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

workshop reflection

The Career Development 101 workshop was a useful guide to other career resources on campus. I will definitely take advantage of the Alumni Center's free business cards, resume proofreading, etc. From the YouTube video, it was interesting to hear about the rules for following up with an employer after an interview. You don't want to appear overeager, but also not apathetic.
Similarly, the Writing Academic Articles and Getting Published workshop enlightened me of the Sweetland Writing Center's various services. During orientation we were bombarded with resources so the workshop was a nice refresher; especially now that these resources are more applicable in our lives.

Seminar Reflection

I believe that both the Career Development 101 and Writing Scholarly Articles and Getting Published seminars were helpful to me in some way or another. Networking has always been emphasized by UROP and it was nice to see it talked about much more in depth. One thing I had not considered before the seminar, however, was a thirty second speech about yourself and your goals. I think that was an important point to make for, though I've had interviews and experienced networking in some way or another,  I had never thought to condense my story into a quick easy to follow introduction to use as a part of networking. 

The Writing Scholarly Articles and Getting Published seminar really helped me understand how scholarly articles work in the first place. I found especially helpful to have articles explained in the most simplistic form. It solidified how I thought researchers present their findings but put it into an easy to understand form. Thinking about articles as a "conversation" is what has helped me the most, because that's honestly the easiest way to understand what is going on and why articles have so many citations. It takes a lot of the fear away to think about an article as a piece of conversation. 

Workshop Reflection

In the career development workshop I learned how to give my elevator speech and I learned about countless resources available to U of M students. For example, I learned that the Alumi Center gives out business cards. This is one resource I want to utilize, especially for career fairs. In the Academic Articles workshop I learned about good resources to use while writing. I learned about the Sweetland Writing Center and and several books to aid me in the writing process. Finally, I learned about the publishing process and how that works.

Workshop Refelction

The Career Development 101 seminar taught me the importance of networking as well as many useful approaches to networking. I particularly liked the video that discussed a number of ways to network efficiently when trying to land a job. This will hopefully be very useful in my future endeavors. I also found the elevator pitch to be very useful. It had not crossed my mind all year to prepare an elevator pitch, and now that I am older and have a little bit more experience in my field, I hope to find these pitches to be very useful (particularly at career fairs). Networking is key to promoting yourself and moving up in the industry.

The Writing Academic Articles and Getting Published Seminar was very helpful with getting insight on how to write, submit, and publish articles as well as what goes into an article, what kind of journals we should be submitting to, how much time it takes after submission, etc... I did not realize just how time consuming and difficult it was to be published. Our speaker was very informative and engaging. She has encouraged me, and I'm sure a number of other students, to take more of an interest in reading articles that pertain to my field. It's not that I was not willing to read them before, it's just that it never really crossed my mind. I hope that this seminar will also help me in writing my abstract and presentation for UROP.

Workshop Reflection

The Career Development 101 workshop was very eye opening as it made me realize some important things I need to work on before I become successful. Interviews are key to a job and I realized that if you don't prepare for these, my future job could be in jeopardy. I also learned the importance of networking. Everyone has a story and learning these stories is the key to making connections that can benefit you in the long term. I never thought about having my own business card so early, but I guess I need to make that free acquisition as soon as possible.

The Getting Published workshop showed me the difficulty of getting published. Before this summer I was disappointed that my research during the year had not been published. After this workshop, I realized that getting published so early in my research career is not something that I should focus on. I should just focus on learning and setting the path for future publications. Although the presenter was not focused in the sciences, I thought the things she talked about would apply to all fields of academics.

