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…]
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…]
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…]
And with that another semester has started. I would like to say that I had some respite over the holidays, but that would be a lie. I spent a majority of the break working on my thesis and a publication submission. My supervisor Dr. Catherine Keske has kept me on my toes this past semester … [Read more…]
If you are thinking about applying to graduate school in the humanities, you probably have heard snarky comments such as “but, what is the point? It’s not like you are going to learn anything practical” or (if you dare do a PhD) “You are just going to waste four years (or more) of your life … [Read more…]
Prelude: You thought it was ‘life or death’ when you sent in your first grant application in the fall. It wasn’t, life went on (1st Milestone). You thought you were literally going to die the last week of your first semester. You didn’t, and had a wonderful winter break to forget about it. Like a … [Read more…]
I am in my room looking outside, and it’s snowing. Earlier, I was on campus in my office when I missed an important email from the Internationalization Office. The email read, “St. John’s campus closing at 5:30pm due to inclement weather”. As I was hard at work, I did not notice the email until another … [Read more…]
After having a nice break at home, it’s great to be back at Memorial for round two of my master’s degree. It’s exciting to think that I’m halfway through my first year at Memorial; the Fall semester flew by so quickly, and I expect that this Winter semester will be no different. I was pleasantly … [Read more…]
Academia is often referred to as the “Ivory Tower”. When I first heard this metaphor, I had a beautiful image in mind of a delicate, cream-coloured fairy-tale tower on a green hill, against a blue afternoon sky. I juxtaposed this image against a reading of Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene. In book two, the heroes Guyon, … [Read more…]