Thank Goodness It's Friday???, Part II

In an earlier post, I described how my Friday would be hectic, to say the least. I also said that I would let you know how my Friday turned out. Well, yes, it was a whirlwind day. The lab meeting w e n t.  I did not make it to my networking event as an unexpected visitor came to our lab. But this was okay because he was an old lab-mate who stopped by to say hello and have lunch with us. Once this was over, I should have turned my focus to my presentation, B U T no... I was fussing over some old data.  Finally at about 1:30pm, I turned my attention to my presentation (which I presented once before) and began rehearsing it to myself.

3PM: SHOWTIME! As I began to speak, I felt my heart race, as it does whenever I give a talk. I mean, I know my research and what I want to say, but it's just a will of nerves hence, rapid heartbeat. (I think the nerves come in because I am wondering what the audience is thinking of me. Am I good enough? How is my data? Is my hair sticking up? Am I slouching? Am I speaking loud enough? Do they care about what I am saying? OMG is that person SLEEP?!) Then there were some technical difficulties which garnered a few laughs from the audience which was nearly half-dead from the intense interviews with professors earlier in the day. But their laughter eased my nerves.

Mid-way through the talk, I glanced at the clock and realized that I had only 2min left, since I was trying to speak slowly (I have been told that I talk too fast), so I rushed the last half.  When it was over, I knew that some of the students were actually paying attention because 3 asked me questions.

SELF ASSESSMENT I have critiques of my presentation: 1) I stumbled with words here and there. It's like I am trying to say one thing and already thinking about the next thing I want to say and what comes out my mouth is a jumbled mess of the first and second thoughts. Speaking slower will correct this issue. 2) I notice that I have the tendency to "talk to myself" while presenting. For example, I think there was a point that I said out loud, "oh no that is not right..." in reference to the order I wanted to say something. And I was on a microphone, sigh.  Although I know this presentation was not perfect, I can feel myself growing and becoming better. I am aware of some of my flaws and approach others to learn of other flaws so that I can work on correcting them.  I have another event at the end of the month. Between now and then, all I can do is practice, practice and practice so more.

Oh yes, I only managed to get a minimal amount of lab work done on Friday. So, now I am rushing my daughter to "get it together" and get dressed so that we can spend a Saturday in the lab. I know she is not happy with me about this. But it's the way it is. Maybe we will go for ice cream later. Geez, I feel like I am bribing the girl, sigh.

Thank Goodness It's Friday???

Ah, tomorrow is Friday. I should be excited that it is the last day of the week and the weekend is almost here. Uh, no.  My Friday is crammed. I have to give the lab meeting tomorrow at 9am. (And yes, after making some easy-to-fix cloning mistakes, I did get the data I mentioned in an earlier post.) I committed to attending a networking event at noon. I jumped at the opportunity to give a short talk about my research to recruits for my graduate program at 3pm.  I will play school bus and shuttle my daughter from her elementary school to her ballet school before 4pm and then pick her up by 5:30pm. Somewhere in all this chaos, I will get a few experiments done. Oh yeah, I will eat at some point. This is my life, my life as a single parent pursuing a PhD. No complaints, just feeling a wee bit stressed. And oh yeah, tomorrow night will be a Papa John's night! I will let you know how things go.

Empowering Women in Science and Engineering (EWISE) video

Great video produced by Cornell University discussing how featured panelists attain work-life balance, including how they incorporate children into their overall career goals. Watch and get some great info! Note: each video is about 1 hour in length.

Empowering Women in Science and Engineering (EWISE) Part 1

Empowering Women in Science and Engineering (EWISE) Part 2

Time for the lab report

Before I could enjoy my morning coffee I had to throw on some sweats, dress my daughter and dart into the lab to setup an experiment that will hopefully support one of my many hypotheses.  I am in a time crunch because I really want to generate (good) data before I have to give lab meeting in two weeks.  What does "give lab meeting" mean? Well, every week my thesis lab gathers together to hold a lab meeting.  During this lab meeting, one member of the lab will present his/her data to the rest of the lab members, including our PI (Principle Investigator aka "the boss.") The presentation is typically in the form of PowerPoint slides and lasts for about one hour.  During the presentation, the presenter shares the rationale, methods and results for his/her recent experiments. If s/he encountered any problems with the experiment, we usually try to aid the presenter by suggesting alternative protocols, reagents, etc.  Sometimes the presenter will reveal data that was unanticipated, which is always interesting!  The lab meeting will conclude with a discussion on future goals that the presenter will hope to accomplish by the time s/he is scheduled to present again.  In our lab, I present about once a month, which is a reasonable amount of time to generate new data. I have a few experiments in progress and in about a week and a half, I will know if I will be going into the lab meeting with great data or so-so data. Until then, I am keeping my fingers crossed!

Career evolution

I think I am experiencing a career evolution. Well, at least I observed a new role for myself within my career. Currently I am a fifth year graduate student striving toward completing a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences... and I still feel much like a student since I believe that I need more training and advice in order to become a better scientific researcher. However, within the past month, it just hit me that I have begun to mentor other students who are also seeking a career in the sciences. I did not realize that I had actually reached a point at which others sought my opinions and advice. I have always wanted to mentor students... I just did not think I would begin to do so this soon. I have no complaints, only joy! Listed below are a couple of tidbits of advice I shared with students.

Seek help when you need it...
I came from a high school that did not adequately prepare me for many college-level courses, which made me sometimes feel a bit nervous about how I would perform relative to my classmates. Since I felt nervous, I sought out help to make sure I did the best I could in those courses by signing up for on-campus tutoring. Some may think tutoring is costly. However, many campuses offer free tutoring, so

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So much to do, too little time...

Where do the hours in the day go?? I began my experiments upon arrival into the lab this morning and before I knew it, it was 2 o’clock and I was not anywhere near finished with the first task on my list of experiments to perform today. Time in the lab just seems to vanish even faster when reading current research articles, having impromptu meetings with colleagues, and attending seminars and vendor fairs are added to the never-ending list of things to do. Each day, I juggle these activities within only eight hours. My time is quite stunted in the lab because I have to pick up my daughter from her after school program by 6pm everyday. And while I am in the lab, I can only focus on

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