Between the whirring of my fan, the clinking of ice in my morning coffee, and the tapping of my laptop keyboard, I started to fall into a rhythm. After about five weeks, I feel like I’m really in the swing of it and getting used to full-time research. Even though some of the newness has worn off, working on this research project has proven to be just as exciting, and I feel a sense of accomplishment at having adapted my research responsibilities into a comforting (yet still challenging!) routine. It’s hard to believe that I’m about halfway done with my research experience with WAGSFP!
One especially exciting thing I’ve gotten to start this week is coding. I’ve been very eager to start coding since my research mentor has been preparing me for this for a few weeks! Not to be confused with languages like C++ or Python, coding in sociology has a very different meaning. It’s a very useful skill sociologists use to help to quantify qualitative data. Since much of this research project involves analyzing work written by others, it’s a great way to pinpoint certain topics, keywords, and themes that emerge throughout all the data.
Something unique I’ve discovered about the summer research experience is an aspect of independence. Because my fellowship is full time, it would be impossible for my research mentor to check over every single thing I do. That means that through our meetings and our trainings, we get to develop a bond where we still work very closely together, but also use my own judgement and extrapolating what I’ve learned to carry out my tasks with a little more self-reliance. It’s a very different experience from what I’m used to, as many of my previous academic experiences have been more regimented. I think this has been a really great step for me in my professional development, like graduating from driver’s training to driving with a permit.
Overall, I’m really thrilled with how this summer is going, and I can’t wait to see what else I’ll be learning during the second half of my fellowship.
Until next time!
Adrian
