{"id":5782,"date":"2014-07-22T09:43:35","date_gmt":"2014-07-22T13:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/?p=5782"},"modified":"2014-07-22T09:43:35","modified_gmt":"2014-07-22T13:43:35","slug":"on-becoming-a-scientist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/2014\/07\/22\/on-becoming-a-scientist\/","title":{"rendered":"On becoming a scientist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program focuses much of the 10-week experience on conducting research.\u00a0However, as Rhode Island students learn during the course of the summer, there is more to being a scientist than holing up in a lab or collecting samples in the field.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cTaking part in seminars, workshops and networking events are all part of the larger scientific community,\u201d explained Jim Lemire, undergraduate coordinator for Rhode Island NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).<\/p>\n<p>Lemire, Adjunct Professor of Biology &amp; Marine Biology at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rwu.edu\">Roger Williams University<\/a>, coordinates the EPSCoR SURF program <a href=\"http:\/\/issuu.com\/amydunkle\/docs\/2014_classof_surf\">(meet our 2014 SURF students)<\/a> and organizes events for the undergraduate interns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe various ancillary events we offer as part of the SURF program are partly an attempt to involve students in this community,\u201d Lemire said. \u201cThis sort of professional development is an important part of training future scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5785 alignright\" style=\"border: 1px solid black\" title=\"Dr. Alycia Mosley Austin\" src=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/848\/alycia-e1412709193791.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Alycia Mosley Austin\" width=\"130\" height=\"164\" \/><\/h3>\n<blockquote><p>What are you so passionate about that you\u2019ve got to get to grad school?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Throughout the summer program, RI NSF EPSCoR collaborates with <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inbre\/\">Rhode Island IDEA Network for Excellence in Biomedical Research<\/a> (INBRE) to provide numerous opportunities for the undergraduates in both programs \u2014 95 on the INBRE side and 40 on EPSCoR for summer 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Most recently, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.salve.edu\">Salve Regina University<\/a> hosted SURF students from both programs for a discussion on graduate school with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/gsadmis\/AlyciaBio.html\">Dr. Alycia Mosley Austin<\/a>, Director of Graduate Recruitment and Diversity Initiatives at the University of Rhode Island, and a presentation by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tickencounter.org\/about\/our_team\">\u201cTickGuy\u201d Dr. Tom Mather<\/a>, URI Professor of Public Health Entomology.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 1.17em\">Finding the right fit<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Dr. Mosley Austin asked the students to consider why they might go to graduate school and to think about their reasons. Pursuit of an advanced degree is hard and demands passion and perseverance, she said, so make sure to pick the right program with a support system. And, do give thought to location.<\/p>\n<p>Once students narrow down their selection, they need to pull together the various pieces of an application.\u00a0A personal statement should provide an indication of why students want to attend a particular program. Unlike an undergraduate application, graduate schools don\u2019t want to know about family history, extra-curricular activities, obstacles overcome, or how well rounded a person might be.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m sure that\u2019s important and meaningful to you, but if it doesn\u2019t tell me you\u2019re going to be someone to do the research, and be passionate about it, and persevere when all your experiments fail, then it doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d Dr. Mosley Austin said. \u201cAnd, it\u2019s ok if it hasn\u2019t been a lifelong dream.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rather, the key is what have students done and what have their experiences been?\u00a0\u201cWhat are you so passionate about that you\u2019ve got to get to grad school?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n<h3>Helpful hints, information<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Critical components:<\/strong> Do your homework, know what research opportunities are available and contact faculty members to ask if there is space in their lab. Give careful consideration to letters of recommendation; ask people who can speak to your ability to conduct research and carry out the responsibilities of a grad student.<\/li>\n<li><strong>What to include in the CV:<\/strong> Give a short description of research experience, and note any publications and presentations, lab skills and familiar techniques. Don\u2019t bother pointing out irrelevant job experiences.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Taking the GRE:<\/strong> Study, but don\u2019t stress; take it enough in advance so there is time to retake it for a better score.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Master\u2019s or Ph.D.:<\/strong> It depends on the journey and the end goal, but know that it is more challenging to find funding for a master\u2019s, and programs typically prefer to invest in a Ph.D. candidate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Putting the GRE in perspective, RI-INBRE SURF Program Coordinator\u00a0Dr. Brenton DeBoef, URI Assistant Professor of Chemistry, told the group about his experience, walking into the exam the morning after being on RA duty. While he had scientific reasoning and quantitative math covered, the verbal section posed a challenge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was like the SAT \u2014 A is to B as C is to blank,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI didn\u2019t know any. Eventually, I get to bark is to tree as skin is to options like airplane and duck, literally like my third grade kid could do it. I got my score and it was so embarrassing \u2014\u00a0the 24<sup>th<\/sup> percentile. I was functionally illiterate. At least make some flash cards for the vocabulary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Amid the laughter, Dr. Mosley Austin pointed out, \u201cThe lesson in that is your professors were not all geniuses when they were your age!\u201d<\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/848\/Unknown1.jpeg\" rel=\"lightbox[5782]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-9786\" src=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/848\/Unknown1.jpeg\" alt=\"Unknown\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a>In pursuit of science<\/h3>\n<p>Dr. Mather provided students with an overview of his research with ticks, and outlined the 10 steps to developing a vaccine for immunity to Lyme disease, which causes 300,000 cases each year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt takes a lot of work,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd sometimes, you go down a path and then you have to backtrack.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, Dr. Mather noted, it seems like you make reasonable progress only to confront new challenges: \u201cBut, you don\u2019t get frustrated and you don\u2019t give up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked what led him to his area of expertise and what he was doing the summer after his junior undergraduate year, Dr. Mather recalled an entomology professor of his at the University of Delaware, who made the field fascinating. Although he hated bugs early on, he went onto study mosquito bite transmission.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, Dr. Mather said he fielded a job offer from the Harvard School of Public Health, which was starting to do research on this \u201cnewfangled thing called Lyme disease\u201d in 1982-83: \u201cIt really became an opportunity I couldn\u2019t pass up. When I think about it, I was just truly blessed by opportunities that came my way.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Starting the journey<\/h3>\n<p>SURF student Ryan Quinn, a Biological Sciences major at URI, said she found the sessions extremely helpful: \u201cAs a first generation college\u00a0student, I didn&#8217;t even know what grad school was until I was in college. I walked away much more knowledgeable about graduate school and less intimidated about applying in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Elisabeth Arevalo, Associate Professor of Molecular Evolution and a SURF mentor at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.providence.edu\/Pages\/default.aspx\">Providence College<\/a>, said she received equally positive reactions from students in her research group. The talks provided undergraduates with ideas not only how to proceed on grad school, but also to keep an open mind to potential research areas and selection of a program.<\/p>\n<p>These responses were exactly what Lemire hoped to achieve. He said, \u201cStudents often do not have a good grasp on what is involved or how they should proceed. I wish someone had provided such a presentation when I was an undergraduate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Mather\u2019s seminar offered a great example of the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of science, Lemire noted, while demonstrating how problems can be tackled from a variety of angles. The takeaway for the students was invaluable.<\/p>\n<p>Lemire said, \u201cI also thought it was great for the students to see how some research can start off with a local problem such as Lyme disease, but have global implications with the potential development of a general tick vaccine that could prevent dozens of tick-borne diseases worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\"><em>Story by Amy Dunkle; courtesy photos<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program focuses much of the 10-week experience on conducting research.\u00a0However, as Rhode Island students learn during the course of the summer, there is more to being a scientist than holing up in a lab or collecting samples in the field. \u201cTaking part in seminars, workshops and networking events are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}