Loving TRIP! by Tino Karakousis

​Hello everyone! My name is Tino Karakousis and I am a freshman at J. R. Masterman. I was born and raised in Philadelphia and love all the amazing things that Philly has to offer, including vibrant history and culture and many museum attractions around the city. I am fluent in French and Spanish and love to practice those languages whenever I can. I have a sister who is a junior at Masterman, and we usually go running, walking or biking along the Schuylkill river trail. In my free time I also like to read, cook, do logic and math problems, watch funny or sci-fi movies, and play the piano, harp and chess. 

When my school announced the ‘two-week’ closure in March 2020, I felt pretty excited walking out of the Masterman building feeling happier than usual. I envisioned the equivalent of an extended vacation where I could talk to my friends, do some easy homework and classes for a few hours per day, and overall just have time to relax. Soon enough, the number of cases and deaths skyrocketed, and it slowly started to sink in that I probably would never see some of my friends from the 8th grade in person again as not everyone was going to Masterman’s high school for their freshman year. So began the mass shutdowns, the mask wearing, the social distancing, and the ever worsening curve of the virus. ​

However, while this pandemic has definitely caused much despair and frustration, its implications offered me an opportunity to learn and grow as a person. First of all, I had never really experienced having too much time on my hands. Having the time for and needing to find a worthwhile occupation taught me how to research interesting and engaging programs in my area, such as a virtual career exposure program I did over the summer. The pandemic also helped me build a strong work ethic as it could sometimes feel very easy procrastinating knowing I was spending entire days indoors. Pushing myself to get stuff done, knowing that there is always, no matter what, something else productive and helpful that I can do, is an important lesson that I picked up that I know will help me a great deal in the future. Covid-19 showed me that the most important thing in life is not losing a few points on an assignment, but treasuring hard work, maturity, patience and the everyday social interactions that were taken for granted before the pandemic.

The most important thing in life is not losing a few points on an assignment, but treasuring hard work, maturity, patience and the everyday social interactions that were taken for granted before the pandemic.

I am involved in the TRIP Initiative because I love science and hands-on research, especially in a group setting. One of my career goals is to become a biomedical researcher, and, when I saw this program, I saw the great opportunity it provides to learn more about what being a researcher is like by studying lab protocol and how to prepare for, conduct, and present an advanced experiment. TRIP indeed is an incredible opportunity for one to not only be exposed to a lot of novel, really interesting material but also to have fun learning about this with peers. I am extremely grateful to TRIP for hosting the program and especially for managing a way to safely run it in-person (it feels almost surreal to be learning inside a classroom again!). 
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Keep going strong and patiently everyone, together we’ll get through this!​