Through this internship, I will be learning plenty of practical, transferrable lab skills. Some of these important skills include sterile technique, media preparation, autoclaving, parasite culture, western blot, and microscopy. After speaking with my supervisor, I feel confident that I will exceed my expectations for what I hope to learn because I am receiving detailed, hands-on training.
I can confidently say I am well on my way to reaching this goal. I have had experiences with all of these techniques, and I will continue to work towards mastering them as I move forward in this lab during my senior year.
Through this internship I will be able to build my confidence in myself as an independent researcher because I will first receive in depth training on the most common/useful lab practices. This training period will last roughly 6 weeks to 2 months. Once this training period is complete, I will be given a project that I will be conducting independently with the opportunity to apply that skillset under supervision, and then I will have the opportunity to apply that skillset while learning more about the theory behind the techniques that I am implementing as I go. I will also be completing a project that is highly similar to the project that last year's LHSI intern completed. He is still working in the lab so I will have the opportunity to ask him questions as I go as well. He started at the same level of experience that I am just last year, so he will have a different perspective on advice to offer.
This has been the most important goal for me to work on. I have seen a lot of growth in myself this year while working towards independence. I realized pretty quickly I have a fear of making mistakes. It has been a challenge to overcome that fear, but I have had a huge amount of success in the last few weeks. My biggest struggle has been encouraging myself to stop asking for confirmation so much. I know what I should be doing, yet I still confirm with others before I do it. This was a major barrier to my independence, so I have made an effort to stop asking for that confirmation. Since then I have actually made some mistakes which is ok! I am actually learning so much more by relying on my own knowledge and learning from the mistakes that I make. I am proud of myself for how far I have come, but I cannot wait to see how much I have improved by the time I graduate next year.
Even after just a month at this internship site I have already learned a lot about what interests me about research. My goal is to talk to as many of my new colleagues as possible about their research experiences and to learn what was involved in the different focus areas. I also plan to attend research seminars that my supervisors share with me in order to experience different aspects of the internship compared to others to try and determining what kind of lab will best suit me in the future.
I have learned so much more about myself through this internship than I ever thought possible and I owe it all to my lab members and supervisors. They are always so happy to talk with me about my interests and my goals for the future. This is the first time I have ever been able to ask multiple professionals about their experiences which has really helped me to assess my goals for my future career.
Currently, I am planning to attend graduate school to earn a Ph.D. in Microbiology once I graduate from IUPUI. I would like to focus on microbes in relation to the environment because I have always had a passion for sustainability. I am also intrigued by the extreme amount of microbial diversity that is still yet to be studied and understood, and I look forward to playing a role in uncovering more of it. I feel relatively certain of this decision because I have been fortunate enough to have a variety of research experiences that have helped me to learn what I enjoy and what I do not. My field research showed me that I do not necessarily enjoy working outside 100% of the time, but I would enjoy it if it supplemented lab work. This internship is showing me that I really enjoy working in a lab, but I believe I will be more passionate about a research topic that focuses less specifically on the intricate details of one organism, but rather on the inner workings of symbiotic relationships of microbial species and the roles they play in different environments. My current internship continues to expose me to research practices and methods that will be extremely useful to my future. I am currently enjoying finally being able to consistently work in a lab setting and learn what it really means to do research. For the rest of my undergraduate experience, I plan to stay in this lab and continue to research because I really enjoy coming to the lab every day. Moving forward I will be preparing a poster with my most recent research to present at a few conferences in the Midwest to build my scientific presentation skills. I need more practice sharing my work with others, so this is going to be a wonderful way to grow prior to graduate school.
I have come a long way since applying to LHSI, but I think my goals are still relatively the same as when I started. I have known for a long time that I have a passion for research. This experience has only cemented that desire. I still want to pursue research in graduate school, and I am still excited to continue to learn more research skills. The conferences that I attend are going to be extremely helpful for me because they will allow me to practice presenting my research, and I will be able to network with professionals in my future field. I feel very confident about my decisions going forward because of the experiences I have had thus far.