I am grateful for my life as I sit here, thinking about graduate school and how few people get to have this experience. I am thankful for my parents, teachers, professors and generous donors who have all guided me, supported me and have lead me to this point in life. Now, it’s my turn to finish my goal; Ph.D. in physics. It all started during my second year at Oregon State University (OSU) that I decided to pursue graduate school. I started as a bioengineering major but quickly realized that it was physics that motivated me to get out of bed and drive 30 miles daily from Salem, OR to Corvallis, OR. I am proud to say that during my four years at OSU, I have had perfect attendance despite financial hurdles that forced me to commute 30 miles each …show more content…
Since, graduate school would involve research, it was in my 3rd year that I decided to look for a research project. After three weeks of emails and meetings, I found Dr. Karen Shell, atmospheric physicist at Oregon State University, to do my research with. I studied the projected temperature and precipitation patterns for Corvallis, OR and Los Angeles, CA for the period 2030-2059 using a regional climate model with 100 ensemble members. The research experience that I got cannot be described aptly in this essay. I learned a whole new set of techniques including effective designs, modeling, collaboration, presentation and …show more content…
After devoting 1 year and 4 months, I finished my thesis and did a formal presentation in Spring’17. The process of completing a major project gave me a whole new insight as to how effective research is done and how important collaboration is. Accepting the fact that no one knows the answer and you’re on your own (along with other team members) was really hard for me as I had gotten used to spending 5 hours and turning in homework assignments that I knew had solutions. The research experience was a paradigm shift in terms of changing my perspective towards science and physics in particular.
As mentioned in my Statement of Objective, I already have 12 months of teaching experience under my belt. I was selected to be an undergrad teaching assistant (TA) and worked my way up to learning assistant (LA). Currently, I am taking graduate classes in physics and continuing as a TA. Throughout my years, I have learned to respect deadlines, work in a team, respect other points of view, how to teach and most importantly not to get disheartened by a test