Interview Essay

Interning with Professor Sheryl Ehrman this summer allowed me to learn academic,
technical, and social skills. I learned how to use new computer programs, and studied topics I
had never heard of before. Just as importantly, I worked in a group of three other college
students, which gave me an opportunity to gain some insight into their college experiences and
pick up some skills from them as well.
For that reason, I decided to interview Joseph, who is one of the members of Dr.
Ehrmans group focusing on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Joseph is a sophomore studying
chemical engineering at the University of Maryland. He was previously part of Eleanor
Roosevelt High Schools Quality Education in Science and Technology, or QUEST, program.
From there, he joined the University of Marylands Engineering Science and Technology to
Energize and Expand Young Minds, or ESTEEM, mentoring program, which introduced him to
Dr. Ehrman and her work. Therefore, he started working on the fracking project as a high school
senior in the 2012 2013 school year. Like myself, he was unsure of the project at the
beginning, as he had no previous knowledge of fracking or some of the computer programs. But
the professor and graduate student mentored him well, and he has stayed with them ever since.
Josephs tasks as part of the fracking group can be summarized as taking meteorological
data of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides (NOx), ethane, and other
hydrocarbons, and analyzing them visually and statistically based on hydraulic fracturing. He
first processes data measurements of the specified air pollutant through a meteorology program
called HYSPLIT. This allows him to create back trajectories and clusters for each monitoring
station. For example, he plotted methane, ethane, isoprene, and pentane paths based on
information from the Essex, Maryland measuring station. Then, using a statistical program called
Minitab, he calculated statistical factors and conducted hypothesis/statistics tests such as t-tests.
With Matlab, he created double plots for datasets of things like temperature vs. ethane. Finally,
he analyzed his results and contributed to, or even wrote his own, research papers.
Embarking on a research or data analysis project requires background knowledge, so he
obviously had to familiarize himself with hydraulic fracturing and its processes and
consequences. However, Joseph realizes that his work has taught him much more than that. It
pushed him to learn and use more statistics, a subject which he didnt use much before, so he
could understand what he was doing. He learned how to use the popular programming language
Matlab, as well as the statistic program Minitab and other uncommon programs like HYSPLIT.
The internship and work also taught him research paper procedures and skills, including how to
explain his work to an audience who might not be familiar with it. Besides those valuable skills,
he was able to conduct more credible research and keep updated with current events relevant to
his topic of study. Although he encountered problems and frustrating events occasionally,
especially while coding in Matlab, he learned how to troubleshoot and use online resources to
find answers on his own. Finally, his college classes and data analysis work helped each other
out: his classes supplemented his research paper writing, statistics skills, and knowledge about
chemicals, while his work allowed him to practice what he was learning.
At time, work was difficult. However, he says that he felt rewarded when he was able to
see visual representations or plots, charts, and clusters after his hard work. His favorite part is
when he presents or discusses his findings with people of higher levels, as it shows how much
his work makes a difference.
I could not miss the opportunity to ask Joseph about balancing work and research with
school. His advice was to talk to your mentors, or people who have gone through what youre
experiencing. That way, youll have a common understanding and be able to make compromises.
Another important tip, that applies to students even before college, was to avoid procrastination.
Working on assignments early lets you get things done more quickly and reduces the risk of
forgetting a task. Joseph also gave me some general college advice on using the resources given,
branching outside your major, and being proactive.
Working with my group members let me appreciate how much they had achieved
throughout their years of school and research. Interviewing Joseph gave me a little insight into
the life of a college student who works on research and data analysis as well. Hopefully, I will be
able to benefit from my internship just as much as he benefited from his.