Better late than never

So today is actually not July 11th, when this blog was actually supposed to be written by. Oh well, what are you gonna do about it. Overall I have had mixed reactions about the workshops. I appreciated the workshop on resume building and networking. Being in the College of Engineering (especially in the Chemical Engineering department) resume building/job applications/networking has been hard pressed in my 2 years that I have been here. Thus the workshop for that topic was more of things I have already heard.

The workshop about getting peer-reviewed articles was interesting. It was great to get a better understanding of the process of submitting and revising an academic paper. The lab I worked in my freshman year is currently publishing the paper of the project I worked on. I didn't have too much to contribute to the paper, but this workshop showed me what the PI and post-docs had to go through to get a paper published. I wish the workshop was actually more applicable to the sciences, instead of humanities, but the information was still good.

Workshop Reflection (a little late)

I found both workshops to be fairly helpful, but I had already heard much of the information presented at the Career Development workshop.  It was nice to be reminded of some of the services offered by the university.  I found the writing workshop far more helpful because it was not information that I had heard before.  The book suggestions were excellent.  I also like that the speaker did her best to be very inclusive.  The fact that she was not involved in the sciences contributed to this, and made her different from other speakers that have talked to us.  The description of the process of being published from start to beginning makes me feel prepared to try and publish since I'll know what to expect.  

Workshop Reflection

Overall, I would definitely have to say that the seminars for this summer fellowship have been much more informative than the seminars during the school year. I like that the topics were applicable to a wider variety of types of research and to college students in general. I was worried I would have to sit through more endless panels of biologists that talk about their own research which pertains very little to my lab. 

The Career Development Workshop was really helpful because as a refresher of all the services the Career Center offers. Although I had seen the same handouts of a resume numerous time, I like learning about their practice interview and job connector opportunities. I also felt that the little tips, such as getting business cards and practicing an elevator speech, are pieces of advice that aren't immediately obvious. The seminar could also be even more helpful emails if it touched on aspects of etiquette in sending professional emails because I feel like that is something every college student should know. 

Although the Writing Academic Articles seminar wasn't necessarily from a science perspective, I still felt it was useful to introduce us to the possibilities of publishing. I had never even considered publishing as an undergraduate student, but at least now I know the intensive process I will have to undergo when that time comes. her basic advice for writing was applicable to any field, especially going to the Sweetland Center. 

Workshop Reflection

The workshops were surprisingly helpful. I expected to just be talked to for ninety minutes about stuff that has been already said a dozen times while at the university. Many of the points that our speakers brought up actually pertained to my future interests and were quite refreshing. I did not know how specific and regulated publications are and that the process could take years with responses, revisions, etc., which has really made me want to get my work out sooner than later. However, most of the academic articles seminar was stuff I already knew but that's because I've been reading and analyzing dozens of journals during my research here at the university. The Career Development seminar clarified a few things that I can do in order to better prepare myself for future interactions and further understanding of how to build my profile and how to properly embellish it. I thought that the elevator pitch exercise is a fun exercise and it adds some perspective towards your accomplishments and highlights, even though I already had this down after the first couple career fairs. Ultimately these seminars helped me further consider what type of work I want to pursue once my undergraduate endeavors are over.

Workshop Reflections

The career development workshop was more eye-opening in that it helped to show that there is more to developing your career than just doing your work. You need a nice-looking resume that showcases who you are in a quick concise way. Everything needs to be concise and you need to be a well-spoken person. Also, the talk about the business cards was also useful. I will definitely take these suggestions.

The publishing workshop was somewhat useful, but wasn't as curated to the audience. First of all, we are all undergrads and depending on our grade level, we probably won't be thinking about publishing as a first author very soon. The speaker seemed to assume that we were all going to publish soon and did not really know the audience. This suggested to me that she was not given that much context for the seminar. Perhaps if she was a science or even a social science person she would have been more comfortable with an audience largely interested in publishing into scientific journals.

Workshop Reflection

The Career Development 101 seminar was really helpful. Learning about professorial writing and talking is really helpful in the science field. I found it quite meaningful to learn all the words that was given to us to have a better conversation with doctors and interviewers when applying for a lab position or any type of work. The resources that was given to us in this seminar were great specially the name cards since I was looking forward to make one but I didn't know how or where.

I felt less interested in the second seminar because the person that was presenting came from a different which when comes to publishing is a whole different world. Yes I learned some general information but some of the questions that students had didn't get fully answered because the presenter had no experience in the science field. but after all it was a good experience and I left with new information about publishing that will help me in my future towards publishing my first paper.

Workshop Reflection

We had the fortunate opportunity to speak with a professional about writing / submitting peer reviewed journal articles, and I learned a great deal from that presentation.  More than anything, I learned how extensive the process actually is.  I couldn't believe that it could take years to get a paper published (at least in the field she was working in); luckily, in science the time can be reduced.  I thought it was also good to learn how to pick which journal to submit.  Instead of wasting months by submitting to the wrong journal, it's worth taking the time to find a selection that fits one's work.  It was disheartening to see how critical some of the reviewers were.  I am all for critiquing work, but I think that people should be a little softer in their negative comments.  It was also great to get some tips on how to balance detail and being concise.  I think  that's the key to writing a good article, because it gives the necessary information without getting lost in the details.

Ethan