Learning is more than just science:

Undergraduate research is a great opportunity to not only learn, but to see if you enjoy your major and academic research. The last few years my career goals included becoming a professor. I love learning as well as teaching, but I am realizing that being a professor is not what I expected. As of now my understanding of the responsibilities of a professor include some teaching, some planning but a lot of hunting for funding. I respect my P.I. because not only is he brilliant, but because he cares about everyone who works in his lab – even a young intern like me. He constantly checks in with everyone and helps to solve any problems that arise. Not only did I learn a lot about PCB design, working in a lab helped to give me the perspective to understand more of what it means to be a great professor.

The best researchers are constantly overwhelmed:

Nearly every person who does academic research that I’ve talked with says that they are constantly overwhelmed, but that’s a good thing. After learning how to design printed circuit boards (PCBs) on my laptop, I was expected to actually make one. I have only taken one basic circuits class so I didn’t even know what most of the terminology was, let alone how to actually do it. Even when I was utterly lost, which is normal for any researcher, my mentor told me that I could figure it out. It seemed that I wasn’t making any progress but I kept experimenting with the program, looking up more tutorials and asking lots of questions. It wasn’t like class where the answers were posted online. I had to figure it out because only through struggling, and with help from my group, was I able to learn.

Find a lab where the experiments excite you and the people welcome you:

I was lucky enough to find a lab that is very welcoming and friendly. My mentor, and other people in the lab, are always willing to answer my questions and help me in any way that they can. They’re very busy people that are working on much larger portions of the project than I am, but they care enough to help me when I get confused. Even luckier, I got to go kayaking with them! It was an awesome experience and helped me see another side of the people that I worked with.

Do awesome research, but make amazing memories.