Workshop Reflection

I found that the Career Development 101 was quite helpful to me because it reminded me of the many resources that the university has to offer. For instance the Sweetland Writing Center that will help you go over your resume, they also help with papers and how to improve them. As well as the Alumni Center which gives you free business cards! I mean if you meet someone that would possibly have a job that you want, what better way for them to remember you by then your own personal business card?! Business cards are a good way to network as well, being that most people get great jobs based on how well they network. 
Also we talked about how to build a stronger resume. By tweaking a few things such as reading the job description and using that to make a better resume. Of all the workshops that we have had, and ones that I have gone to during the previous year, this is one of the most important ones.  If I were to change anything about the this presentation it would be to have someone from the Alumni center tell us about the other resources that they have. 

workshop

Hello All, 


In the workshop Writing Academic Articles and Getting Published, I learned that getting publish takes hard work. Being able to write is the easy part. The hard part is choosing a topic. Every Journal has different requirements, and it will be hard to make your article meet every journal requirements. So before you start to pick a topic make sure the Journal you want to be publish in deals with that topic and you follow their requirements  I also learned patients is key. Doing the research for your article can take years, and getting accepted can take awhile also.

Making it in the real world: Skills for survival post graduation

One of the biggest unknowns in my life right now is what I'll be doing post-undergraduate-graduation. Will I start a career at a company I'm excited about, or take a more reliable job to make sure bills get paid? Will I still be in school four years from now, working toward a master's degree or PHD? Though I have ideas, there's no way to know for certain where I'll be. That's why, in addition to academic knowledge like this-is-how-you-integrate-in-three-dimensions, I'm glad that I'm working to polish career-related skills.

While I have a resume, am comfortable with my interview theory of get-the-interviewer-to-recognize-your-person-hood (i.e. let them know who you are, what you're good at, and try and get them to like you), I know that one thing I'm still working on is persistence. Both Charmise Knox's presentation on career skills and Professor Manis's talk on writing emphasized the benefits of not getting discouraged - reaching out, making an effort, and then moving on to new opportunities if your talents are clearly not wanted can get you the job, the publication, or whatever else it is that you need. It always makes me slightly uncomfortable to "name-drop" and use the connections that I have - it doesn't seem fair to people who are just as qualified (or perhaps more qualified) but don't know that person. However, to get your dream position, it can really help to have a network in place of people who can give you a leg-up.

Another common theme was presenting to an audience. During the career building seminar, I realized I'd like to improve my "elevator speech" by shortening it, and possibly having multiple prepped so that I can tailor what I say to my audience's interest and time availability. The benefits of having an audience in mind while writing a research paper were also clear - it can make the paper more beneficial to the ultimate readers and can help market it for publishing.

The next time I'm confronted with a writing- or career-related dilemma, I'll be sure to apply my newly learned skills!

Seminar Review

For me, I feel like much of what was discussed in the seminars has already been presented to me during my first year at UM and I am not sure if I have been exposed to more resources than most, but it is always nice to know they are there. I believe that a lot of what I have gained from the seminars has been talking to other people around me to get a sense of their feelings.

The career development 101 seminar I thought held importance because a lot of resources were presented to us that Michigan offers as we move on in our lives and our careers. Also it got me thinking about what I want to do with my future and how my current research can play a part in that, making me think about what I should take from this experience to apply in my future career.

I thought the writing academic articles and getting published workshop was interesting as it was taught from a humanities perspective, and I think really combining humanities and science would help further develop both fields. While I am not in the process of getting published, as I am doing research, the information presented was important and would help me in the future. I think her point about just starting to write was really important, even if it's writing something small, if you can get something down on paper your ideas can start coming together.

Seminar Reflection

So far, the seminars have been very helpful in furthering my scientific/professional career. The Career Development seminar woke me up a little from all of the research, and it made me evaluation some goals and how I want to present myself.

It's not just about doing research and then getting a job, because there are thousands of people in exactly my position. In order to get that awesome job you want, you have to create an image for yourself. One thing I'm definitely going to take advantage of because of this seminar is the free business card deal at the Alumni Center. It was something I'd never heard of before, but definitely helpful for interviews and meeting people at different conferences!

