Growing as a Young Scientist Charlene Rivera-Bonet The moment I was told I got accepted to the Research Initiative for

Scientific Enhancement (RISE) Program I knew my summer was going to be one full of sacrifices, but also rewards. I was going to start college on summer, with people I didnt know and a different environment than high school; I knew I had to study harder. On this course I was introduced to three main things: General Biology, laboratory, and research. Due to my poor experience in labs and research I was a little unconfident at first, but as days passed I began to grow as a young scientist. This course helped me to adapt more quickly to college life, expand my knowledge in science and research and hear about experiences of people who have already covered part of the path I am going to go through. General Biology and its laboratory helped me grow in many ways. Because of General Biology I started creating study habits. I knew that studying the day before of the test, as I used to do, was no longer acceptable if I wanted to do well on the course. We were introduced to biological concepts but we also took workshops, as the one where we learned about how to make a proposal, which helped us on our last assignment of the course. In the laboratory we were required to be Principal Investigators (P.I.) once in a while, so I didnt only learned how to work in a lab and use laboratory instruments, but it also helped me with my leadership skills and to work as a team. The research proposal presentation allowed us to get to know a little bit of a life a researcher. First we had to choose a topic of interest and then develop an experiment with its title, abstract, introduction, hypothesis, materials and methods, expected results and conclusion. Even thou we didnt actually made the experiment, it required us to look for a great deal of information and use it appropriately. Practicing the presentation gave us the opportunity to make mistakes and be corrected before the official presentation. The day of the presentation was the most stressful day of the summer, but it taught me to deal with stress and nerves, and hold them back while presenting, and to give a good projection while talking, and therefore be able to capture the audiences attention. We also had to answer every question the audience had, which also helped and motivated me to be well prepared and soaked in information for the time of the presentation. After that summer, 16 out of 24 students were chosen to continue in the RISE program. Besides the biology literature and bibliography class, we have attended several seminars. Those seminars are given by students that made their bachelors degree in UPR Cayey and are now on their masters degree on route to their doctors degree. They have presented their researches and their life as graduate students.

Those seminars have given me an idea if how the life as a researcher or graduate student is and since they have already gone through experiences I will probably encounter, it creates confidence and motivates me to keep following my dreams. Every work, course, seminar and workshop I have taken since June has helped me grow as a young scientist. From the classes to the hands on work, and from the seminars I have taken to the presentations I have given have helped me learn, improve and develop new skills. I would say the research proposal is the one that has impacted and helped me the most. I learned not only things about my topic, but also how to project, give a good presentation and to be able to control my nerves while presenting. Even if I had to make some sacrifices I have began to see the rewards. If there is something people will never be able to take away from you is the things you have learned and the experiences youve had, and these experiences are steps that will help me come closer to the achievement of my goals as a scientist.