Bergbower takes unconventional path to reach her career goal
Published: November 21, 2023
Author: Dave Bell
Sarah Bergbower’s quest for a doctoral degree began as a dream in high school. It was given a significant boost when she completed a double major in biology and chemistry at Greenville University in 2009. But she never could’ve anticipated the winding path that eventually led her to that goal.
“I’ve always been a driven and strategic person,” said Bergbower, who was raised in Olney, IL, and has returned there to teach and raise her family. “Once I set my sights on a goal, I become very focused. That’s how I operate.”
That focus initially led her to pursue a Ph.D. in genetics at the University of Iowa. But after earning her master’s degree in biology there, she returned to the lab, enrolling at St. John’s Hospital School of Clinical Laboratory Science in Springfield, IL, where she earned certification as a Medical Laboratory Scientist (MLS). She used those credentials to land an MLS job closer to home at St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital in Effingham, working nights and evenings for three years. Then, in 2014, she accepted a full-time faculty position as Assistant Professor of Life Sciences at Olney Central College, where she teaches biology and zoology classes.
Even though she had multiple degrees, a full-time teaching job at her hometown community college, a husband (Kyle, a chiropractor) who she’d known since high school, and four daughters, there was one goal that had eluded her. She hadn’t yet earned that long-coveted doctoral degree.
After some research, Bergbower located an online program from the University of Texas Medical Branch that offered a Doctor of Clinical Laboratory Science (DCLS) degree. So, for the past five years, she has pursued DCLS courses part-time, while continuing her full-time teaching position at Olney Central College.
“We prayed about this last stage a lot because the out-of-state tuition was expensive,” Bergbower said. “We asked God to provide the tuition if this was what he wanted me to do. We determined that I would go through the program as far as possible without going into debt. I honestly didn’t know if I’d be able to finish it.
“Amazingly, I got scholarships at critical times, and I was able to augment my income by teaching overload courses. It all added up perfectly, and I finished the program in August.”
As she accomplished her long-standing goal of earning a doctoral degree, she also was breaking new ground in her emerging professional category. She is the first Doctor of Clinical Laboratory Science in Illinois and one of only 50 in the United States.
This fall, she returned to the GU campus as the featured speaker at a Science Advisory Council event during homecoming weekend. She recounted her academic path after GU and explained her doctoral research in which she developed new procedures for detecting and treating infections during pregnancy.
In an interview after that presentation, Bergbower said her education at GU prepared her for her career, both academically and spiritually.
“I learned here WHY I believe WHAT I believe,” she said. “In grad school, I was surrounded by atheistic philosophies, but I believe that having faith is not unreasonable. If you see God as the Creator, then the creation makes much more sense. In fact, when you study the creation, you’re studying the Creator as well. Because of that, my faith has made me a different kind of scientist.”
She cited Proverbs 16:9 as a verse that has guided her during her extended educational journey. That verse says: “In his heart, a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”
“My advice is to seek God’s will and don’t be surprised about the twists and turns in the road,” she said. “Nobody would’ve taken the route I took, but it all worked out. I couldn’t have planned it any better.”
