Good ‘ole PhD… Part 1
783 words by njoliver
Update! Well, I just returned from my trip to Atlanta and I must say that it was well needed. It was a great deal of things going on but I had the most fun time meeting with the graduate school recruiters. I got the opportunity to meet with a few of the schools I aspire to attend. I was able to get some valuable information and “rub elbows” with some of the representatives of the schools. I even got a couple of fee waivers! Score! Anyway, to update on my project, I have been doing a great deal of talking with my mentee via facebook. She and I were supposed to participate in a mentor mentee day in the quarter but her roommate got sick and she had to help her to the hospital. I forgot to ask how she was, so I hope all is well. Other than that she has been enjoying her freshman year but I can tell she’s getting tired. I told her wait until you get to be a junior! She won’t be able to spell tired. In other news I have not been able to do too much tutoring. I’ve been going through quite a bit of stress and strain, so I have not been able to dedicate that additional time. Sorry, Dr. Homan. Anyway, NOBCChe is going well and were still working on that paper work. Writing a complete constitution is really strenuous. The officers and I have worked really hard and we found a teacher on campus to be our NOBCChe advisor. His name is Dr. Marion Carroll and he has served as the past NOBCChe advisor so he is really excited about our plans for the organization. Some of his accolades with the organization include being a judge for the Graduate Research Awards. Plus, he has had pioneering research that he has done in biochemistry and microbiology with Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. We hope that he will be able to help us do some monumental things on campus. In talking about NOBCChe, I can share some other progress that I was able to do at the conference. I met with a graduate school recruiter from University of New Orleans at the conference by the name of Matthew Tarr, who is chair of recruitment for the university. I had a nice conversation with him about my aspirations for NOBCChe and he gladly gave me the contact information of the Greater New Orleans Professional Chapter President, Chanel Fortier. I am planning on contacting Ms. Fortier about the direction of this organization and get a great deal of feed back from her. It is my hope that she’ll be glad to lend a hand to our efforts and we’ll be able to successfully get this organization off the ground. We are still working on the mountain of a task that drafting a constitution presents. Everything in it is so detailed with amendments, articles… everything. You name it we got to write it. That’s why I wish that there was a constitution on file that we could draft from but believe me I’ve already talked to the man on the third floor in archives. Nothing there! Anyway, we are almost done with everything so that we can submit it for the committees to approve or deny. I really hope that they approve because it has been a long road trying to get this together. I really appreciate the help of my officers because without them I would not have been able to finish going forth with any of this, but I still have a problem because as the school year draws closer to an end some of my officers will be leaving. Some of them are seniors so, I will need them next semester but they won’t be here! Please believe me when I tell you it was rough finding science majors NOT interested in medical school. That was like trying to find a movie star that had never been in the tabloids. I don’t know though, it a great deal of people who are getting ready to take the MCAT, so if that doesn’t work out ( Lord forbid) then there might be a few more people pursuing those good ‘old graduate degrees. All in all, I just want this next period of work to be over and done with so we can really start the great stuff. I’m hoping that all continues to go well however and hopefully everything will work itself out. We’ll see soon enough!