Dear future self,
I hope you have had an amazing, fulfilling, and growth-filled summer! Currently, it is the second week of UROP. I have been getting oriented with both the WAGSFP program and the individual project I will be working on for the next 9 weeks. The research project I am working on is different from what I am used to doing. Instead of a biomedical wet lab, it is media research with new skills such as coding and scraping social media. My expectations are to learn these new skills and grow as a researcher, as well as gain more insight into how what I learn this summer would guide my future career. Because this type of research is new to me, it will definitely be a challenge for me to be okay with not always knowing what to do or how to do it. I want to challenge myself to speak up and ask questions and ask for help when I need it. I am very passionate about reproductive justice and gender equality, and I think my passion for these topics is an asset that will benefit my research project. I am hoping that this passion will allow me to persevere when the work is hard and engage meaningfully with the different aspects of the project. I also have a strong background in feminist theory, and I hope I can bring that lens to the project and think critically about the research material. I hope that when I look back at this, I feel confident in the work that I completed and excited for what the future holds.
Sincerely,
Abbie