The writing seminar was interesting because the speaker had a much different perspective than I had. Even though she was a Humanities researcher, a lot of the style tips still applied. The books she mentioned will be useful for any type of writing, so it was useful. Because I have been in the UROP Program for two years, the basic information about posters was repetitive, but I'm sure informative for the rest of the seminar.

Overall, the seminars have been a nice reminder that research is not the only point of this Fellowship--it is also the connections we're making and the ways this is going to help us in our future careers.

Seminar Reflection

Seminar Workshop Reflections-by Michael Pulte
Career Development 101
I thought that this seminar was immensely helpful in allowing the fellows to grasp the importance of networking and developing a way to convey the idea of one's amazing self to a potential supporter of future endeavors. In the M-Sci Family Meetings, we talked about the importance of networking and developing an elevator pitch to show people who you are as this information, and the way it is presented may be crucial to one's career development. I never really though of my fellow fellows as sources for networking but they can also be critical in helping me make the most out of my career at U of M and beyond!

Writing Academic Articles and Getting Published
The speaker for this particular seminar workshop was very well informed on writing an academic paper and getting published in respected canons of research material IN HER FIELD. She was very interesting to listen to, was very knowledgeable, and was overall very informative. However, I feel that the entire audience would have benefited better from someone who had published scholarly articles in a more "hard science"-related field. There are a lot of differences between how a literary academic paper is structured and how a scientific paper is presented. Although the two may have similar components, the approach to writing a scientific paper is different along with the process of getting that paper published. Although she was a very eloquent speaker, I would've been able to learn more from someone who published article in scientific magazines such as Science, Nature, or The European Journal of Psychotraumatology. Since this is a Biomedical Fellowship, I think hearing about how to publish a paper in the Biomedical sciences or tips on writing such works would've been more beneficial to the group overall.

Workshop Reflection

Honestly, much of the information presented during the workshops was not new to me, as I had learned it during previous UROP workshops and other activities that occurred during the academic year.  Nonetheless, the points that were emphasized during the workshops are vital for a successful future in research and medicine.

Career Development 101:

One of the key points I noticed in this workshop was the importance of communication and putting oneself out there.  Communication is key for expressing one's interests, strengths, and personality.  Especially in networking, it is important to be confident in one's communication skills in order to connect with new or current colleagues. I will try to work on my elevator speech; it is important for me to be able to explain my strengths and goals in a concise manner. Furthermore, the lists of verbs to use in the personal statement and/or resume will be helpful.  The resume building portion was a bit repetitive.

Academic Articles:

This workshop was helpful even though our writing is in the sciences and the presenter's was in the humanities. One thing I noticed is that the time scale for getting published is huge, including multiple revisions and peer reviews.  This means that every word must be carefully thought out. That being said, however, the presenter's advice that you do nto have to begin writing a paper from the intro, but rather starting from the middle or end, helped me realize the structure and perfection is not necessary in the first few drafts.

Workshop Reflection

I enjoyed meeting new people in the research program during the Career Development 101 session. It was interesting to hear about other people’s research because the most of the people I was already familiar with all had engineering related research. Most of the information was a review in terms of resumes and resources, though some minor things that were highlighted were very useful.

I found the session on publishing articles very useful to provide perspective on the work it takes to complete the entire process. I wasn’t aware of much of the information about the editing process and the different types of journals. The talk was very useful in the very general terms, and I liked the process shown in the emails as well. If I could change one element it would be to have the speaker have a scientific background since it would be more applicable to the overall audience in this summer program.

Career Development 101 and Writing Academic Articles and Getting Published

The Career Development 101 seminars, along with the ones about academic articles and getting published, certainly opened my eyes up to a world that was greater than that of simply doing my research.

Although I really hate to admit it, there is stuff that I have to do after graduation. I could just graduate with a bachelors in ME, but then what? Without becoming familiar with resumes, interviews, and connecting myself to big coporate recruiters, it will be very difficult for me to land that dream job I've always wanted.

