Profound Learning

Although this semester was challenging in many ways, I feel like I conquered it and learned more than was possible. I am incredibly happy with biochemistry and introduction to logic opened my mind to the world of philosophy. I also found my mind wandering during my general education classes with ideas about research. I love that I have been doing my research long enough now that I can think about how to improve it and actually understand how it works. While my McNair Scholar responsibilities have decreased dramatically throughout the semester, I will never forget how much the program has influenced my life.

One of the biggest things I discovered this semester is that there is a significant difference between learning and comprehension. While I can learn material and memorize necessary information, it is completely different to truly comprehending the material. I made this realization when I was studying for my biochemistry final exam.I noticed that we (students) tend to get caught up in every little thing in life and typically don't take the time to truly comprehend what we are learning. There is so much more than just learning "the players in the game," you need to actually know how to "play the game". I have discovered that I don't want to just learn things to take an exam, but I want to learn them in a way in which I can utilize the knowledge by applying it to my research and my life.

My happiest achievement came recently with the acceptance to the 2014 Summer REU program in Chemical Biology at Vanderbilt University!! At the end of last October I visited Vanderbilt when I participated in their Pre-VU Ph.D. Recruitment event. The labs are so great and I met Dr. Gary Sulikowski, for whom I will be working for during the summer. Vanderbilt is my top choice graduate school in chemistry and I cannot wait to have the opportunity to do research there for 10 weeks! I have realized that my dreams can become reality. Once I decided on attending CMU in 2011, I remember deciding that I wanted to stay in Mount Pleasant doing research by the second summer. During my McNair Summer I made the goal to obtain a research opportunity at another institution (preferably my top-choice graduate school). I am ecstatic to say check and check to those goals. I will never back down. I will keep striving for the stars!

Just saying that I am grateful doesn't begin to truly explain how much I appreciate the opportunities I have had since attending college. I have learned so much more than just book knowledge. I have gained so much experience in research and been exposed to other cultures. This semester I learned how to eat with chopsticks... And even ate my Thanksgiving dinner with them this year! I have so many interesting people influencing my life now and I look forward to soaking up all of the knowledge they can share with me.