Intent on becoming a professional musician, new faculty member Katelyn Berg, PhD, explains how a guest speaker in a science elective course changed her career path and how pizza guides her national and international travel.
What inspired you to choose this career path?
I never intended to become an audiologist. In fact, I’d never heard of the field before college! I was a music performance major at St. Olaf College and was completely focused on becoming a professional musician. I had been playing violin since I was 4 years old and could read music before I could read words. Music was my entire world.
Everything changed when I had to take a science elective. I chose “Psychology of Hearing,” crossing my fingers it would be an easy class. It was not, but it provided a life-changing experience in the form of a guest speaker – an elementary school music teacher who had a cochlear implant (CI).
The speaker shared a devastating story about losing her hearing and how, though her cochlear implant allowed her to understand speech, she would never hear music the same way again. That moment sparked something in me, and I thought I might be able to use my musical background to help improve the technology that would give CI patients back their musical world.
I am so grateful for a village of mentors who helped shape my educational path. After that pivotal moment at St. Olaf, I dove headfirst into audiology research as an undergraduate research assistant, then I went to Vanderbilt University to pursue doctoral degrees in Audiology (AuD) and Hearing and Speech Sciences (PhD).
If not medical research, what career path might you have chosen?
I have thought about this a lot, particularly during my PhD program when things got tough! While working with trainees, I discovered I’m quite passionate about mentoring, so I could see myself in a teaching role – music education perhaps.
My high school career assessment had other ideas – it said in rank order, I should be a magician, drill sergeant, or bartender. While those weren’t exactly on my radar, I have to admit there’s something appealing about creating a little magic in people’s lives. In some ways, that isn’t so different from what we do in audiology.
What spare time activities bring you the most joy?
I still love to play the violin. You’ll often find me taking on wedding gigs around town and playing with community orchestras—I’ve already auditioned for one here in St. Louis to keep my skills up. When I’m not making music, I’ve recently started making fresh pasta from scratch and working on perfecting my ravioli technique, which has become a surprisingly meditative hobby. My partner, Kevin, and I also love to travel to new places and learn about different cultures—we always try to experience the best each destination has to offer. We went to Iceland last summer and got to see a volcano erupt while we were there! Travel always gives us great stories and usually introduces us to foods we never would have thought to try at home.
Is there a special something at the top of your bucket list?
Kevin and I are on a quest to find the world’s best pizza! We keep a ranking list to score all the pizzas we try, including some really amazing spots around the country and most recently on a trip to Naples, Italy. We’re still early in our pizza journey in St. Louis, but we’d welcome any recommendations! While this quest may never truly be over, it’s so much fun, and honestly, who doesn’t love pizza?
What would most surprise your colleagues to learn about you?
I come from a family of competitive swimmers, and I swam throughout high school in Tacoma, Washington. My last few years I wanted to try something new, so I became the goalie for my school’s water polo team. At one of our tournaments, we had the opportunity to play Canada’s Olympic water polo team. While we didn’t win (it wasn’t even close!), it was such fun and a good reminder that trying new things can lead to some cool opportunities.