Following our presentation at Celebrating Undergraduate Excellence, my research has been just about concluded for this school year. I was not really sure about what to expect my URSA Engage research to be like, but I definitely feel like I have gotten something out of it. My original thought process was that I wanted to do research on something music-related since I am very interested in music, but my major at the time had nothing to do with that sort of thing. I happily stumbled upon Victor Villegas’ listing in the catalog of research opportunities, and was in contact with him right away.
I felt like my research experience offered a lot of freedom and allowed me to make my own trail while also meeting the goals of the research project. It was very cool to also get to use the beta-phase instrument, the Optron Mini in my research. It was a great surprise to become a main focal point in a lot of the work that I did. I also thought it was very nice to work on developing my online presence professionally as a part of the research. I feel like Villegas had a goal in mind that wasn’t just to benefit what he was working on, but also to benefit me as I develop as a student.
I wish that times were different, as the quarantine version of my first year of university has been detrimental to all the potential there could have been for me if things were normal. I am likely to participate in URSA Engage next year so that I can experience it more like how it was meant to be. Despite the hardships, I think that there has been a whole lot done still this year in regards to URSA Engage. I would recommend this program to any student that has varied interests, wants to make a difference, or just wants to make a little money over the year.
Afterwards:
Following our virtual presentation of our research, our advisor, Victor showed Audrey and me the social media platform, Clubhouse. Clubhouse is an interesting take on social media, and is much more exclusive than anything I have ever seen. Essentially, this app allows for people to make voice chat rooms about various topics. I can see how making connections in this app could help your career by being able to talk to people that share similar interest or work in similar fields to you. Just as it is good to make connections on LinkedIn so that you can have better luck in the future for work, I can see how forming connections on Clubhouse can work similarly in your benefit. As time goes on, I will continue to make connections on Clubhouse, just as I do on LinkedIn.
