Great experience - learned research skills, laboratory techniques including sample preparation and air-free chemistry, used instruments like NMR, GPC, mass spectrophotometer, IR, among others.
What I wish was different
COVID delayed the fellowship from being a full-time summer job to a part-time school year job
Advice
Awesome experience and opportunity to learn research skills in a teaching and accepting environment
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RI-INBRE Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow
May - August 2019 • Kingston, RI
What I liked
My experience with the RI-INBRE Fellowship was incredible. URI is an institution that has field advancing research scientists fueling innovation and new technologies. Even though, it is a well-funded institution, it does not lose sight of it's close community. I loved that the connections I was able to make at URI were personal and meaningful. I worked directly alongside a post-doc and graduate student doing cutting edge research for drug delivery systems. The experience was hands on the entire time and I was often pushed to perform, interpret, and present experiments to my lab group in a professional manner. In addition, I was able to live with other women in the program (from various STEM disciplines) over the summer and create lasting friendships with people who had similar goals in life! Furthermore, the support from people in the administration of the program (and payroll) are dedicated to making sure each fellow has the best experience possible.
What I wish was different
The program has already made some changes for the upcoming years. I was a repeat fellow (Summer 2018 & 2019) and now they have a program that increases the pay of returning fellows and provides them with an opportunity to travel to a regional or national conference to present their findings!
Advice
It can be what you make of it. I had an engaging and valuable experience thanks to my principle investigator, post-doc and excellent graduate students. In addition, I was genuinely committed to learning and interested in the research being done! If you are driven and motivated to learn, you will gain many valuable research skills and get hands on experience with new and standard research techniques.
Lastly, don't be afraid to be wrong! No one in this environment is going to judge your lab skills or previous knowledge. Everyone in this program is dedicated to equipping undergraduate students with the skills necessary to become a successful research scientist.
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Summer Undergraduate Researcher
May - July 2019 • Kingston, RI
What I liked
I had a lot of experiences with many different instruments; I was able to learn a lot more than I would have in class. The in-lab experience helped me figure out what I may like and what type of research I may pursue in the future. I have also met many different types of individuals in this program from a variety of different subjects in research. I got to learn about their research and had a very enjoyable time while researching.
