As much as I anticipated my experiences this summer to go by quickly, I’m still surprised we’ve already reached the end. I’m really looking forward to next week’s symposium and celebrating the hard work everyone in the program has put in the past two months. As I reflect back on my experience, I definitely think I’ve met many of my goals, one of which was to decide if I wanted to explore research as a future career. While I certainly enjoyed my time in the lab this summer, I now am more sure of two things; I don’t think a long term career in research is fit for the pace my mind goes in a day, but the skills you can gain by being apart of a lab/research, especially pertaining to a topic you’re passionate about, are really valuable no matter one’s career path.
My project lead offered me opportunities to expand on my research into a long term project leading up to a conference, and I didn’t find myself excited by that idea much at all. The first lab I was apart of was more focused on creating a project day to day whereas this lab experience was more focused on creating proposals and reports which can be a tedious process. The reality is research can be slow! I think my preferred skillset falls into a wheelhouse more related to on demand tasks with more quick thinking rather than long term planning.
Throughout college I’ve learned to trust my gut, and if I’m not feeling pulled toward a goal I know it’s not for me. That being said, I know I will use many of the skills I’ve used while participating in research in my future endeavors, and I’m proud of myself because entering college I never thought a program like WAGSF would be apart of my 4 years. Getting to this point took a lot of growth and support from a lot of folks, many in the UROP program! (Special thanks to everything Chris, our WAGSF cohort lead, has done. Chris has a fantastic ability to make students like myself feels like friends and equals while also serving as a mentor.)
Right now I’m looking forward to using my experiences this summer to inform my pedagogy as a UROP Peer Facilitator in the fall. I really think this program has given me more insight into what different kinds of student experiences might be like as well as how to make different aspects of the research process more accessible to my students. I also cannot wait to get off of Zoom and into real life! Thanks for tuning in.
Greta