Work Life Balance - Mentor Interview Summary
As a young adult in high school my mentor Alexander Sasha Kauffman did not have a plan for his future. All he knew was that he enjoyed the sciences and playing soccer. His only focus was on the present, where he did his best to, as he said, “survive the school day.” Later he joined the Claremont Colleges, more specifically the Pomona Undergraduate College where he majored in biology and studied animal physiology and behaviors. Although there was a lot of fun things to do while he was at college he wished that he would have been able to tell his younger self to find a sense of balance with responsibilities. “I think college is the first time that any of us are on our own out of the house no parents lots of friends. It's fun and there's parties and there’s social life and all that and it's important to take advantage of all that but it's also important to realize like those four years in college really matter and they're gonna affect your fate down the line to your career,” said Kauffman. Right now Kauffman is a principal investigator at Kauffman Lab’s on the UCSD campus. He strives to make his work place have a positive atmosphere where everyone can be productive and work together. Kauffman states, “I try to promote work-life balance, so you know there's no point working sixteen hours a day or working seven days a week eight hours a day you’re going insane. It's really important to have your nights off or you're weekend off for you do fun stuff clear your head don't think about work so that when you do come to work your refreshed and ready to do a good job.” Through this interview I got a great opportunity to see an example of a successful adult who manages to keep a well balanced professional and personal life while caring for his employees.