Spring has arrived…

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…]

Rested, Relaxed, and Ready for New Opportunities…

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…]

Starting the Spring Semester…

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…]

The Winter semester comes to an end…

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 End is Drawing Near…

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…]

Challenges of the Winter Semester…

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…]

How to Make Your Research Design Failure-Proof

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…]

How things have changed…

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…]

In the home stretch…of first year…

Although I’m well aware that I’m supposed to write a blog entry for “My Master Plan” about every six weeks, the due dates always seem to sneak up on me. When your head is down and focused on readings, projects, and assignments, it’s easy to lose track of time. Once you come up for some … [Read more…]

Relax and read

As I was relearning how to write a proper paragraph for the sixth time this year and thousandth time in my academic career, I came across a tiny little sound file. It’s just four minutes and fifty-one seconds long, and it doesn’t say anything about graduate school that I haven’t heard before. I listened anyway. … [Read more…]