Also, what if I find out I don't want to be hired by some huge company and be a pawn in their line of profit? What if I want to continue with research, become a post doc, and eventually perhaps a professor? In that case, writing and reading articles is crucial. Despite the fact that half tof the articles that I am required to read I can comprehend maybe 50% of it, just by delving into this world of scholarly articles is helping me form my own thoughts about how I would want to publish my papers. In addition, the skill of reading and writing scholarly articles is one that would assist me in many aspects of my life as it's important to be comprehensive in my knowledge and articulate with my communication.

I will definitely be looking out for more opportunities to fine tune my career development this coming year. It's never too early to start preparing for your future!

Workshop Reflection

Hey y'all, here again to give you another vlog post.

~Patrick Mullen

Workshop Reflection

The UROP workshops helped me learn about myself.  A few weeks ago I was a small faun who had lost his mother in a deep dark wood, but now, I am the all knowing hawk flying high in the air.  I have wrote down the things I will be doing in the coming weeks in a planner so that I will not forget about them.  A feeling of relief has inhumed me. 

Workshop Reflection

Career Development 101 reminded us of all the details that go into receiving a position. Networking is a helpful tool that everyone should be conscious of when partaking in a professional setting. Talking to people in different fields and positions can be a useful aid later when applying for jobs. The part of the workshop that focused on ‘elevator talks’ was also valuable. Depending on the circumstances of the situation, it is important to know how to present yourself in an appealing, but concise way to a prospective employer.

The workshop on academic articles was an informative way to introduce us to the world of publication. Initially, I knew the basics of publication, but not all the details and steps that go into getting an article published. The importance of accepting constructive criticism was stressed and that is an attitude that can be applied to all aspects of learning. Shelby reminded us of the usefulness of the Sweetland Writing Center, which I will make sure to use to gain feedback on my own writing.

Workshop Reflection

Of the two of the workshops, I learned much more from the Academic Journals and Getting Published workshop. This workshop explored an area that I was more or less an infant in and I enjoyed learning so much about how to read Academic Journals along with writing publishable Journals myself.  The Career Development 101 workshop was also very informative but due to my involvement in the MSTEM Academies program, I had already had ample exposure to things such as networking. Even though I had already been exposed to it, putting old ideas into new words from new people always helps to clarify the idea itself.

With regards to Academic Journals workshop, I had never really thought about academic journals any differently than I thought about normal old journals. This workshop has really brought to light, for me at least, how different and special academic journals really are and a few of the tools necessary to decipher every little thing about each one. Since this workshop, I have engaged in multiple talks with my sponsor about how to approach the journals that I had been reading everyday, and have since learned that I have been completely wrong in my methods. Reading journals has become much simpler since then and it has made my job much easier to complete. I am indebted to this workshop for giving me an incentive to start these conversation with my sponsor.

On the other hand, I did learn a thing or two from the Career Development workshop. Although I had know that networking was essential to pretty much ever opportunity in life, I had been unclear on how many doors it can really open up for you. Since then, I have taken more of an interest in the graduate students that work in the same office as me but on completely different projects. Most of the time the work that they describe to me goes way over my head, but learning even a little bit about each of their lives helps me get to know them better and creates a more welcoming environment to come to work to each day.

Workshop Reflection

I enjoyed some of the points on the career development 101. It's nice to be able to meet and talk to other students in UROP that are doing fellowships, but I wish we got to get to know each other better to build connections and make some friends. It was nice to get a refresher on networking and made me realize how important it actually is. It was kind of sad for all the emphasis to be on its who you know, not what you know. I think there was too much of an emphasis on using people and it made me a little uncomfortable. I think networking is important but I'm not going to make small talk with everyone I ever meet just so I can use them later for a job opportunity. However, I think networking was a good topic. I already knew about the resources that were available to us such as business cards, but it was a nice reminder that the career center does mock interviews and such.

Workshop Reflection

The Career Development 101 seminar taught me effective strategies in networking with others in order to obtain a position. I didn't realize how important networking was for many people in the job searching process. I also realized that I should probably be updating my resume more frequently, as well as keep a spreadsheet of my activities and hours so that nothing is left out. The workshop was very helpful in exposing us to resources (such as The Career Center and free business cards), which I didn't know about previously.

