Friday (5/27)

May 27, 2016 Reflection


Today was the first day we had a chance to meet with our professor and our graduate student mentors. I was happily assigned to work with Professor Patrick Shih on the Rare Disease Facebook Extension. Our first meeting was scheduled for most of us. At the meeting we discussed the deliverable for our specific study and also made other meeting times for the remainder of the REU. For our project, we were assigned to do some research regarding permissions necessary for our application. The meeting went very smoothly and helped clear up the questions I had for the study.

We also had our first ProHealth Tea during the REU this week where we gave our elevator speeches. There were three possible prizes which were amazon gift cards ranging from $5 for third place, $10 for second place and $15 for first place. I have given elevator pitches before but I was still pretty nervous about choking during this one. I practiced in the mirror for the first time ever and I would definitely recommend this to someone who has fear of speaking in front of a crowd (like myself at times). I know it sounds weird to practice in the mirror with your self and one might wonder how this may help but it actually does! When I started saying my elevator speech in the mirror I felt myself becoming nervous like I would if It was really in front of a crowd, which really surprised me. I just thought how can I be afraid of speaking to myself that is crazy! So I kept at it and realized that this is just like public speaking and that thought helped me a lot. Luckily enough, when it was my time to give my elevator speech I did not choke. I ended up winning first place which was a great accomplishment in my book! I know there are still some things I need to work on when it comes to publicly speaking which I intend to work on before it is time to give our poster presentations.
Snapping Turtle!


Another interesting thing that happened to me today was that I saw a Snapping Turtle! I was on my way home when an older man with a Dalmatian dog standing by the creek told me to come look at the Snapping Turtle he found. I thought about not going since he was a stranger but he looked harmless and seemed like a genuinely nice person so I took my chances and went over to look at the Snapping Turtle. The man told me that they are very hard to find and that it was an amazing discovery which I did not question I just kinda took his word for it. He also insisted I take a picture, so I did since he said they were a rare find. He told me some more cool facts about them and then said “Well I just thought you want to see that!” which made me giggle and I thanked him and told him to have a nice day.
This would probably be the highlight of my day along with winning an Amazon gift card!

IMG_8848

IMG_8849