Hey everyone,
I volunteered in a research lab during the summer of 2015, which was the summer before my senior year of high school. I initially came into the lab wanting to produce a project that I can use in the Intel Science Fair. On the first day, the PI introduced me to everyone in the lab and to the postdoc that I would work with. That day as I was leaving, I stopped by the PI's office to say goodbye to him. I didn't realize that he was asleep on his chair, so he abruptly woke up and blurted out goodbye in return. Because of my immaturity back then and because of that incident, I spent the whole summer not going to his office and rarely checked in with him when he was out of his office. I spent the whole time working alongside the postdoc by using a machine that would report out the number of cells in a dish, so I thought I was involved in an actual project.
On the last day in the lab, the PI came out to talk to me and I showed him my cell count reports and the protocols I was following. I let him know that I would be using the data that I obtained to work on the paper that I would submit to the Science Fair. He looked at the documents that I had with a shocked face and I was devastated when he said that what I was doing with the postdoc was an extremely simple procedure. I believe that the steps that the postdoc had me do were the first few setup steps of the main procedure. In spite of this, I still worked on writing a paper with what I had, in which I talked about the materials, methods, and cell count results. My last step was to get a recommendation letter from the PI. When I sent him an email requesting the rec, he replied back saying that he had no idea what I had done during the summer. I suggested that he speak with the postdoc that I worked with but she also said that she wasn't sure. I remember getting so upset that the postdoc couldn't explain what I did as I was working right next to her, but I understood that a large part of it had to do with the fact that I didn't check in with the PI. I ended up not getting a recommendation letter, which prevented me from submitting my paper into the science fair. He let me know that he wasn't able to write a sincere recommendation letter since he had very little direct contact with me when I was working.
I've moved on from this lab into a new lab that I volunteered for 2 summers already and am now a full-time research technician. I've learned from this experience to always ask questions until I understand the procedures and science that I'm involved in and to always spend time speaking with the PIs. I've spoken to my PI multiple times about the work that I did in the past week and to ask him about complicated procedures. I've also applied what I learned in college, as I've met with Professors in office hours to discuss about lectures and assignments that I didn't understand.
Can I use this experience to answer the Challenge prompt or Failure/Feedback prompt? Also, should I use this if it occurred in the summer between my 3rd and 4th year of high school?
I volunteered in a research lab during the summer of 2015, which was the summer before my senior year of high school. I initially came into the lab wanting to produce a project that I can use in the Intel Science Fair. On the first day, the PI introduced me to everyone in the lab and to the postdoc that I would work with. That day as I was leaving, I stopped by the PI's office to say goodbye to him. I didn't realize that he was asleep on his chair, so he abruptly woke up and blurted out goodbye in return. Because of my immaturity back then and because of that incident, I spent the whole summer not going to his office and rarely checked in with him when he was out of his office. I spent the whole time working alongside the postdoc by using a machine that would report out the number of cells in a dish, so I thought I was involved in an actual project.
On the last day in the lab, the PI came out to talk to me and I showed him my cell count reports and the protocols I was following. I let him know that I would be using the data that I obtained to work on the paper that I would submit to the Science Fair. He looked at the documents that I had with a shocked face and I was devastated when he said that what I was doing with the postdoc was an extremely simple procedure. I believe that the steps that the postdoc had me do were the first few setup steps of the main procedure. In spite of this, I still worked on writing a paper with what I had, in which I talked about the materials, methods, and cell count results. My last step was to get a recommendation letter from the PI. When I sent him an email requesting the rec, he replied back saying that he had no idea what I had done during the summer. I suggested that he speak with the postdoc that I worked with but she also said that she wasn't sure. I remember getting so upset that the postdoc couldn't explain what I did as I was working right next to her, but I understood that a large part of it had to do with the fact that I didn't check in with the PI. I ended up not getting a recommendation letter, which prevented me from submitting my paper into the science fair. He let me know that he wasn't able to write a sincere recommendation letter since he had very little direct contact with me when I was working.
I've moved on from this lab into a new lab that I volunteered for 2 summers already and am now a full-time research technician. I've learned from this experience to always ask questions until I understand the procedures and science that I'm involved in and to always spend time speaking with the PIs. I've spoken to my PI multiple times about the work that I did in the past week and to ask him about complicated procedures. I've also applied what I learned in college, as I've met with Professors in office hours to discuss about lectures and assignments that I didn't understand.
Can I use this experience to answer the Challenge prompt or Failure/Feedback prompt? Also, should I use this if it occurred in the summer between my 3rd and 4th year of high school?
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