Pretrip Thoughts From Helen


This is Helen’s first time on the Trip. She is one of the 4 Ladies on the Coed team.

Hello everyone. I’m really excited for our upcoming Katrina trip next week!

For many of you who do not know me, I’m a 3rd-year PhD student at USC studying pharmaceutical sciences. My everyday task consists of testing the thousands of chemical compounds we have in our lab in human cancer cells. I do a lot of pippeting (mixing small amounts of chemicals together), plan different experiments, make proteins and DNA and sometimes spend months writing grants asking for funding.

I’m glad I will be taking a break from all that and doing something very different in Katrina. Though building homes is not part of my training as a student, I know that it is part of my training as a Christian.

When I was talking to a coworker about my upcoming trip and what I’ll be doing, she said jokingly, “now if this PhD thing doesn’t work out, you have other trades to consider.” I was thinking about that and I’m reminded that it’s not about what I’ll be doing, but rather about who I will be serving. I’m not going because I’m qualified, but because God is using this opportunity to teach me humility and complete trust and dependence on Him.