The workshop Writing Academic Articles and Getting Published was very helpful. I have no experience writing or publishing scientific articles, though hope to eventually do so. The speaker's personal experiences, though in a different field, were very helpful in understanding the process. While I might not start writing articles for a while, I will probably start journaling about my research in order to practice. I also agree that the Sweetland Writing Center is a great resource for writing assignments.

Workshop Reflection

I found both the Career Development 101 and Writing Academic Articles and Getting Published seminars to be informative and beneficial towards obtain a job in the near future. I learned about resources for professional development, including a strategy in the networking structures of companies, and writing academic articles/professional emails.

The Career Development 101 seminar showed me the many resources that University of Michigan gives away for no charge to undergraduate students, such as free business cards from the Alumni Center and free feedback and revision on academic papers at the Sweetland Writing Center. The high percentage of jobs that never are posted surprised me the most. I have always known that is all about who you know that benefits you when you are looking for either an internship or job. Hence why networking is important people of all ages. As an upcoming senior, I have communicated with many companies and networked with employees that will give me an edge in the application process. I will continue to network with professionals throughout my career.

The Writing Academic Articles and Getting Published seminar was very informative. This seminar was different from any other seminar that I have attended. The seminar was very interactive and relaxed. The speaker offered valuable insight on the process of publishing an academic article. She gave us insight on the do’s and do not’s of professionalism when submitting articles. All of the experiences that she shared with us about her process of submitting a academic article was informative and insightful to me because she showed us the harsh comments that the respected readers had to say about her paper. The one thing that I would change about this seminar is that our speaker only had experience dealing with academic papers in non-scientific areas of study. It might have been helpful to us to hear from someone with experience in academic publishing from a scientific field.

Workshop Reflection

The biggest thing to take away from the Career Development 101 workshop is networking. Networking is so important as it is a chance to meet new people and build connections. Not being afraid to reach out to talk to others is one thing that I have struggled with in the past but am currently working on.

The Getting Published workshop showed me how difficult is truly is to get published. Even when you think you have the coolest new findings out there, other people have different opinions, many of which are harsh critiques of your work. Getting published is also so important in terms of getting grants, but knowing that everyone faces the same kinds of problems when trying to get published gave me the chance to learn from their experiences.

Workshop Reflection

The Career Development 101 seminar's explanation of the resources available at the Career Center was a useful and thorough overview. In my particular case, I look forward to using the mock interview sessions with feedback to prepare for graduate school interviews. The portion where we developed our "Elevator Speech" was also helpful, as we were able to get feedback from our peers. One activity that I think would be useful in the future would be to analyze existing/example CVs and resumes line by line, to specifically identify the elements that characterize a top tier CV.

The Writing Academic Articles and Getting Published seminar for the most part reviewed what I have learned from my lab mentors, but I appreciated the writing resources that the speaker recommended. I also did not know that UROP students can use the Sweetland Writing Center during the summer, so I am now planning my next appointment. The point about reading as much literature as possible in your given field was also well-taken, and I've thus begun to engage more deeply with the literature in my field as well as in adjacent research areas.

After these seminars I was inspired to overhaul my CV and borrow Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks from one of my lab mates. As a result, my CV is now vastly improved and I have a much better grasp on how to plan my writing schedule for a current project.

Workshop Reflection

Being blunt, I have found that a majority of the workshops we have attended for this fellowship did not include as much new information on the research field as I was hoping for. Much of what we have gone over was already addressed during the UROP fall and winter semesters. However, there were a few key points from the Career Development 101 and Writing Academic Articles and Getting Published workshops that stuck with me.

