Resources for Everyone – Page 2

The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program is administered by the U.S. National Science Foundation and is an incredible way to gain research experience while still in college. If you are a sophomore or junior I heavily recommend you look into this. I spend a lot of time on this blog advocating for undergraduate research opportunities on your home campus, but with an REU you can study any of a wide variety of research topics at another institution. Plus you’ll probably get paid!

How does the program work? First off, because this is a U.S. federal program, you need to be either a citizen or permanent resident of the U.S. or one of its territories. This is true even if the research will take place in another country. Essentially, the NSF funds many “REU sites,” which are hosted by specific labs or departments at different colleges or universities. Every year these sites will solicit applications from undergraduate students across the country. A handful of students will be selected (usually in the neighborhood of ten, depending on the site) to travel to the REU site, and live and work there for a few months. Most programs are between twelve and sixteen weeks long during summer break, although some take place during a full semester. Exactly what you’ll be doing varies from site to site, but the general idea is to give students a taste of life as a graduate student researcher. You will be conducting a research project under the direction of a professor and may be working alongside his or her graduate students. Depending on how your project goes you may even have the chance to present at a conference or publish your work! Some REU sites may offer additional programming, such as research seminars, networking events, or tours of labs or other facilities. You’ll also have plenty of downtime with your REU cohort, and I suggest you try to make friends because these may be your future professional colleagues! Lastly, you will likely receive a stipend for your work. Some sites provide room and board for their students, others house them but don’t pay for food, and still others require you to find your own housing but may assist you financially with this. The exact rate of pay varies depending on these and other variables, but the aim is to make sure students won’t turn down an REU opportunity because they need to make money at a summer job.

If this sounds exciting to you, or if you’re considering a research career, I heavily recommend you apply to some REU sites! The advice my undergraduate research mentor gave me during my junior year was to “apply to every REU program that interests you, even a little bit. Even if the subject isn’t exactly what you want to make a career studying, the research experience will be pivotal!” Every site has its own application and deadline, but for the most part everything is due around winter break (at least for the summer programs). Most REU sites either prefer or outright require that students be entering their final year of college, so most people apply during their junior year for the following summer. When you apply you will probably be asked to identify one or more professors at the site you would like to work with. Put some time and effort into this process. Read a paper or two of theirs, and most importantly, be able to explain why you are interested in their work! Nothing will shoot down your application faster than listing a specific researcher as your first choice, but when asked why responding with “Their research is really interesting to me.” You should also know that these programs are selective. Like really selective. In my college social circles people would apply to ten or more different REU sites, hoping to get into just one. I don’t have access to any large-scale metrics, but I am aware of one REU site that had more than 400 applicants for about twelve positions in 2017. I don’t know for a fact that this is typical of all REU sites, but it illustrates my point. I don’t bring this up to discourage you, but if you are serious about landing a spot in one of these programs you need to put real effort into the applications. I suggest making a list of all the programs you’d like to apply to well in advance, then submitting one application each weekend in late fall. You can then save the last few for winter break. Separate your applications with enough time that you don’t burn out and start phoning it in.

The REU program is an amazing opportunity to get varied research experience before finishing college, and is a good way to feel out whether graduate study is right for you. It’s no walk in the park to get in, but the connections, experience, and pay are all good enough that you should give it a shot! If you’re sold and are chomping at the bit to find an REU site, check the NSF website and good luck!

Photo Credits to Pexels and the National Science Foundation

Aspie is an affectionate name for people with Asperger’s Syndrome, a developmental disorder closely linked to Autism. The syndrome is named after Hans Asperger, a Viennese pediatrician who first described it in the 1940’s. Generally speaking, Asperger’s has similar symptoms to Autism minus the delays in language development during childhood. The most commonly described symptom is the inability to read non-verbal social cues without careful practice. With the publication of the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) in 2013, Asperger’s Syndrome was formally folded into the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder. That’s the clinical way of putting it, anyway!

I won’t be trying to define what exactly Autism is here, because I find any time someone tries to do that it ends up getting very impersonal and dehumanizing, and that’s not the goal of this blog. The minutia of Autism and Asperger’s research can be fascinating, but in this post I’d like to focus on, socially and professionally, what the term Aspie means to me. The Autism Spectrum is astonishingly diverse and the differences in experiences, abilities, interests, personalities, and modes of communication between individuals on the spectrum are huge! I won’t pretend to be an expert on ASD, but I can lay out the basics and offer links to other resources. Most importantly, if you’re reading about Autism/Asperger’s and are starting to think you might be on the spectrum, I would, if circumstances allow, encourage you to seek a professional diagnosis. This can get you access to all kinds of support and accommodations, and it’s absolutely something you should consider.

My understanding of Autism and Asperger’s comes primarily from my own experiences as an Aspie. I was diagnosed in about 3^rd grade; looking back the signs were obvious. I had a set of toy vehicles that came in a rainbow of colors, and absolutely loved to arrange them into their “proper” patterns. I had a series of “patterns” that heavily governed my movement within a space, the steps that I took, things in the room that I touched, etc. These were all forms of stimming, although not necessarily healthy ones.

As I grew up, I started to hear a lot of “high-functioning” and “low-functioning” labels being thrown around. These days those labels are considered outdated and rude, but at the time I let them undermine my experiences because I was labeled “high-functioning.” Sure, I had difficulty picking up on non-verbal social cues. I struggled with transitions from one activity to another, and my time-management skills were lacking. But I was able to interact with people a little, and I was good at school. For the longest time, I wouldn’t have called myself “really autistic,” because there were people out there who were entirely non-verbal, who couldn’t handle a school environment due to sensory overload, or who in other ways seemed to have it a lot worse than me.

While in college I read Steve Silberman’s Neurotribes, and it introduced me to the concept of neurodiversity: the idea that people of different neurological makeups aren’t broken or lesser, just different. This is the concept that now informs how I deal with other people on the spectrum, as well as how I treat myself mentally. Embracing neurodiversity led me to accept one of what I call my “specialist subjects” and to pursue it as a career. A common facet of Aspies is a fixation on one or more specific subjects, often involving categories or lists of things (think species of birds, or car models). Silberman’s book, in part, motivated me to push my career in the direction of my developing obsession with fish biology, and to see my specialist subject not as a weird obsession, but as a career asset.

In short, an Aspie is a person who has probably spent a lot of time confused about other people. Although many of us do learn to pick up non-verbal social signals, that ability isn’t usually present from the beginning for us. Aspies have a variety of talents, interests, methods of stimming, and ways of thinking about the world. We have personal struggles just like everybody else. We have good days and bad days, and we doubt ourselves a lot. I have learned to see my Asperger’s as an asset, and one of the aims of this blog is to help other Aspies do the same thing.

If you have an Aspie in your life or have recently discovered that you are an Aspie, I HEAVILY recommend that you read more than this blog post to get a better grasp on Asperger’s. The best places to start that come to mind are-

Centers for Disease Control

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network

The Website of Dr. Temple Grandin

Underwater Aspie

What is an REU, and Should I Apply For One?

What is an Aspie? A Personal Explanation