Reflections on my first STEM/TRAIN Semester

As my internship has been off-campus I have not had an opportunity to interact with the other scholars as much as I might otherwise.  Even so, it has been enjoyable to be able to share the experience when I have the chance.  I appreciate the cohort nature of the program.

The most influential aspect of the program form me this semester has been the internship.  What has brought me the most joy is how what I have been learning in classes has been directly applicable to my tasks at TGen, and how I could see direct improvement because of that.

As a great deal of my work at TGen has involved the management of hazardous materials the content of both my chemistry and biology classes has been useful in assessing and understanding why and how particular chemicals are hazardous.  On an even simpler and more impactful level, chemistry class has provided the ability to read the labels that I have never had.  When I started the internship in August I did not have an understanding of compound nomenclature, this led to difficulties organizing and classifying bottles.  By a month in a half in I no longer had those problems and was working much for efficiently as I had learned how to move back in forth between formulas and names in chemistry class.  Furthermore, the opportunity to practice at TGen enhanced my retention and skill in class regarding nomenclature as I was able to put the class content to practical use.