About Me

A good team member is one who is selfless and puts the groups needs above their own desires. If a group is filled with people more interested in themselves, then the group will fall apart and each member will do their own thing. Pride can be a big problem especially in a competitive environment. People often want their ideas to be the smartest, their ideas to be the best, and their name to be most important. It is vital that members put the collective good above their own. I am very good at helping others if they need it. Typically in a group, each person has their own job, but I am often helping other members too if they need it. I want to work on professional communication during this internship. It is not often in my life that I have to work with scientific professionals, and I want to improve my communicating skills in such an environment.

During my first semester of college, I was in a introductory engineering class. This class involved a group project where the groups were assigned. We had a really hard time getting the team to work together. One of my strengths is establishing peace in a group and helping teams form. I was able to try to bring the team together. I would speak with the team to plan meetings where we would make clear expectations for each member. This led to minimal disagreement because each member had their own piece of the project to work on. We would then come together to put our separate parts to form a whole. By the end of the semester, we were all working together very well and got good scores on all of our joint assignments.

One thing that I have learned over my months working in a research lab is how important collaboration and communication are when working in the sciences. My supervisor is constantly working with other labs and helping them on projects. Also, in the review process for scientific manuscripts it is crucial to be able to communicate research findings clearly. I hope to be able to grow in my communication skills to become the most effective professional I can be. There is almost no one working today who works completely alone, especially with communication possible over large distances with a simple phone call. It is vastly important to learn good communication skills and group work abilities to succeed in the professional world.