FROM CONNECTION TO CONFERENCE

9/22-9/28

Last week in ISM was marked by frantically calling one professional to the next, with a pinch of emails in between. These continuous efforts were in hopes of securing an interview with a professional. After exhausting all contacts on my list, I had made a very wise choice to peruse through LinkedIn and utilize the platform as another resource for finding professionals. Little did I know at the time that this one choice would prove to be very successful in obtaining an interview. This weekend I heard back from one of my connections on LinkedIn, Arundhati Jana, a research assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who agreed to sit for an interview with me. My first interview in ISM is scheduled for October 15th, which is not that far away! Being able to finally obtain an interview with a professional in my field was truly the highlight of last week. The main takeaway from my experiences last week was that patience is key. We have to persevere and allow time for our efforts to blossom into triumphant results. 

A considerable amount of time last week was also spent composing a topic proposal for my specific field of study this year. With the research I have conducted in the past few weeks, I was able to narrow down my area of study to the specific branches of developmental and cognitive neuroscience. I reflected on my experiences and aspirations and learned I am most passionate about these specific areas in my field. This was a monumental step as I start to brainstorm ideas for my original work and final product later on in the year. Overall, last week was a productive one with significant accomplishments. This week, I will conduct research and find ways to implement my knowledge of neuroscience into an impactful original work. I will be producing a proposal that details the logistics of how I intend to craft my original work in the next few months.