Ali Fuat Yuvali

Goals for Summer 2020

My goals for the summer are pretty clear in terms of the research part. I want to do the analysis of the data that I have already collected. To accomplish that, I need to get familiar with the raman spectra literature and look at the previous work done by various researchers. I have two "blueprint" papers given to me by my mentor that have similar research material. I am hoping to combine the structure and methodology from those example papers and integrate the data and knowledge that is related to my research into a paper.

I am in a good position to do this, but so far I am yet to understand how to do the calculations necessary to draw conclusions from my data. The out of class learning is what I struggle with the most and by the end of the summer I would like to be able to navigate myself through publications and extract the information I need out of them.

Growing up as a student athlete I developed a work ethic for getting things done. As much as I struggle right now to learn through my own effort and in absence of an in class prompted learning, I need to stick to that get it done attitude. Besides that my goal for the summer is to learn more about grad school and what it's like to be a grad student. Life after undergrad in general is a pretty big unknown to me. I am hopeful that I will get more insight on what the summer will look like in our meeting Friday.

To sum it up, I want to draw conclusions from the data that I already collected, and collect more data that would compliment my previous work. To analyze and draw conclusions, I need to learn to learn on my own effort. This is my biggest learning goal as so far I experience that it is much different than learning in the classroom room. Finally, I want to get more exposure about life after undergrad.

GeoScience Career Panel Reflection

Listening to the panelists, three things stood out to me. Ellen shared how going through graduate school and research made her realize she did not enjoy that sort of work. This encourages me to continue to an appropriate graduate program after my four years at UCSC. Not only it is acceptable to exit out of a program, but also she showed how her experience valuable for an employer and it helped her find kind of work that she enjoys doing. Another story that gave me confidence that we cannot really pick the “right path” was Joseph’s transition from being an intense analytic researcher to a work environment with more direct applications. Both work related to his passion for the environment and climate but for certain aspects of the work environment and conditions made him change his path. These two stories give me assurance that it is OK to pick the best path at the time and then re-evaluate the conditions to pick a more accurate path for myself. Lastly, story of Pat shows me that I could be more courageous. It was interesting how he mentioned college was different in his times. He sounded as he did not have any fear inside about making the most out of his degree or career which shows that it is possible to hang loose, work hard, and look opportunities. Listening to different people was interesting although I believe eventually it will be an internal thing to just give up the fear of the unknown. I would like to know more about their experience if they can recall what it was like the first year out of college. For the panelists that got in non-academic work, I would like to know how the transition from classroom to real world geology work was like.

Final Reflection