My name is Colleen Furey and I am a fourth year graduate student in the Driskill Graduate Program at Northwestern, working towards a Ph.D. in Life Sciences. I work in a virology lab within the Microbiology-Immunology department and my project broadly focuses on understanding the role of different proteins that regulate the microtubule network during herpes simplex virus type I infection in human cells. In the coming month I will be submitting a paper on my work and I look forward to closing this chapter of my project, and starting to explore a new question! Of my family I am the first to choose a career in science and I feel so lucky to have found a field that both excites and challenges me on a daily basis. With the start of my fourth year in graduate school, I began to ponder the next step in my career path. Around the same time, I noticed advertisements for the start of the Chicago Women in STEM Initiative at Northwestern. I decided to join the group in the hopes of meeting and learning from women at different stages in their careers. So far, each STEM circuits meeting has been incredibly well-organized and insightful. I think my favorite part has been the sense of community at the meetings, as we are brought together by our mutual desire for mentorship. It has been exciting to be a part of this growing initiative and I look forward to seeing what else the program has in store this year.