Week 2 Summary

So, I’ve completed Week 2 of the 2018 Summer REU Program!
Since Memorial Day was on Monday, it was a short week; nonetheless, it was pretty intense so, I am very excited for the weekend.

Monday – Most, if not all, of us in the ProHealth and SROC program had the day off so Bri, Gustavo, Eugine and I visited V Deli for brunch. Their pancakes are huge and they wisely recommend purchasing one. I for one appreciated the portion because pancakes are one of my top three favorite foods of all time.

Tuesday – This was my earliest day. Bri, Cassie, Katie and I had to be in the office at 8 to have Zoom conference call with Maria Walters and a Ph.D. student, Mona, from the University of Edinburgh, who will be working on one of our projects with us. This was a very informative and insightful meeting because I learned a lot about the U.K.’s researching guidelines along with the U.S.’s and how they are to be navigated when working with team members from both places.

Also on Tuesday, I meet with PHI for our second research project. Bri and I had our second meeting with our mentor on Tuesday as well. We had a lot of questions regarding the deliverables that we had to produce towards the end of the week and about the projects overall so, the meeting lasted a lot longer than an hour.

Wednesday – This was a very productive workday. I got a lot of reading done and we also had a workshop with Katie where we learned more about how our Friday deliverable should be formatted. That workshop was extremely useful for several reasons. We received several templates that will be useful for remaining organized and taking good notes during meetings. Katie also recommended keeping an Idea Journal. Personally that the most important thing that I  got out of the workshop. I created one and I already have 4 ideas written down and I added some last night that I have to develop further. I actually find the idea of keeping an Idea Journal therapeutic because I have a lot of questions that do not necessarily have available answers as yet. Some of them require a lot of time and research so it’s good being able to put them all in one place where I can revisit them sometime in the future.

Bri and I also had a meeting with Katie right before the workshop. That meeting was useful, however, we had limited time this week and I think that next week, it would be wise, like Katie suggested in the workshop, to create an agenda so that we can get more out of the meetings.

Thursday – On Thursday, we learned that we will be joining forces with another proHealth research team. I am curious to see the product of our collaboration. Bri and I also meet with Cassie again and we learned that we will begin to collect data next week! So that’s exciting.

Friday – One word: ShareLatex. ShareLatex took up most of Bri and I’s time today because our Methods and Related Work were our two main deliverables due today and neither of us understands the program to the extent that we were able to quickly debug our issue. However, I must say that I am much more comfortable with it than I was last week. We have a total of 26 sources and we have read a little more than 1/3 of them so I think that we are progressing well. The work we read is a combination of the articles assigned and what we have found doing our own research.

I need to create a more structured timeline for remaining 8 weeks because we have a lot to do by the end of the 9 weeks. Without a timeline and personal deadlines, it can be overwhelming so I will work on that this weekend.

This week, I discovered a new found obsession of mine: Trees.

On Thursday, as a study break, I went driving around Bloomington and I learned that they have A LOT of trees. Even in the residential areas. I live in New York City, I love being from New York and yeah, we have some trees here and there, but it does not compare to Bloomington. The trees here adds a lot of life and beauty to the city that I have never experienced before.

And now, here are some pictures of some trees:
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