Post 5: Hell Yeah, I'm a Scientist

When I got back from vacation a couple of weeks ago, my family whom we visited in Belgium followed soon after to visit other family members here in the United States. One day, my seven-year-old cousin was interested in what we all do for work during the summer. I told him that I was working up at school doing a research project. He was curious as to what the project was so I told him I'm studying the water in my area to see if it's good or bad quality. He took a few seconds to ponder the information and then looked at me and said "Oh! So you're a scientist." I said to him (with a little chuckle) "Sure! I'm a scientist." But to be honest, in my head I said "Hell yeah! I'm a scientist!" I've told a lot of people about the research I'm doing, but I think that was my favorite response!

This brings me to the question that I will surely be asked at least once a week for the next eight or nine months: "What are you doing after graduation?" Considering I haven't even started senior year yet and I never even know what I want to eat for dinner, I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing after I graduate. However, working on this project, talking to other people, and this conversation with my cousin has gotten me to start thinking. Who knew that a seven-year-old could help you plan out the rest of your life?

I've always enjoyed science and was typically pretty good at certain subjects in school but I never really considered doing anything research related after school. This week, I met many different people who are currently working on or have done research. On Monday we took a trip to Bard College in Hudson and I met a couple of professors and a student working on water quality in their area. Their work is being incorporated into a bigger project that Dr. Meierdiercks has been working on to assess and improve the overall health of the Hudson River watershed. While at Bard, we took some direct discharge measurements in their study site to help further their research and knowledge of the water quality. After meeting and working with these individuals it was great to see how much people want to work together in a research based work setting to achieve the same goal and try to better their environment.

On Wednesday, we did macroinvertebrate sampling in Tivoli Lake Preserve with a couple of volunteers from the City of Albany and the County of Albany. These samples were collected by our team for analysis and will help the DEC determine different aspects of water quality in the area we collected. One volunteer who works for the City of Albany is working on a restoration project to improve Tivoli for community members so people will visit more and use it like the recreational park it was intended to be. She asked me about plans after graduation and asked if I wanted to do research. When I answered I didn't even think about it; I kind of just blurted out "I've never really thought about doing research but after this summer I would seriously consider it." So far I have had an incredible and interesting experience working on this project. It has really influenced my thoughts about graduation and has made me consider expanding my options even more. I am so grateful that I am able to work on this project and get this experience that not many other people would have.

Throughout the two and half hours we worked in Tivoli this past Wednesday, I could really get a sense of how this type of work has influenced this specific volunteer. The way she spoke about her project and Tivoli showed true passion about what she does and that she truly cares for her environment. Learning how to do this type of sampling is just one of the many things she was willing to do to better understand her environment to be able to improve it to the best of her abilities. I'm very sure that these interactions will remain important to me when dealing with post-undergrad sadness. So of course, thank you Dr. M for giving me the opportunity to work with you on this project and teaching me everything that research work entails. Thank you Eli and Chris at Bard for your excellent teamwork and dedication to this project. Thank you Mary from the City of Albany for sharing your passion with us and showing us that if you want to get something done you do all that you can to make a difference. And thank you Gabe for calling it how it is and making me realize that being a scientist is pretty cool. :)