Rachel Conley is a new Chemistry Teaching Fellow, House Counselor in Day House, and Assistant Coach for Girls JV1 Soccer this 2024-2025 school year. Conley recently graduated with a Bachelor’s in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of San Diego (USD). With aspirations to pursue pediatric medicine, Conley is focused on using her teaching role to develop her communication and leadership skills, while also building strong relationships with students. In her spare time, Conley loves to run, go on hikes, wind down with hot yoga, and ski at highway speeds.
What initially drew you to teaching at Andover?
My best friend went to school here [before] she graduated in 2020… She didn’t get a graduation because of Covid[-19], but she had an incredible experience. [When] we were skiing together in Colorado, I [said to] her, “I love to teach, and I want to explore this more,” and she [said], “You have to look into the teaching fellowship program at Phillips Academy.” At my previous school, the University of San Diego, I was a Teaching Assistant (TA) for three different chemistry labs and a neuroscience class. I loved being a TA, and I had an incredible experience mentoring students: being a support system for them, not only inside the classroom, but also outside the classroom. I wanted to grow my teaching abilities and learn how to communicate higher-level information to students who were younger than me and see how much I could also learn from them and help them in their own journeys. I will be applying to medical school in June, and so this was a great opportunity for me to do what I love, which is teaching.
What has your experience been like being a House Counselor? How’s the transition from living as a student to now being a House Counselor?
Coming from college, where I lived with my best friends in a house on the beach, living in a dorm with 36 girls has been a big transition. I love working with adolescents, and I have this ability to mentor. I can be there for them, and I love seeing them in the hallways. I live in a very student-facing apartment: I open my door, and I see students everywhere… I’ve learned a lot, and I’ve been able to get really close to many of the girls in the dorm. I would say I love being on duty on the weekends because I’m able to talk to them more. I’ve been told a couple times that sometimes when you’re on duty, you have this opportunity to get a lot of work done, and in my case, every single time I’ve been on duty, I’ve constantly been talking to students, hanging out with them, never on my computer, and it’s just awesome to be able to be present and there for them. I feel almost like a big sister in a way, but again, someone that has to set very firm boundaries and teach them how to live as a collective.
In college, you studied behavioral neuroscience. What was the most fascinating part of your research?
I saw a lot of traumatic brain injuries, and that sparked my interest in wanting to pursue neuroscience… I saw how important medicine was and how important it was for patient support that catered to their needs. My research with rats that I did for three years focused on spatial tendencies, and how they perceive the world. What was really fascinating about my research was I didn’t know how similar the rat brain was to the human brain. It was cool for me to have opportunities to do different surgeries on rats, to be able to slice out pieces of their brain, be able to look at them as an image, see where different neurons are firing, and to say it simplistically, [see] how their ability to see the world is almost kind of similar to humans’ ability to see the world.
What drew you to medicine specifically?
I was born with a heart condition when I was younger, and I spent a lot of time dealing with that. [I had spent] a lot of time in the hospital trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I had heart surgery. I had heart monitors that I’d wear for months. That kind of paved my way into seeing this thing as cool because I wanted to be able to instill hope in kids just like my doctor instilled hope in me. I went to children’s hospitals in Boston when I was a kid a lot, and being in that environment just made me wanna give back and help people. This is the best way for me to do that justice… I find science fascinating and the ability to create a medical plan that’s catered to someone individually to get them better, which is what my doctor did for me, which saved my life and allowed me to participate in sports and be healthy. That’s what I want to do for kids in the future.
What advice would you give to students looking to pursue a career in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)?
Something that’s important and often overlooked is finding your passion. It’s easy to [follow] the narrative of “you should do this, you need this many hours, you have to do it this way to get to medical school.” That is all not true. If you follow your passion, you do what’s right and you love what you do, then you will figure it out. That’s for any field. But specifically for medicine, it is a long road. I am not even in medical school yet, and it is a long road… It’s important to keep a work-life balance. Finding time to spend with friends, finding time to be by yourself, finding time to do things that bring you joy is so important. Sometimes when you are grinding those science classes, it’s hard to find that time, but if you don’t find that time, then your mental health will suffer. My best advice is find your passion, do a lot of different things to be able to figure out your passion. Once you find that, the rest will fall into place.
You were the Panhellenic President of Kappa Kappa Gamma. How was your experience being in a sorority and taking on that role?
Panhellenic is the governing body of the National Panhellenic Council, so we oversaw the sororities at my university. I worked with the presidents and all the sororities to do different things for the community. I focused a lot on safety, a lot on sexual assault, [and] drug and alcohol abuse — like Narcan training. I got every sorority Narcan trained… [and] I ran all of the recruitment for sororities. We focused a lot on values-based recruitment, so we encouraged sororities and required them to do different trainings that would allow them to ask questions to girls about themselves and their family life, what their passions are, different activities they’re involved in, to really get to know them rather than asking superficial questions. I had an amazing executive board of eight girls that are all my best friends still, and we collaborated. I learned how to work as a team. I learned how making mistakes was okay, and that there was so much to learn from making mistakes… This leadership role of sorority was really centered in philanthropy giving back and helping the community.
Do you have a favorite book right now?
I don’t have a book right now because I’m doing the MCAT, but Toni Morrison[’s] “Beloved” is my favorite book. She’s an incredible author. She has this eloquent and beautiful way to write stories that show a lot of lessons that should be taught and heard. She uses storytelling in such a powerful way, and it gives light into hard and difficult topics. She uses the power of storytelling to light up worlds for people to not necessarily always be able to relate to, but at least get to learn from it. “Beloved” is centered around slavery. The book talks about different ways that people think about slavery and shines light on the Black experience and how non-Black folk are not going to understand that experience. It’s an incredible read… I read it in 11th grade, and it changed my life.
Do you have a memorable or go-to song?
This is such a throwback, but I love the Black Eyed Peas. I love the song “Meet Me Halfway.” I play music every class when students are walking in — at least, I try to. On the first day of school for both my sections, I played “Meet Me Halfway” and I had students that were dancing. It’s such a good song. I listened to the Black Eyed Peas a ton when I was a kid with my family and that song signifies a huge transition in life for me from Senior year of high school to Freshman year of college. It brings me back. It’s fun to listen to it with my students too.
You said you like shopping. If you could pick one brand to shop from for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Patagonia.
Could you share a fun fact about yourself?
I have been clocked at 65 miles an hour ski racing. I don’t know if I’ll ski out here, but since I live in Vail, Colorado, I ski race [at] home. I’ve been skiing since I was two years old. [I] grew up skiing at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire… I ski race for Vail Ski [and Snowboard] Academy.
