{"id":1605,"date":"2017-11-01T01:56:37","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T01:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/?p=1605"},"modified":"2017-11-01T01:56:37","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T01:56:37","slug":"we-are-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/2017\/11\/01\/we-are-family\/","title":{"rendered":"We Are Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alexa Kownacki, Ph.D. Student, OSU Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna Lab<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The GEMM Lab celebrating Leigh’s birthday with homemade baked goods and discussions about science.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A lab is a family. I know there is the common saying about how you cannot choose your family and you can only choose your friends. But, I\u2019d beg to differ. In the case of graduate school, especially in departments similar to OSU\u2019s Fisheries and Wildlife<\/a>, your lab is your chosen family. These are the people who encourage you when you\u2019ve hit a roadblock, who push you when you need extra motivation, who will laugh with you when you\u2019ve reached the point of hysteria after hours of data analysis, who will feed you when you\u2019re too busy to buy groceries, and who will always be there for you. That sure sounds a lot like a family to me.<\/p>\n

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GEMM Lab members at the Society for Marine Mammalogy 2017 Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia at the masquerade ball. Photo source: Florence Sullivan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many of us spend weeks\u2014if not months\u2014conducting field research for our various projects. None of us do this work from the main campus\u2026seeing as the main campus for Oregon State University is located Corvallis, Oregon which is approximately 50 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. The GEMM Lab isn\u2019t actually based on the main campus; instead, you\u2019ll find the lab at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon, within a two-minute stroll of the picturesque Yaquina Bay. However, many of the core classes we need are only offered on main campus. This results in the GEMM Lab members being spread across Corvallis, Newport, and the dominant fieldwork site for their project (which could be locally in Oregon, or in the waters off of New Zealand). So rather than your typical, weekly, hour-long lab meetings, the GEMM Lab meetings are monthly and last on the order of 3-5 hours. Others hear this and think that must be overwhelming to have such a long lab meeting. On the contrary, these are scheduled to fit into all of our chaotic schedules. One day a month, all of us gather together as a family unit, share what\u2019s new about our lives, be sounding boards for each other, solve problems, and do so in a supportive environment. Hopefully you\u2019re getting the picture that just because we\u2019re all part of the same lab, it doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re geographically close. This is exactly why we cultivate meaningful relationships while we are together. The Harvard Business Review published an article<\/a> 2015 based on multiple peer-reviewed journals, summarizing the six dominant characteristics necessary to foster a positive workplace:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Caring for colleagues as friends<\/li>\n
  2. Supporting each other<\/li>\n
  3. Avoiding blame and forgiving mistakes<\/li>\n
  4. Inspiring each other at work<\/li>\n
  5. Emphasizing the meaningfulness of the work<\/li>\n
  6. Treating each other with respect<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And I can attest that every member within the GEMM Lab embraces all of these characteristics and I have a feeling that none of them have read that article prior to today. Family naturally follows those basic guidelines. And, our lab, is a family.<\/p>\n

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    My very first GEMM Family Dinner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Case and Point: when I was applying for graduate programs, I made a point of traveling to meet the GEMM Lab members at the monthly lab meeting. Sure, I also wanted to make sure that both Newport and Corvallis would be good fits in terms of locations. But, mostly, I needed to see if this Lab would be a strong family unit for my graduate school career and beyond. The moment I arrived at Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, it was clear, this was a family that I could see myself being a part of. Not only had all the members brought some kind of food item to share at the lab meeting (this was important to me), but Florence had baked homemade bread, Dawn had offered to show me around Hatfield, and Leila had set up a time to take me around main campus with other grad students. During the lab meeting discussions, I was welcomed to contribute and I felt comfortable doing so. That was another big moment where something \u201cclicked\u201d and I knew I had found a great group of amazing scientists who were also amazing human beings.<\/p>\n

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    GEMM Lab members at the Port Orford Field Station in August 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Flash forward a few months, and now I am one of those lab members who is bringing food to lab meetings. More than that, we have GEMM Lab dinners and game nights. I may be based in Corvallis, but I commute out to Newport just for these fun activities because this is my family. I want to be with them\u2014not only when we\u2019re talking about our research\u2014but when we\u2019re laughing about the silly things that happen in our daily lives, comically screaming at each other in an effort to win whatever game is on the table, and enjoying home-cooked meals. This is my family.<\/p>\n

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    GEMM Lab members helping some friends at South Coast Tours build a dirt-bag house in August 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    I guess I\u2019d like to plug this message to any potential graduate student regardless of discipline(s): find a lab with people that you truly want to surround yourselves with\u2014day and night\u2014in good times and in bad times\u2014because undoubtedly, you\u2019ll need those kinds of people. And, to current lab constituents in any lab: it\u2019s up to us to create a supportive family which will make everyone successful.<\/p>\n

    Sister Sledge knew just this when the group sang this verse of their hit, \u201cWe Are Family\u201d<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    Living life is fun and we’ve just begun
    \nTo get our share of this world’s delights
    \nHigh, high hopes we have for the future
    \nAnd our goal’s in sight
    \nWe, no we don’t get depressed
    \nHere’s what we call our golden rule
    \nHave faith in you and the things you do
    \nYou won’t go wrong, oh-no
    \nThis is our family Jewel<\/em><\/p>\n

    I\u2019m grateful to have found a lab that embodies the lyrics of one of my favorite childhood karaoke songs. The GEMM Lab is not only a lab that produces cutting-edge science; it is a family that encourages one another in all facets of life\u2014creating an environment where people can have high-quality lives and generate high-quality science.<\/p>\n

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    GEMM Lab Family Dinner complete with the board game, Evolution, and homemade pizza. October 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Alexa Kownacki, Ph.D. Student, OSU Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna Lab A lab is a family. I know there is the common saying about how you cannot choose your family and you can only choose your friends. But, I\u2019d beg to differ. In the case of graduate school, especially … Continue reading We Are Family<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8612,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1011750,1],"tags":[1211813,712786,1409,476,69027,88,195384,635445,1696,513,30,200562,24,1398,148762,155,1679,993645,5,1236092,638022,1236462,1039492],"class_list":["post-1605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bottlenose-dolphin-population-health","category-uncategorized","tag-alexa-kownacki","tag-collaborative-research","tag-community","tag-corvallis","tag-dinner","tag-family","tag-field-work","tag-gemm-lab","tag-hatfield-marine-science-center","tag-marine-mammals","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newport","tag-oregon","tag-oregon-coast","tag-oregon-state-university","tag-pacific-ocean","tag-port-orford","tag-science","tag-sister-sledge","tag-society-for-marine-mammalogy","tag-south-coast-tours","tag-yaquina"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8612"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1605"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1616,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions\/1616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}