Hello everyone! Nearing the end of my research experience with WAGSFP, I feel like I have learned so much. I now understand how a literature review works, how research can be presented, and how to work in a research team. I am now learning how to write a manuscript for publication which is very exciting. The main challenge I encountered this summer was managing my time when I had to take conference trips with another organization I work with, Special Olympics. I tried to work remotely during those trips but that was very challenging and playing catch up the following week was also difficult. That was a stressful experience and at times I felt as though I was not carrying my weight in my research team. However, this served as an opportunity to learn how to give myself grace when juggling multiple responsibilities. I tried to keep this mindset of “give yourself grace” throughout the whole summer as I was learning many new skills and had a lot of questions. This was empowering and allowed me to not feel ashamed over any mistakes I made or questions I had.
I gained valuable time-management, communication, and overall research skills through this experience. I also think it will be a great experience to add to my resume as I continue through undergrad in hopes of attending graduate school soon. Throughout the fellowship seminars, I was also introduced to so many resources the University of Michigan has for research that I had no idea about. The advice I would give to future WAGSFP fellows would be to give yourself grace as you learn and manage your time and to take advantage of all the resources that the fellowship teaches you about.