I first became interested in pathology while in high school, pretty much as soon as I learned what pathology was. I fell in love with dissection in my high school biology class, so when I learned that there was a corner of medicine that involved dissecting a human to determine how they died, I was immediately hooked! I was specifically interested in forensic pathology at the time, likely inspired by my love for the show Law & Order, and I started planning my career from there.

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The Pathologists’ Assistant program at Drexel University was the first program I started researching. I liked the location in Philadelphia, as I have both family and friends in that area, and the program staff were very friendly and helpful while I gathered information about the program and through the application process. When I got my acceptance letter, enrolling was a no-brainer.

I’ve always had a great desire to travel, despite never really having a chance to do much of it by that point in my life! Between college and career goals, the time and the funds just weren’t there, but the desire had always been there. I remember at one point toward the end of my first year at Drexel, reading an article about New Zealand being one of the top-rated countries to live in and, quite honestly, falling in love with the country by the end of the article. I loved the accessibility to nature and all the outdoor activities available there, and every photo was just incredibly pristine landscape. Mountains, lakes, beaches, skiing, surfing, hiking, biking, camping, backpacking: You name it, New Zealand offered it. I knew I wanted to find my way there one day and started looking into possible job opportunities there.

I couldn’t find any job postings for pathologists’ assistants in New Zealand, although looking back on it now, who knows if I was even looking in the right places for job advertisements! I tried reaching out to a few hospitals in the larger cities (Auckland and Wellington) to see if there might be any interest in creating a position for me, and even had James Moore, Drexel’s PathA program director, write up a letter of recommendation for me. Ultimately, I never heard back from anyone, and as I was beginning to see just how much student loan debt I was going to have by the time I graduated, I decided to abandon my New Zealand plans for the time being. I was sad to do so, especially since I had no real idea if I would ever be in a position to make that sort of move later in my life.

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About two weeks into my job search I saw a post from someone in a Facebook group for pathologists’ assistants regarding a job in New Zealand. It was a truly serendipitous moment for me. Not only was I looking for a new job, but here was an opportunity in the very country I had dreamed about moving to after all these years! That very afternoon I talked to my partner about the position and told him that I really wanted to apply, and he was in full support of the idea. I submitted my application and the two of us started aggressively researching the city of Dunedin, New Zealand (where the position was located), as well as moving to and living in New Zealand. In July of 2021, I was offered the position, which I enthusiastically accepted, and began planning for the very big, very exciting change in my life.

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Working here isn’t all that different from working in the U.S., from a technical standpoint. Our grossing standards are based on the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) rather than College of American Pathologists (CAP), but the two are almost identical. The RCPA doesn’t require quite as many sections on most cases compared to CAP, but how we approach/dissect certain specimens, the type of sections we take (i.e., greatest depth of invasion, normal/tumor interface, etc.) is the same. I will admit, it does seem like there is less pressure here compared to the States, but I think that’s more a cultural attitude regarding work/life balance rather than any sort of specific professional pressure. Privacy laws are pretty much the same, they are just called the Health Information Privacy Code 2020 (the most updated version of the laws) rather than HIPAA.

So here I am, a year and half into my new life in New Zealand and I can honestly say that I have no regrets. It was a lot of work to get here, and it was certainly more of an adjustment than I anticipated, but it was well worth it. I am excited for the opportunity to promote and hopefully grow our profession in a new country to a new generation of medical professionals.