Sunday, August 9, 2009

Where have I been?!?

So much has happened in the past month or so since my last post that I
don't even know where to start... How about bullet points for now,
then we'll catch up on details later, eh?

- Worst mentoring experience ever. (I mentor a lot of undergrads.) I
have never met a student so uninterested and completely detached from
reality. She's finally gone, thankfully. Bright side: it was a major
managerial learning experience for me.

- Super intense conference. Met all the big names in my field, the
ones whose papers are all cited in the background section of my thesis
proposal (all men, of course) and got to pick some of their brains on
why things work differently when I do them than when they do them.
Bad news: one of those labs has already done a major chunk of my
thesis project, and taken it farther than I was planning on, albeit in
a different rodent species.

- My blog has been discovered. (Hi Teacher! Look, you have a
psuedonym too!) She promises to be discreet...right? ;-P

- The graduate student group that I helped form to advocate for
family-friendly and work-life balance friendly policies is back in
business. We had one meeting back in February or so, but never really
established any kind of sustainable organization, so when the energy
and enthusiasm of a couple of leaders waned, it sort of fell to the
wayside for a while. But we have new people and renewed energy and
enthusiasm, so we're going to get ourselves organized for real this
time. (Any advice would be welcomed...I, for one, have no idea what
I'm doing!)

- I finished submitting my last predoctoral fellowship application.
w00t! And the next day I found out...

...the grand finale...

<Drumroll>

I HAVE FUNDING!!! My PI got a small award to cover half my stipend
and some basic running costs (animals and supplies) on my project for
2 years...hopefully long enough for me to finish my PhD! Holy crap is
that a huge relief or what!?!

So overall, it has been stressful, with lots of ups and downs, but
everything is turning out great in the end! :-D

--
Sent from my mobile device

2 comments:

  1. welcome back, I also took a blogging break but my bulletted list is not nearly as indepth as yours as I am still short on time.

    congrats on all the good news (FUNDING!!! WOO HOO!)

    as far as the mentoring yeah that can be hit or miss, I think I had a hit this summer although again she is very slow to the detriment of my/her work. But she has potential to be a great grad student (future scientist). it's a learning process on both sides i think.

    So, may I ask the uncomfortable question in the room, or uhm blog?? since you have funding now does the baby talk resume?

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  2. I am super interested in your grad student group. We are a couple of steps behind you (just transitioned from venting to organizing). Are you meeting with students in your program only, or are you working with grad students in other programs too?

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