Entering graduate school can be an uncertain transition for any student, and I am of no exception. \u00a0Being a student in the BS\/MS program at Clemson, I technically started my graduate school career during my Senior year at Clemson. \u00a0However, throughout that year, I always considered myself to be an undergrad sitting in on graduate classes and assisting in the lab. \u00a0Because I regarded myself in this way, I believed my teachers and peers held this same perception. \u00a0I did not feel I had the qualifications that merited the title of graduate student.<\/p>\n
Then, on Friday, May 8th I put on a black robe, placed an awkward covering on my head, and walked across the stage to receive a diploma declaring the completion of my Bachelor\u2019s education in Environmental Engineering. \u00a0The following Monday I went into Dr. Ladner\u2019s lab. \u00a0Even though I now entered as new graduate, nothing really changed. \u00a0This was the same lab I first entered my Junior year as an undergraduate to gain research experience. \u00a0The piece of paper that I received a few days earlier did not come with a name tag to distinguish me as graduate student, nor did it have powers to give me a magical graduate student aura. \u00a0I entered the lab and started to run experiments as I always had.<\/p>\n
It was a routine I had grown accustomed to, a routine that had not deviated from my undergraduate experience; thus my perception of myself did not change. \u00a0At a recent individual meeting, Dr. Ladner was apologetic for previously referring to me as an undergraduate to a colleague. \u00a0I was in no way offended, for I had not noticed. \u00a0This was not from being unobservant, I did not notice because I did not consider it to be an oversight. \u00a0However, it is time for my mindset to change, it is time to realize that the reflection I see underneath the chemical hood is not that of an undergraduate; but is the reflection of a graduate student in charge of her own experiments. \u00a0A student that must not only complete established experiments, but originate her own. \u00a0A student that cannot settle for finding the answers to predisposed questions, but must come up with the questions herself, and then determine how to answer them. \u00a0I am officially a graduate student and I must start thinking of myself as such. \u00a0Only then will I build the confidence to take on all the uncertainties and challenges that come along with obtaining a masters degree.<\/p>\n
So here is to mentally turning my graduation tassel and \u00a0transitioning into graduate school: I am Kristen Carpenter a part of Dr. Ladner\u2019s research group, a graduate student ready to take on my graduate courses, determine the course of my research, and learn as much as possible in order to earn my masters degree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Entering graduate school can be an uncertain transition for any student, and I am of no exception. \u00a0Being a student[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-graduation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/IMG_16211.jpg?fit=1981%2C774&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4FV6M-bo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":708,"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions\/708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}