Hard to believe we are in the final weeks of the semester. It has been a busy semester for sure, even after having to drop a class last month.
For my capstone class, we were required to go to the Students of North Carolina Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium (SNCURCS) - which is a statewide symposium compared to our research and creativity symposium we have every year in April. It was in Durham and held at North Carolina Central University, which is a gorgeous campus! And the campus was big compared to what me (and many of my peers) are used to. The food was pretty good there that day, although it would be because of having visitors on campus. There were so many topics though presented, from psychology, neuroscience, biology, environmental science, and chemistry, among so many other subjects.
On November 7, I got the opportunity to hear Erin Brochovich speak at Catawba. It was through our Center for Environment, which has hosted quite a few special speakers this semester to celebrate the anniversary of the CENV. The movie, Erin Brochovich, (the movie is based on her life) was what really sparked my interest in the different issues that are in our environment (chemicals in water, food, etc). In her talk, I was surprised to learn that she had dyslexia growing up and was even seen as an underachiever. But despite that, she did a retrospective investigation on individuals that were directly affected by the hexavalent chromium 6 (as a secretary at a law firm in Hinkley California) with health issues, including many types of cancers. With her work in Hinkley, she went on to continue advocating for environmental health issues (and still is) and encouraging others to do the same. She has also created a website with a map that shows us what environmental issues are going on around the world... http://www.communityhealthbook.com/. Also one of her quotes that stand out to me from her talk is "what is your legacy" - Erin Brochovich. Definitely, a good quote to motivate someone toward the end of the semester.
Also, on November 10th I was inducted into Psi Chi (the honors society for psychology). It was definitely a different experience from when I was inducted into Tri-Beta. It was pretty low-key. We went to DJ's (maybe 12-15 of us) and we all had the chance to get to know each other better and ate dinner.
These coming weeks should be slowing down... I have my final capstone presentation this coming Tuesday, and my internship boss from the summer (CS) is hopefully coming. And with this project for capstone I have a good foundation for my independent research for next semester. And after I only have one exam, a drawing project/oral presentation and my final oral presentation for neuroscience (and the 12-20 page paper)
