When coming to Madison I was nervous for the first time encountering the next step in my academic career. Going to my primary college for me was trouble free because it was close to home and many people from high school also went to it. Coming to Madison, I had in mind this was going to be my next step in life. I have always dreamed of going to graduate school on campus and achieving my masters. It added another level of seriousness that I had never felt before. My life has always felt so planned out, but this was new. My first day here on campus set my path for the summer, I made friends that I love hearing from every day and hanging out with. I got to meet my peer mentors that made me passionate about my research and wanting to know more about graduated school. I became more comfortable with the idea of achieving a higher level of education because the REU program helped make the journey less alarming.
I met my new friends on the first day we arrived on campus. We all met outside of the dormitories waiting to go to dinner together and we all began to introduce ourselves and talk about what colleges were from and what research we were doing. Over the week of introductory activities, we grew closer and now we talk everyday about our difficulties of research and learning how to go through the challenges of working in a graduate program. They truly made the experience so much easier.
My peer mentors help make graduate research feel more real. Shiqing Cai, my graduate student, was an amazing resource while learning how to become accustomed to the program. She taught me many different programs for coding, new lab techniques and how to run the main machine I was working on. What I liked most about Shiqing’s teaching method was she would explain to me the reason we run a certain code and the math behind it so i would have a full understanding of each step of my project. The other peer mentors in the program gave me helpful feedback on my project and reassuring advice. If I had any questions when it came to graduate school, they always had an honest opinion and helpful advice especially when it came to contacting probable future faculty to work under. Also, the peer minors at the graduate fair were extremely helpful and talking to them about the path they took to graduate school was very encouraging to hear.
Wanting to go to graduate school at Madison feels less like a dream and more like an achievable reality with the help of all the faculty, graduate students, and fellow REU students. It feels less scary to be able to live in the city I hope to call home for two years and know the campus that I want to study on. Being accepted into the REU program has helped my goal of getting my master’s and I am truly thankful for it.