I don’t know how it happened, but the second semester flew by. I think it was a combination of a lot less breaks and finding a schedule that worked for me. In my second semester, I got a lot better at time management and fitting in all of the school work, clubs, activities, events, and rest that I needed. I still can’t believe that my first year of college is almost over. It feels like just yesterday that I was filling out college applications and ending my senior year of high school. Crazy.
Me and two of my friends (fellow head counselors).
This summer, I’ll be going back home to Chicago. I personally didn’t look too hard for an internship. I glanced around a little at the career fairs and such, but many of the companies that I was interested in were looking for juniors or seniors that would be able to intern for a year or two and then transition into working there post-graduation. There were also a ton of research opportunities that USC sent out to apply for and do over the summer, like SURE (Summer Undergraduate Research Experience) and SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fund), but these both involved staying in California over the summer. For the past couple of summers, I’ve been a camp counselor at a sports day camp in Chicago, and I’m really excited to be a head counselor again this summer. This camp, called Kids Playing Camp, is one that I’ve gone to since 3rd grade. I’m in charge of the kindergarten and 1st graders, which does limit the sports we can play, but they are adorable and fun. I think sophomore year I’ll look into maybe staying out here, but for now I’m ready to spend some time at home again.
Presenting my poster at the CURVE Research Symposium.
Across my whole freshman year, I’ve been doing research with the Sharada Lab through the CURVE (Center for Undergraduate Research in Viterbi Engineering) Fellowship. I applied to continue working with my same lab remotely over the summer, as since my lab does computational chemistry, most projects can be worked on virtually. We just had the CURVE Research Symposium, where I presented my work on evaluating organic photoredox catalyst candidates for CO2 reduction. I’ve really enjoyed working with my lab across this year, and I’m looking forward to continuing research over the summer, while also being able to spend time with my friends from both camp and high school, and my family.
