Hello readers, my name is Courtney Laprise, and I am a brand new graduate student at Memorial University. I just started my Master of Science program in Chemistry, and I couldn’t be more excited to share my journey through my program with you. Whether you’re a current graduate student, a prospective graduate student, or just love reading this blog, I hope you enjoy.

Now before I get into details on my education, I figured I would tell you all a bit about myself. I was born in Calgary, Alberta, but shortly moved to Ottawa, Ontario where I lived for many years. My family then moved to a small town called Angus, Ontario, before finally moving to Paradise, Newfoundland back in 2010. My parents are in the military so we moved around quite a lot. It worked out for me though, because after finishing high school in Mount Pearl the natural place to continue my education was Memorial University.

I originally started out doing a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry, but on the first day of classes, my Chemistry 1050 professor, Dr. Kozak, mentioned how you can do anything you want in university, even Earth Sciences and Chemistry together. In high school, I loved the Earth Science course that I took, so later the same day, I went to the Earth Science department and switched to a Joint Honours program in Chemistry and Earth Sciences. It was the best decision I ever made. I got to do all the Chemistry courses that I wanted to take, while also getting to do a bunch of Earth Science courses. It was like a regular B.Sc. but instead of the normal electives, I got to take even more science courses, which is definitely my strong suit.

After graduating with my B.Sc. Honours in Chemistry and Earth Sciences, I was unsure of what to do in the Fall. I was planning on going to graduate school, but I had nothing decided yet. My original plan was to work with my Chemistry honours supervisor, but she moved to York University in Toronto over the summer. While I had a great opportunity to work in an amazing lab with her, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to move to Toronto. After moving around my entire childhood, Newfoundland had become my home and I knew I wouldn’t love living in that large of a city when I could have stayed in beautiful Newfoundland. This made me realize that graduate studies at Memorial University was my best option, but I still didn’t know who to work with. My specialty was in analytical chemistry, but I was itching to try something new. The only problem was that I was very nervous about starting an entirely new project, and thought no one would take me since I had no previous experience in their field of Chemistry.

After talking to a friend in chemistry, I realized that I was being silly and had no reason to worry. I sent out a few emails to prospective supervisors and every single one was excited to speak to me. They all had projects that I could start on, and it made me feel truly silly to think that I ever doubted myself.

I ended up with two supervisors, Dr. Kerton, and Dr. Kozak (the same Chemistry 1050 prof.), doing research in the field of inorganic chemistry. At the beginning of the semester I started off reading papers on my project, which is developing methods to turn purified fish oils into new materials. It was very daunting at first, but after a few more papers and lots of Googling terms and chemicals I have never heard of, it seemed to get much easier. The ‘Imposter Syndrome’ of feeling like you aren’t qualified to be a graduate student is very real, and some days it hits harder than others. The trick is to tell yourself that you were admitted to graduate school for a reason. They don’t let just anyone in, and if you work hard, everything will be just fine.

Getting involved in your department really helps you meet new people who are in similar situations as you. By doing this blog, I met two wonderful people who you will hear from in the coming weeks, Juliana Vidal and Marina Schmidt. I decided to run for a position on the Chemistry Graduate Society and now I am busy as the vice-president. I also made sure to get involved with my research group, and went on a lighthouse picnic in Ferryland in September (see the beautiful picture above). We were blessed with some amazing weather and saw what we think my have been tuna or dolphins (the jury is still out on that one), and got a delicious lunch out of it.

It’s great to get involved and it helps break up the time spent doing research or lab work, as well as being a great opportunity to meet other graduate students. The more people you meet, the more perspectives on life and graduate studies you can get, which is part of what makes this blog so great. It provides you with a look into the lives of people doing different graduate degrees and the differences and similarities between them. If reading previous blog posts has taught me anything, it’s that everyone has troubles or problems with their research and everyone is prone to the ‘Imposter Syndrome,’ but it’s never anything to be worried about. It’s simply part of being a graduate student, because it wouldn’t be fun if it wasn’t at least a little challenging.

~Courtney