{"id":2123,"date":"2018-07-02T22:16:32","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T22:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/?p=2123"},"modified":"2018-07-02T22:16:32","modified_gmt":"2018-07-02T22:16:32","slug":"collaboration-its-where-its-at","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/2018\/07\/02\/collaboration-its-where-its-at\/","title":{"rendered":"Collaboration \u2013 it\u2019s where it\u2019s at."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dominique Kone, Masters Student in Marine Resource Management<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I finish my first year of graduate school, I\u2019ve been reflecting on what has helped me develop as a young scientist over the past year. Some of these lessons are somewhat expected: making time for myself outside of academia, reading the literature, and effectively managing my time. Yet, I\u2019ve also learned that working with my peers, other scientists, and experts outside my scientific field can be extremely rewarding.<\/p>\n

For my thesis<\/a>, I will be looking at the potential to reintroduce sea otters to the Oregon coast by identifying suitable habitat and investigating their potential ecological impacts. During this first year, I\u2019ve spent much time getting to know various stakeholder groups, their experiences with this issue, and any advice they may have to inform my work. Through these interactions, I\u2019ve benefitted in ways that would not have been possible if I tried tackling this project on my own.<\/p>\n

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Source: Seapoint Center for Collaborative Leadership.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I first started my graduate studies, I was eager to jump head first into my research. However, as someone who had never lived in Oregon before, I didn\u2019t yet have a full grasp of the complexities and context behind my project and was completely unfamiliar with the history of sea otters in Oregon. By engaging with managers, scientists, and advocates, I quickly realized that there was a wealth of knowledge that wasn\u2019t covered in the literature. Information from people who were involved in the initial reintroduction; theories behind the cause of the first failed reintroduction; and most importantly, the various political, social, and culture implications of a potential reintroduction. This information was crucial in developing and honing my research questions, which I would have missed if I had solely relied on the literature.<\/p>\n

As my first year in graduate school progressed, I also quickly realized that most people familiar with this issue also had strong opinions and views<\/a> about how I should conduct my study, whether and how managers should bring sea otters back, and if such an effort will succeed. This input was incredibly helpful in getting to know the issue, and also fostered my development as a scientist as I had to quickly improve my listening and critically-thinking skills to consider my research from different perspectives. One of the benefits of collaboration \u2013 particularly with experts outside the marine ecology or sea otter community \u2013 is that everyone looks at an issue in a different way. Through my graduate program<\/a>, I\u2019ve worked with students and faculty in the earth, oceanic, and atmospheric sciences, whom have challenged me to consider other sources of data, other analyses, or different ways of placing my research within various contexts.<\/p>\n

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Most graduate students when they first start graduate school. Source: Know Your Meme.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the major advantages of being a graduate student is that most researchers \u2013 including professors, faculty, managers, and fellow graduate students \u2013 are more than happy to analyze and discuss my research approach. I\u2019ve obtained advice on statistical analyses, availability and access to data, as well as contacts to other experts. As a graduate student, it\u2019s important for me to consult with more-experienced researchers who can not only explain complex theories or concepts, but who can also validate the appropriateness of my research design and methods. Collaborating with senior researchers is a great way to become established and recognized within the scientific community. Because of this project, I\u2019ve started to become adopted into the marine mammal and sea otter research communities, which is obviously beneficial for my thesis work, but also allows me to start building strong relationships for a career in marine conservation.<\/p>\n

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Source: Oregon State University.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Looking ahead to my second year of graduate school, I\u2019m eager to make a big push toward completing my thesis, writing manuscripts for journal submission, and communicating my research to various audiences. Throughout this process, it\u2019s still important for me to continue to reach out and collaborate with others within and outside my field as they may help me reach my personal goals. In my opinion, this is exactly what graduate students should be doing. While graduate students may have the ability and some experience to work independently, we are still students<\/em>, and we are here to learn from and make lasting connections with other researchers and fellow graduate students through these collaborations.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s any advice I would give to an incoming graduate student, it\u2019s this: Collaborate, and collaborate often. Don\u2019t be afraid to work with others because you never know whether you\u2019ll come away with a new perspective, learn something new, come across new research or professional opportunities, or even help others with their research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dominique Kone, Masters Student in Marine Resource Management As I finish my first year of graduate school, I\u2019ve been reflecting on what has helped me develop as a young scientist over the past year. Some of these lessons are somewhat expected: making time for myself outside of academia, reading the literature, and effectively managing … Continue reading Collaboration \u2013 it\u2019s where it\u2019s at.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8610,"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":[1011749],"tags":[712786,140586,1011745,635445,1705,131779,513,1398,148762,155,482,5,1209218],"class_list":["post-2123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sea-otter-reintroduction-to-oregon","tag-collaborative-research","tag-conservation","tag-dominique-kone","tag-gemm-lab","tag-graduate-school","tag-interdisciplinary","tag-marine-mammals","tag-oregon","tag-oregon-coast","tag-oregon-state-university","tag-outreach","tag-science","tag-sea-otters"],"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\/2123","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\/8610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2123"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2129,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123\/revisions\/2129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}