My Summer Science Experience at Fox Chase by Samantha Nauen

I feel so grateful that I was given the opportunity to attend Summer TRIP. This experience has deepened my passion for science and inspired me to pursue it throughout my education and as my career. During TRIP, I got to listen to a series of career talks where I was given advice on how to achieve success. For example, I learned that hard work is more valuable than smarts and that finding a mentor is vital. The knowledge I gained made my goal of being a research scientist seem so much more feasible, because now I have some of the tools I need to accomplish it. Now that this future seems possible for me, I am even more inspired to work my hardest to get there. TRIP’s experiential learning aspect also helped to push me to pursue my dreams. Before I attended TRIP, the idea of doing lab work at a higher level than I had experienced in school was exciting but also made me a little nervous because it was new. Now that I have more real life experience with working in the lab, I feel more comfortable with it. My path towards accomplishing my goals doesn't seem as intimidating, and so I feel readier and more excited than ever to take the next steps.
My favorite part of TRIP was definitely performing the assays and analyzing my results. The assays helped me learn so many new things, like how to micropipette and make solutions. With this knowledge, I feel so much more confident going into future science classes where these skills will be necessary. Performing the assays was a really gratifying experience. They required a lot of focus and precision, but my effort was rewarded with data that I could analyze and interpret. It was really fun working with the flies and I loved seeing my hard work culminate into what became my final presentation. Interpreting the data was also really interesting to me. I had never analyzed experimental results to the extent that I did during TRIP, and I really enjoyed getting the chance to think in ways that aren’t used often in school. I feel like my scientific abilities, like the skill of interpreting cause and effect, have grown greatly due to this wonderful experience. 

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