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| Cobb lab undergraduate researcher Liz Wiggins presents her research to Cobb lab alum Jud Partin at the 2012 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. |
I like to think of the journey from
student to scientist as a marathon. Obtaining both an undergraduate and
graduate degree is a lengthy process on its own. Once research is added into
the mix this journey becomes much more complex, and rewarding. As an undergraduate
senior preparing for graduate school I have found the path for my marathon is
not an easy road, it is quite the opposite. But now the goals I am close to achieving are beyond what I could have ever imagined.
At the start of Eleanor’s and my
fall semester, Dr. Cobb casually dropped Mt. Everest onto our marathon path.
She gave us the choice to climb, or rather sprint up this mountain and be
light-years ahead of our peers, or to take the easy way out and bypass it
completely. We chose Mt. Everest, of course. Along with taking 18 credit hours
of coursework (a hefty amount at Georgia Tech) my marathon would now consist of
taking the GRE, finishing my own research project, writing a proposal for the
NSF graduate research fellowship, presenting a poster of my research at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, and applying to graduate school – all within 5
months. Eleanor’s path would be similar except she would also be participating in her first
field expedition to Borneo.
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| Cobb lab undergraduate researcher Eleanor Middlemas posing with Kim at her poster at the 2012 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union. |
The process began in the summer and
early fall with locating and contacting prospective graduate research advisers.
For me, this process was terrifying but has helped me learn how to network as a
scientist. The search itself makes the whole world feel like it is at your
fingertips; just find the most interesting and hottest research out there and
begin to make yourself a part of it. After countless emails, phone
conversations, and Skype meetings with prospective advisers both Eleanor and I
have found some incredible programs that we recently applied for.
Getting a NSF fellowship is a career-
defining achievement, and affords more flexibility in the choice of graduate research. It is also the most pristine, polished, and time
consuming application I have ever completed. In the course of two months each
of the three essays went through at least 10 drafts before they were finished.
Add this load in with normal school work, research in the lab, and studying
for/taking the GRE and our Mt. Everest comes into plain sight.
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| Liz collecting fossil corals on Christmas Island during our May, 2012 expedition. |
Attending the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union is a mind-opening
experience full of endless opportunity, although to the rest of the world it
probably seems more like a festival for earth science nerds. Along with
presenting our research and enjoying other presentations, we were able to meet
and mingle with prospective advisers and graduate students in their labs. The
entire experience has exponentially increased my desire to continue on this
path towards becoming a scientist, fully understanding all that entails.
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| Eleanor and Danja Mewes, another Cobb lab undergrad, at Gunung Mulu National Park, Malaysian Borneo, during our October, 2012 caving expedition. |
