Sarah

Hey Hawkeyes!

I hope everyone is enjoying the warmer temperatures! It’s been a crazy spring semester. I haven’t felt much like writing when I’ve been turning in at least one lab report every week. I have learned that taking three lab classes at once was not a good idea, especially when two of them require 40 page lab reports. I’m so glad we’re almost done with the semester. I have 9 lab reports until I’m done so the countdown has started!

So a few quick things about my semester so far:

1. 1. At the beginning of the semester, I began working in a research lab in the pharmacy department where they study droplet spreading behavior. I really like what I’m doing and the cool shapes make it fun. The one below is a yellow solution that fluoresces green under a blue light. The solution we’ve moved onto is purple (which I absolutely love), and fluoresces red under green light. I’ve really enjoyed getting to learn some new techniques and be involved with the project.

   

   Droplet Spreading

2. I got an internship! I had actually interviewed for the position last year, but they were looking for someone a little more long term than just the summer. This year, the company decided to start a project-based internship program and offered me a position over the summer based on my interview last year. I’m really excited to get some industry experiences and learn more about the polymer process. I will also be in Minnesota for the summer and get to explore a new area. This will be my first time living away from home and not at college as well as having to make an entirely new group of friends.
3. I am on Orange Squad this year! I interviewed for On Iowa! Leader again and was placed on Orange Squad. The spring leader training days are basically just a time for the squads to get to know each other. My cast is the Flaming Not Cheetos and the other Orange cast is the Goldfish. One of the first-year students on my dorm floor is in my cast and I’m super excited to watch her experience all the awesome parts of On Iowa! from a leader’s perspective. Being an On Iowa! leader has really improved my leadership skills. I’ve started noticing how much more conscious I am about what I say and how I respond to questions.

I think those are the main updates of the semester; hopefully I can blog some more over the next few weeks as the lab reports wind down. I really miss writing for fun; it’s been a while since I’ve had the time for that. Talk to you again soon!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 2nd, 2015 at 10:59 am and is filed under Academics, Events, General, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.