{"id":376,"date":"2016-11-04T18:42:21","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T18:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/?p=376"},"modified":"2020-12-28T18:50:59","modified_gmt":"2020-12-28T18:50:59","slug":"there-and-back-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/there-and-back-again\/","title":{"rendered":"There and Back Again: A Grad Student\u2019s Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"quinn_blog-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hi everyone! I\u2019m excited to share my experiences as a first year PhD student at Memorial! After much thought, I decided the most relevant topic for my first post would be to tell the \u201cThere<\/em>\u201d part of my \u201cThere and Back Again<\/em>\u201d story. As Bilbo discovers on his journey through Middle-Earth in \u201cThere and Back Again:<\/em> A Hobbit\u2019s<\/em> Tale<\/em>\u201d, the experiences, emotions and cast of characters associated with starting a PhD can be long, complicated, and full of the unexpected.<\/p>\n

Before coming to Memorial I completed both my BSc and MSc in my hometown of Winnipeg, at The University of Winnipeg. Although I\u2019ve done my share of travelling, moving 6,000km across the country from the prairies to the coast was a new experience. During my MSc, I really enjoyed my research project, the atmosphere of the lab I was in, and the general day-to-day life of a grad student. Through ongoing encouragement and support from my mentors, I decided I wanted continue doing research and avoid entering \u201cthe real world\u201d for as long as possible. The next question was, what should I do a PhD on? I knew I wanted to continue studying something similar \u2013 I studied bats for my MSc \u2013 but as someone who can\u2019t stay up past 11pm, staying up all night with nocturnal bats no longer suited my lifestyle. The time had come to pick a different wildlife species to study. So, I started searching for Canadian researchers who had similar interests but studied critters that are awake in the day: enter Dr. Eric Vander Wal<\/a>. After an initial email, Eric requested I refer to him by his first name, as I will for the remainder of this blog. When looking for prospective supervisors, Eric stood out because our research interests aligned and he primarily studies ungulates (caribou, elk, sheep \u2013 all day-time animals!). Plus, the chance to come to St. John\u2019s sounded like a great opportunity I couldn\u2019t pass up. After a skype interview and an in-person meeting at a conference in May 2015, my fate was sealed \u2013 I was coming to Memorial to study caribou in Newfoundland! All that was left were the trivial tasks of finishing an MSc and moving halfway across the country with two cats and a partner also finishing an MSc (my equivalent of Gandalf and 13 dwarves J).<\/p>\n

This whole decision process took place almost 18 months before I arrived in St. John\u2019s and it already seems like a very long time ago. For many, such a long lead up may seem unnecessary, but throughout my MSc, my academic mentors emphasized that it can \u2018never be too early\u2019 to contact potential supervisors. This early communication and decision making process also builds relationships and establishes a good rapport with future supervisors \u2013 something particularly important when the time comes to apply for funding. For me, that funding was the National Science and Engineering Research Council, or NSERC<\/a>. Fast forward a few months to September, 2015, and I found myself in St. John\u2019s visiting my future lab and the Memorial campus, meeting other folks in the lab and the department, and of course \u2013 finalizing my scholarship applications. At the time I did not realize how important this may have been. Although I was eventually successful in receiving funding, I attribute much of my success to the help I had from Eric during these early days, especially when I actually came to visit Memorial. It is a lot easier to write a proposal to work in someone\u2019s lab when you have their input, experience, and knowledge on the topic, system, and\/or method(s) of interest. My advice to any Master’s (or undergrad) students thinking about doing a PhD would be the same as the advice I received: it can never be too early to get in touch with potential supervisors. I learned it can be very <\/em>helpful and mutually beneficial to get in contact with potential supervisors far (at least one year) in advance of your intended start date.<\/p>\n

It also helps to visit possible labs, not only to meet your potential supervisor, but also to meet current students in their lab. This can be beneficial to get the inside scoop on the supervisor, the university, the department, and even the city you are committing to live in. Although I visited Memorial after I made the decision to come here, many people will visit several labs or research groups while they are making the decision about where to go. Based on my experience, these steps are really important and really helped me feel confident in my decisions. That being said, I also realize it probably won\u2019t work for every student, supervisor, or institution, so it\u2019s important for the prospective Master’s or PhD student to gauge the situation and determine what the best approach for them might be.<\/p>\n

After my visit to sunny St. John\u2019s (it was really sunny when I first visited!), I returned to Winnipeg and defended my MSc over the winter. I finally finished in April 2016, and with almost no turnaround I officially became a PhD student in the Cognitive and Behavioural Ecology (CABE<\/a>) program at Memorial in May 2016. My adventure had begun!<\/p>\n

I came to St. John\u2019s in June and was immediately shuttled off to Fogo Island<\/a> where I spent a month doing fieldwork with some of my new lab-mates. First note on Fogo: if you haven\u2019t been, you should go! Second: don\u2019t hesitate! It is quite possibly one of the most interesting and beautiful places I\u2019ve ever been (see photo above). Our day-to-day routine while I was on the island consisted of hiking anywhere from 10 to 20km around the island looking for caribou, counting and watching caribou when we found them, and, since it was the spring, watching icebergs float by. Then repeat. It was great! Except the black flies. Anyone who has spent any time in the bush in Newfoundland knows what I mean. At times I felt like Bilbo must have felt while he was in Mirkwood.<\/p>\n

After a month in the bush it was time return to St. John\u2019s where I attended a conference at Memorial, before heading back to Winnipeg to begin the long and arduous process of packing and moving. In the end, we decided to sell all of our furniture in Winnipeg, load up our car with everything we could fit and mail the rest. Over 12 days and approximately 6,000km we made our way from Winnipeg to St. John\u2019s seeing many of our friends and family that live in eastern Canada, before arriving to an empty apartment in St. John\u2019s! I\u2019m now settled in St. John\u2019s and at Memorial and I really enjoy my program and lab \u2013 but the journey is far from over and the \u201cBack<\/em>\u201d story is a long way from being told. As Bilbo said \u201cGo Back? No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Until next time,<\/p>\n

~Quinn <\/a> <\/a> zp-pdl.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi everyone! I\u2019m excited to share my experiences as a first year PhD student at Memorial! After much thought, I decided the most relevant topic for my first post would be to tell the \u201cThere\u201d part of my \u201cThere and Back Again\u201d story. As Bilbo discovers on his journey through Middle-Earth in \u201cThere and Back … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-quinn-webber","4":"post-376","6":"format-standard","7":"category-student-blog"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1690,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions\/1690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}