And second semester is off…

Well, second semester of sophomore year is in full bloom, the weather on the other hand is a different story. The bitter cold days mixed with the spring weather throws me off especially on how many layers I need for walking to class and going to practice.

Being a student, D1 athlete, and a research rookie holds a lot of responsibility and commitment. Having to commitment my time to my school work, my team, and my mentor and my research is hard to balance, but many small techniques come help. Second semester is usually extremely busy, track is full bloom, and so is my research project. The tough part is balancing them all, but using every bit of free time to study or work on my research project is put to use. For example, today is the Super Bowl game, yes I want to be watching, but I am sitting in study tables working on homework. Sometimes you have to put the fun aside and work. During classes I can be found studying or reading articles. Now, the internet is a huge temptation, especially with my new found love website, Pintrest. However, I try to give myself a time limit before I sign into the social networking sites. I’ll say, “ok, just check and see if the world is still turning and if nothing out of the ordinary seems to be going on, I will go back to homework.” Usually this theory works, but there are times it doesn’t. Sometimes my body just needs a break from all the running around and I take a quick power nap. Power naps are my savior. You take a quick nap and wake up refreshed and ready to conquer anything that is put in front of you.

So far most of my research project is being done in my room still. I meet with my mentor every week and we discuss what I need to complete by the following week. We have recently submitted our IRB report and are hoping it is approved asap. Once we have the approval we will be working in the Speech and Hearing Clinic in Sycamore. Once a week my mentor and I will be meeting with our patients and giving them the therapy method my project is based on.

I often look back on my last years’ experience as a first year Research Rookie, and I can never come up with anything bad, overwhelming, or something I would have done differently. My experience last year was tremendous. I often still talk about my project to people and compare it to this year’s project. One thing I am going to like about this year’s project is, I will be able to help conduct the research. Last year I was listening and re-listening to recorded play sessions between a mother and child. I am hoping we will see a little bit of progress in the eight sessions we are going to be with the child. This year is a whole new side of Speech-Pathology compared to last year.

Being a mentor for the new Research Rookies is something I’m proud of. I know last year, it being my first year at a new school, away from home and my parents, a whole different atmosphere was a huge adjustment for me. I am so thankful for Dr. Morris agreeing to be my mentor. She helped make my adjustment a whole lot easier. I remember this and think, if I can help someone with anything or give one piece of advice to someone in my group I have done part of my job as a mentor. I often think about things before I fall asleep at night and often it is, “what can I tell these new Research Rookies that I would have loved to know about last year.” I feel being a mentor is a big responsibility because your group members are looking up to you for help and advice, but I know Rachel and Dr. Spears would not have given me the option to lead a group if they didn’t believe in me. I am grateful for them for letting me take a stance at being a mentor for someone who I hope I can help put an impact on their life.

 

The World of Research

Being a Research Rookie has opened many new doors for me since my first year experience. Looking back on my first year experience as a Research Rookie, I can successfuly say, I’m glad I applied to the program and listened to what my heart and mind were telling me, rather than my peers. I first heard about Research Rookies through another organization I was involved in. Many of the other individuals in the group threw the flyer away as they walked out the door, I however, stared at the flyer throughout the entire meeting. I thought it sounded interesting, being able to complete undergraduate research as a freshmen. Once I was accepted into the Research Rookie’s cult, the process began of finding a mentor. I remember this stage of the process overwhelming. I didn’t know what I was interested in researching, I just knew the basics of what a speech-language pathologist did. After a few interviews with professors in my field, I found one that stood out above the others and I liked her research topic she proposed for me. I had found the perfect mentor and research topic. Reading all of the articles my mentor had me read helped enhance my understanding of all the possibilities I can do in the Communicative Disorders field. I learned how to transcribe, and realized it takes a lot of time and careful listening. However, once my mentor and I put the whole project together, I realized all the hours I spent transcribing over Christmas break was worth it. After completing the calcualations, my mentor and I found the result we were looking for, if you can detect early speech-language impairment. According to our results, it is a possibility that needs to be conducted further. I loved every experience of my first year as a rookie. The people in the group were great along with the leaders. I enjoyed being able to research and come up with new findings.

The love and passion I had my first year as a Resarch Rookie, only prompted me to sign up again for round two. This year I have a new mentor and a new research topic, autism. Since September, I have already learned more than I ever thought I would in two months about Autism and the dfferent types of treatments used on individuals with ASD. I can’t wait to start looking at individuals and resutls to see what the end result is.