Humans of Hanover: Natalia Hubbs, Ph.D.

Natalia Hubbs, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Biology
B.S., Lawrence Technological University; Ph.D., Michigan State University; Certification in College Teaching, Michigan State University

“One of my professors, Dr. ZV (Dr. Zwiesler-Vollick at LTU), she was awesome. She’s by far my hero. When I’m putting together lectures, I think, ‘How would ZV present this?’ She pulled me aside at the beginning of my junior year and she was like, ‘I don’t want to tell you that you’re doing the wrong thing, but I don’t think you’re doing the right career for you.’ I asked her what she was talking about, I like science, I like math, that was my major. She explained that there’s more to life than that and she invited me to do research with her.

“I had no idea what research was, but she said that was alright and she would show me. I said okay because the worst-case scenario is that it would look good on my CV. And in the middle of my junior year, I switched my major from biomedical engineering to molecular and cell biology. I learned about what research scientists do and what graduate school is – I had no idea you could get a Ph.D. in science and get paid for it – I didn’t know these things existed. No one else in my family had gone to college.

“And because this professor, yes I knew her from class and as my advisor, but she took the time out of her day to put me on the path that the rest of my life has taken. That is what made me decide I wanted to teach specifically at a small college, because I wanted to know my students, and one day I wanted to do that for a student and put them on the right path for life.”