To start, I appreciated the emphasis that was put on networking and its role in building a successful career. Being able to communicate with colleagues and coworkers is crucial, but perhaps more vital than that is reaching out to new acquaintances or connections in the work place as it is these relationships that will provide the many opportunities that are important for academic and career expansion. Through her wonderful seminar Charmise inspired me to get out there and make new friends. I thought the sample resumes were fairly helpful, too, as I have been meaning to reformat mine and they had the right "professional yet simple" look.

The academic articles seminar was also engaging in that it provided perspective from the humanities and social science world of writing and publishing, something I wasn't too familiar with. Although I knew a bit about the scientific literature process (my mentors in my lab are frantically tying together loose ends on a paper as I type this), I enjoyed having someone lay out step-by-step each part of the system. On top of that, the guest speaker was very entertaining and I liked that she openly talking about the best and worst parts of getting an article published.

K that's it.

Workshop reflection

I think the Writing Academic Articles and Getting Published seminar was the most helpful of all the seminars we have had so far. I was somewhat familiar with publishing before that seminar, but the speaker really went in depth with the entire process and what happens at each stage. My sponsor is talking about publishing an article of the results of the experiment I am doing this summer (provided that the results we get are significant) and now I feel a lot less concerned and confused about what publishing entails. I also really liked the speaker's tips for writing an academic paper. I think they will be very useful, especially the one about writing in the active voice to avoid having too long sentences. She recommended some really good books that I want to check out to improve my overall writing, because I am never quite satisfied with my writing and hopefully the advice in these books will help. The most surprising thing I learned at the seminar was that it takes a really long time to get a paper published in the humanities fields. I thought the months scientists usually have to wait to get feedback on their papers was a lot, but it is nothing compared to having to wait a whole year to a year and a half just to find out if you have been accepted, never mind making revisions and edits.
I found the Career Development 101 seminar to be less helpful. A lot of the stuff I already knew, like building a resume and networking. I think we actually had a UROP seminar during the last year that talked about a lot of the same things, so I was kind of disinterested at this seminar to be honest. I felt that way about most of the other seminars too. Like I said, the only really helpful one was the academic writing and publishing seminar. I think seminars that were more specific and took into account what we (the UROP students) actually needed would be more useful. For instance, maybe a poll could be given to the students that asks what they most want to hear and learn about at a seminar, so that way we feel like we are getting the most out of our time at seminar and not just hearing stuff we already know.

Workshop Reflection

What I've learned about the Career Development 101 seminar is how to present myself towards others in order to network. The list of words to use in resumes are a helpful tool for writing, and practicing writing and speaking an elevator pitch was important practice. The best way to network is to talk to people, because they can provide you with new information and opportunities.

For writing and publishing articles, I learned that writing articles is a lot harder than it seems. The Abstract, which is the summary of the work, is usually one of the most difficult parts of writing the paper. It was suggested that writing the Abstract should be done last, since all other parts of the paper has been done, and it would be easy to write the Abstract from there. It's also important to be clear and precise in your papers.

Workshop Reflection

The main point of the Career Development 101 seminar seemed to be networking. By the end of that seminar, I was a bit sick of the word "network," but I understand that is very important in the research field. I thought the CNN interview video was helpful in that I learned some useful tips in getting connected with other people without coming across as a stalker. It still seems a little awkward to go into conversations with the goal of "networking," but I guess that's how it is in such a competitive field. The importance of who you know in research can't be underestimated. I also thought it was interesting how having a business card was emphasized. It never occurred to me that it might be a good idea to have your own business card as a poor college student, but I can see why it would be helpful to get your name out there, particularly in the context of research.

The Getting Published seminar was fairly helpful as well. Shelly was a good speaker who managed to make something as dry as publishing scientific research seem somewhat interesting. Some of her tips on writing, particularly getting started, were quite useful. While I don't plan on publishing a paper I've written myself, my lab is publishing a paper on which I would have secondary authorship. It's nice to know how the process works, even though I was only involved on a superficial level with this paper. I wasn't aware that sending the paper to multiple journals is highly frowned upon, but it makes sense in hindsight.