I remember the first day we me at the airport, all of us were new to each other. We were excited and eagerly waiting for what Indiana has to offer. It started with Bradford woods, which not only gave us an opportunity to experience the life without any electronic device inside the woods but also helped us to establish a bond between each other. After 2 days in Bradford woods, we came to Indiana University where we got to experience the real adventure. We cherished each and every moments that we spent on campus, from tutoring girls scout campers to tutoring high school students and late night baking parties to exploring the city.

Time truly flies, I still can’t believe we are in the last week of our program. It’s been a long journey since we first began; orientation, assignments, blog-writing, selecting a project, planning, working on it and improving ourselves. It was not an easy task but we all made it to the end. I can’t just explain all about it in this one blog but I am confident that the guidance I received, the work I did and the people I met during this span of time here in Indiana will have at least some kind of impact in my life.

As usual this week was busy but it was different than other weeks. I could sense a different kind of vibe going on. We are not the same person anymore, the way we think and the way we approach a problem is completely different. We were about to complete the rigorous but interesting ten weeks with the people who care about something that we all care about and of course I don’t think there was any other way of spending my summer other than working with the people who are working day and night to create ideas, solve problems and make our world a better place.

I know I am supposed to write  what I did this week but the memories of the times spent in this place with these wonderful people is taking me off the topic.

Since, it was our last week we all were working on our posters. Improving the diagrams, designs and making it more clear and informative to our visitors. Since, I had collected more datas the  I had a lot to work on. As per the recommendations from Dr. Siek, I had to re make and rearrange the diagrams. I made a final draft of the poster and sent it to Dr. Siek. She had given me a rough sample for the design of the poster and I had made it accordingly. Later, she advised me to make some changes and reduce the number of texts in the poster which I did. After tirelessly working for few days my final poster was ready. Then, I sent it to Dr. Siek, Dr. Jen and Lindsay for the final review and printed it after I got a ‘yes’ from them.

I could only sleep for 1 hour on that night, it mostly happens to me when I am anticipating a change. But,  from the time I arrived  in Indiana, I was having some trouble in falling asleep at night. Still, don’t know the exact reason.  I woke up after an hour then we had be ready for the final poster presentation. My presentation was in Indianapolis so, I took all my bags and moved out from the building. It was tough, I was leaving the place I had spent my whole summer but I was excited that I was leaving for California to meet my sister after the poster session and more than that, I had learned a lot during my stay in Indiana University.

Poster presentation was great, there were guests from around the nation and I was asked some great questions that helped me to view my research from their perspective. At last, thanks to My advisor, Dr. Katie Siek and everyone without whom this research would not be possible.