Jonathan Shimizu: Week 8 Recap

I can’t believe this is the end. These past eight weeks have been absolutely unbelievable! I also can’t believe how quickly this program has flown by! It only feels like I’ve been working for a handful of weeks rather than two whole months. All of our hard work has finally come to an end. Michael and I spent the majority of the first half of the last week finishing our data analysis and updating our documents. We quickly put together a draft of our presentation and received some great feedback on how to improve it. I wasn’t too happy with our presentation, so I spent a good chunk of time re-designing it and making it easier to follow along. After working tirelessly to finalize our manuscript, presentation, and poster, we finally completed our research project. We presented our project to members of the program and FNR department, as well as people whose research we used as sources. Everyone did a great job with their presentations! It was satisfying to see everyone’s hard work come to fruition after this stressful final week.

I’m both sad and relieved that the program has come to an end, although I’m looking forward to a break and enjoying the rest of my summer back home. Overall, I enjoyed every moment of the past eight weeks, especially the cicadas. I loved getting out into the field to study and collect samples. This was also a great opportunity to befriend and mess around with a bunch of really cool people. Thanks to these past eight weeks, I feel more prepared to tackle the rest of my college career. Conducting research doesn’t seem as daunting as it used to. Sure, it involves a lot of hard work and stressful days, but it’s so satisfying to finally see results. I think I’m more excited to apply for graduate school one day than I was before the internship. I’m grateful for the opportunity I had to get out into the field with my mentors and learn alongside my fantastic partner. Thanks to the REEU program, I’m more confident in my abilities than ever before!

Although the program has come to an end, it has given me a new start to my career. I’m going to miss Michael and all of his sassiness. I’m also going to miss Anna and Shaneka. We couldn’t have made it far without their help and guidance! I’m so incredibly grateful to my mentors, fellow interns, Megan, and all of the other people who helped make these past eight weeks one of the best. And with that, I guess this is the final goodbye. Thank-you for your support and reading what I had to say for the past eight weeks!