Following a COVID-19 scare last weekend, English student Melanie Fernsby decided to use her first at-home rapid test.
Shortly after posting a photograph of her negative test on her Instagram story, Melanie noticed something strange happening.
“I started getting all these emails from companies around the city trying to hire me,” Melanie wrote to The Mackerel. “No one has ever wanted to hire me before so I had no idea what was going on.”
Melanie had been mistaken as a STEM major after posting the photo of her testing equipment. “My family called me that same day to congratulate me. At first I thought it was because I didn’t have COVID, but they were all saying ‘Finally!’, and ‘We knew you’d come around.’”
She has even gained notoriety within her own university. Earlier this week a Dalhousie representative pointed to Melanie’s success story when pressed about lack of gender equity within their STEM programs. The Dalhousie Women in Tech Society (WITS) has also reached out to Melanie, requesting she be the keynote speaker for their upcoming lecture series.
Even so, Melanie is trying to set the story straight. “Nobody seems to get that I’m still studying history for my masters. They all think I’m a chemist now. My tuition even went up! At least my parents finally approve of my decisions.”