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.