As of April 2016, I have fulfilled the course requirements for my PhD program, and I feel as if I am now entering a new exciting, but also confusing, journey. I have much more freedom to decide what I want to research or read about, and more time to focus on what I am really … [Read more…]
Warning: this blog post will include many biking analogies. A month ago I decided to rent a bike from Memorial’s Bikeshare program. It was starting to get warm-er – “finally” said the Ontarian – I wanted to save money on bus fare and it was a great way to incorporate fitness into my daily routine. … [Read more…]
Here I am again, in my room. Outside it’s raining, but it’s warm. I visited my home country, Italy, for a holiday between the Winter and the Spring Semester, but I didn’t expect to be so homesick and jet-lagged once I returned to St. John’s. Everything was similar, but a bit weird, even the weather. … [Read more…]
I hope the school year finished well for everyone reading the blogs. It’s hard to be believe that the first year is complete, and that the bulk of my course load is behind me. I know that I am technically still in my ‘first year’ of graduate school throughout the Spring semester, but my particular … [Read more…]
It’s a little bit of a strange feeling to be gearing up for a new, full semester in May as opposed to our normal semester start times in September or in January, but that’s the life of a full-time graduate student! I remember I had a professor in my undergraduate program, Dr. Andrea Schutz, who … [Read more…]
Exams for the Winter 2016 semester have wrapped up! Our bloggers will be enjoying a short break before the Spring 2016 semester commences on May 9. Congrats on completing your second semester of graduate school! ~School of Graduate Studies
The closure of this semester seems to be on hyper speed, a cloud of assignments lays beside me with a slew of others to follow. I seem only to have enough time to look up from my computer and see that another week has passed by…and soon I will be missing this. Maybe. Last week … [Read more…]
Last week, I had a meeting with my advisor. I wanted to see how I was doing, what I should be doing, and where I was going with my studies. I think what I really needed to know was whether or not I was still on the right track and not getting distracted by x, … [Read more…]
Since starting the New Year, I have been working on a collaborative and experimental project with my supervisor Dr. Meghan Burchell and Dr. David Grant at the Microanalysis Facility in Memorial’s Core Research Equipment & Instrument Training Network (CREAIT). For this project we are chemically and geologically examining live-collected butter clam shells from British Columbia … [Read more…]
Since the beginning of the Fall semester many things have changed. First of all, I have gotten used to my house and my duties, and now I have a daily routine. Streets and houses are beginning to feel familiar, the same for my office and the science building. Also, very basic information that I did … [Read more…]