Link: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/ebfde8e27c5c42339afad23295731bed 

This experience has taught me a lot over the past eight weeks. Learning how to conduct research on my own has been a huge learning experience. In my previous research, it has been more of a lit review or guided by the professor(s). However, in this project, I had to make decisions on my own and come up with my own solutions. For example, when Professor Wolaver told me that there were probably 20 right ways to analyze my data, it was hard for me to wrap my head around. Before, someone had always told me how to analyze data. While this was hard for me, I think it is an essential skill that I will carry with me, especially because I want to work in data analytics. In a way, it was also cool to do everything on my own (even though I did have a lot of help) since then it felt like the research was truly mine. 

Other than learning from my project, I also liked working with and learning from my fellow researchers. During the final presentation, I realized how much everyone cared about their project and how passionate they were. I love listening to people talk about things they are passionate about. I also thought it was interesting to see everyone’s personality and interests reflected in their final presentation. I think being a part of research where everyone is doing their own projects is a very unique experience that this program offers. 

Besides my peers, I also liked getting to know faculty members and some of the things Bucknell offers. I did not know the extent of the resources here whether it be VR, Tableau, GIS, or other L&IT resources. I think the opportunity to talk to all of the different faculty this summer was something I otherwise would have not gotten the opportunity to do. I am very thankful for the plethora of resources and people we learned from this summer. I don’t think many students know of their availability and how useful they can be. 

Finally, I learned how much I liked my topic and the possibility for future research. I think this summer gave me a very good ground for more possibilities such as looking at other factors, finding a quantitative way to analyze the variables, and looking for confounding variables. I am excited to learn more math and statistics in my major and be able to apply it to my research. A large part of the summer I feel like was spent figuring out what to study given what is already known and what data is available. Now that I know what I want to do next, I am very excited to start.