On June 1st, I had the great pleasure of flying out to Houston from El Paso to attend orientation at Rice. During orientation, I had the opportunity to meet all the fantastic students who are participating as REUs this summer. On the first day of orientation, we introduced ourselves and presented the research we were selected to work on. It was amazing to see all the great projects the REUs will be working on. Additionally, during the first day of orientation, I was able to learn important ways to identify useful articles and ways to acquire background information. After orientation was over for the day, we had an opportunity to explore the Rice campus and Rice village. The campus was beautiful, and the weather was lovely. On the second day of orientation, we said goodbye and drove to the airport. I am excited to complete my research during the summer and continue to build connections with my fellow REUs. Orientation was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to be back again in August.