As my summer research internship comes to an end, I have been able to reflect on how challenging and rewarding the past ten weeks have been. Having the opportunity to work in a lab for the summer on my own research project has been very rewarding, because it has given me a feel for what a career in research might look like. While I have spent a lot of my time trying things and failing, I have been able to generate a lot of new ideas and learn a lot from scientific literature.
The most challenging part of my summer has been creating and keeping a schedule for myself for my research project. While I have the responsibility of communicating all my lab results to the Principal Investigators I am working with, the progression of my project is entirely up to me. I have made less progress than I hoped to this summer because some of the steps of my project have taken more time than I planned for, and this has been challenging for me.
While there have been both rewarding and challenging parts of my summer, overall my experience as a summer undergraduate research intern has been a positive one. Being able to spend a whole summer doing research has confirmed my interest in a career in the field of research, and I find that pretty satisfying.