Closing Remarks

Hello to all my folks about to read this,

I applied to this program because I knew it was important for me to gain some research experience as an undergrad, and I also saw the pay was nice, but as I moved into it, I learned some things that you can’t put a price tag on. I experienced some things that I really won’t forget and had some culture shock with the environment I was placed in. In a good way though. I now have some connections around the 4 universities of ASU, UTEP, Rice, and Yale. I’ve built solid relationships which should last for a lifetime no matter how the pathways diverge.

The science part was pretty cool, who doesn’t want to work in a lab and do all kinds of dangerous stuff? I do know a few who wouldn’t though. What I liked most was that there was a high level of independence and some things I had to figure out, but some things I had help with. Another cool thing, was that unlike a classroom environment where all supplies or things are prepared for you, here, everything was from scratch. I had to gather my own stuff and prepare everything from the bottom. Diluting my own acids and doing the ground work for my experiments instead of just getting it all and starting easy. The background work no one likes to do, that is what everyone has to do.

The culture of graduate school is also different from what I’m used to. Talk about diversity, I’d like to think of it as the standing definition of graduate school. I met people from all over the world and got to work closely with some of them. Even watch some go on to their next stage in life where they will start a new adventure. From this I can take away a lot of new information, experiences, and connections that I know I probably couldn’t have gotten before this internship. I’d encourage anybody to take this internship, but don’t expect it to be easy and fun the entire time. With all the good comes the failure, frustration, the tedious and repetitive processes all under a time crunch of 10 weeks!

I’d once again like to thank Dr. Jorge Loyo for selecting me and my peers out of all the applicants. I’d say we all got lucky in our selections. A thank you to Dr. Paul Westerhoff for taking me into his lab group and allowing me to gain experience with his team. The special thanks goes to Dr. Ariel Atkinson though, for being my mentor. She put up with me, my questions, my attitudes, ignorance, and guided me through the experiments and tasks I had to complete. She’s the real MVP. A final thank you and shout out goes to my REU peers and the Young Scholar program. I think I got put with a good team and it was kind of a weird, comfortable relationship from the start between us. It’s almost like there was no awkward greetings between us, we just kind of jumped into it. I think we all got to know a fair amount about each other in the given 10 weeks, although there is so much more untold. That’s all for the future. I wish everybody luck completing these undergraduate trials because they aren’t quite over yet. Hopefully paths cross again and there can be a part 2 which lasts more than 10 weeks.

With that, I’m out of here y’all. Y’all know how to get a hold of me, it’s been a pleasure,

Chris De La O

P.S. My boy Tanner, my boy Edgar, and my girl Sandra are wild! They need Jesus! I’ll be praying for them.