosted STEM Speaks on Oct. 25. The TED Talk-style event included two Azusa Pacific alumni from the department: Leah Rowland, Ph.D. and Erik Axene, M.D., M.A. The alumni were given roughly 15 minutes to discuss their lives, education and career with a room full of current APU students, faculty, alumni and guests for Homecoming Week.
Students in attendance said they were excited to hear what the alumni would discuss.
“STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Math] is super important because you want to learn about different subjects that impact the public — and, just in general, it’s a really cool field to learn about because it’s always changing,” said Shaina Latuno, a sophomore biology major.
Rowland presented first, discussing her current job at Epic Sciences, as well as the struggles she has experienced due to being a Christian in the STEM field.
“It’s definitely a challenge because … often you’ll get it from both sides: the believer and the non-believer. People don’t understand how you can believe in God and practice science,” Rowland said. “For me, I’ve always seen God’s hands and work in all that I do and I think there are places, especially outside a Christian university, where you can do work that still expresses your faith but maybe not in an explicit way.”
Rowland said her Christian faith plays a pivotal role in her job as a senior research associate, despite her field being mostly secular.
“My coworkers know that I’m a Christian, and that’s an important part of my life, but they also see it in the quality of work that I do and the focus I put on integrity and everything that I put out,” Rowland said.
Rowland said she wanted to be a doctor since childhood, but she never expected she would work in the field she is in now. By the time she enrolled at APU, she was pursuing a path into criminal investigation, believing she would work with forensics. According to Rowland, it was only when several doors were shut on her, and professors influenced her down certain paths, that she eventually found her calling in cell research.
Now, Rowland is in charge of diversifying technology made by Epic Sciences to target different diseases. Her job involves taking blood samples from patients to search for cancer cells circulating in the bloodstream.
“We have a product out right now for prostate cancer where we want to extend our product line to extend to reach breast cancer patients, lung cancer patients, pancreatic cancer patients and even patients that have leukemia,” Rowland said. “My job is to take the technology we already have and modify it so that it’s useful in a bunch of different areas.”
Rowland said although she feels it would be easier to have become a medical doctor, she finds pride in what she does currently, believing her work will help many people in years to come.
According to Rowland, finding one’s calling isn’t easy. For students seeking their calling or role in life, she suggests they pray about it and ask themselves three questions: What do you love? What are you good at? What are you bad at?
Axene began his speech with a prayer, before discussing how he entered the realm of science and medicine by means of a dead cat.
In his speech, Axene explained that when he was a child, his cousin Ken found a dead cat in a ditch and began to put its skeleton together bone-by-bone. Axene had never seen a sight like this and was intrigued, admitting that the process was impressive in hindsight.
“I realize now today that kind of flipped a switch in my head. You see, in school I was in special ed, I could hardly read, I was really struggling in school, I got held back — I thought I was the dumbest kid in the classroom,” Axene said. “And a part of that even came here to Azusa Pacific with me as a bio-chem major. I sort of held on to a lot of that fear of inadequacy that I felt.”
Axene added that although he struggled in school throughout his life, the cat skeleton made him think differently about sciences and academics in general. By finding an outlet into one academic topic, he was able to appreciate all of his coursework. Axene also credited APU professors for acknowledging his worth as a student and as a child of God, which helped him to take the next steps towards becoming a doctor.
Axene spoke on his personal experiences as an emergency care doctor and pointed out how God has helped him through his field.
In one story, Axene explained that one day, he felt a strong pull to practice pediatric care. He and his team pulled out tools and machines used for treating babies, though there had been no need in recent times to do so. The next night, he heard a banging on the emergency doors and was soon given a burned baby who had caught fire in a car accident. Because the tools were readily available, the baby was saved. Axene credited the success to God, claiming he saw the hands of God working through him in that moment.
“Whether it’s a heart attack, a stroke, a brain bleed, a broken bone, a broken back, amputations — I mean, all these things; that’s kind of my normal in the ER. That’s where I work,” Axene said. “I found a niche there that God has designed me to be a sense of calm in an emergency. And I really do love doing that.”
Axene spoke of other moments he found God at work, such as the time he studied melodic intuition therapy, which allowed a severely injured woman to sing “Jesus Loves Me” after a stroke which had otherwise paralyzed her ability to speak.
Axene and Rowland closed the event together in a question and answer forum where they were asked about their calling, how they reconciled faith with science and what their advice to current students is.
“We are set up for failure without Christ. And I think that’s where our profession and our faith do something more than just intersect. I think they become one,” Axene said.
Rowland said integrity and morality must be present in any work that people do, especially in secular fields.
“One thing I have learned as I have grown [with Epic Sciences] is that, as long as you’re obedient to God and the quality of work He calls us [to do] and the quality of being He wants us to be, then you will be blessed in that,” Rowland said. “You will be given opportunities to grow and to take on more, and it’s scary. With more opportunity there becomes greater responsibility, and the more responsible we are to other people … your faith plays a larger role sometimes because you really need to stand firm in things you have learned and those morals you’ve developed.”