Allowing Vulnerability in STEM

 

"There is only one variable that separates the people who have a strong sense of love and belonging and the people who really struggle for it. It's the people who believe they're worthy of loving and belonging." (Ted Talk, Brene Brown). 

I find it extremely hard expressing my emotions and vulnerability with my peers. Im always on a constant battle of shaming myself for not being where I need to be at this point in my life. Or shaming myself for failing a class. Its interesting to learn more of Brown's research between someone who isn't so vulnerable vs someone who is ok with expressing vulnerability. Finding out those who are more compassionate with themselves and accept themselves for their imperfection, tend to have a higher chance of connection with themselves. 

One of the things I have learned throughout my STEM journey is each career path you may think is meant for you, may not be. And that is ok. My biggest struggle is pretending to be in love with something that may not be what I'm meant for. The STEM program encourages one to explore different areas to seek what may be meant for you. Doing this allows to accept the imperfections of yourself that you may not have had the courage to do alone. Hearing other student's experiences where sometimes you may have the same emotions, gives you a big relief because you know you aren't the only one going through this. 

What mindset am I?

I feel like I have more of a growth mindset than fixed. The reason I say that I have a growth mindset is that I tend to learn as I go. Last semester was the first semester I had not passed two classes. Instead of beating myself up for not passing because I did have a lot on my plate, I ended up learning from failing by trying again and retaking the courses. Realizing I can do anything that I want despite any obstacles that may come my way. I feel like my educational journey has been a huge influence in that sense towards my growth mindset. I feel that I have extremely benefited by having a growth mindset since I have allowed myself to accept criticism, taking failure with a grain of salt and continuing to push forward. 

College Life to Career

 Prompt:  Translating my college experience into employer-desired experiences – pick 3 examples

There are many skills that I have acquired since the beginning of my college experience that has made significant contribution to my employment. Problem-solving, communication, and organization has been the traits that has been the ones at use the most. I have seen these traits bring so much reward into my college/work experience. 

Post Graduation Goals

Hello Everyone, 

I am currently completing my Bachelor's of Science in Applied Computing and minor in Business Data Analytics. After I graduate, I plan to use my degree to pursue positions as a Data Analyst whether that be in Banking, Government, or any other Businesses. You may be wondering what made me find interest in that field? Mid-way through my college experience, I got a position as a Senior Account Specialist at Discover Bank and found myself loving to work with numbers, computers, being detail oriented, and problem-solving. I started to look more into growing with the company and reflecting on the research I have gained throughout the stem program/internships, coming to the realization I have been learning to use excel spreadsheets and qualitative analysis. It instantly clicked with me that I really enjoyed entering in data and create visual graphs for decision making/results and went "well I should probably start switching my major to something that aligns with my interest!" So that is what I plan to use my degree in. I still find high interest in collecting data in water quality so maybe working in Department of Environmental Health Quality is something i'm quite interested in! Who knows!

Reflecting on My Online Presence

 Hello Everyone! 

Lately I have been thinking about my online presence and how I want to be portrayed to others online. Most of the apps that I am currently using are Instagram for social connections with colleagues, friends, and family, but I have thought about emphasizing more on my profile my career interests and research to portray to others of what I am currently working on. 

On the other hand I do feel like I am semi-satisfied with my Link'd In Profile and the networking I have on it. I have connected with so many student's in STEM, professors that I have done research with, and my coworkers I currently have. A lot of my coworkers and friend's have been impressed with the experience that I have with research and work that I have had in the past. 

I do however have a dissatisfaction with how much time I have on social media and feel like it has been impacting my mental health in a negative way. So currently I haven't been paying much time on their to limit my distractions and screen time. 

Welcome Back to Fall 21' :-)

 Hello STEM/TRAIN Scholars, 

For many that are new/returning back to the STEM/TRAIN program this semester, welcome! It feels so good to finally be back and seeing many of you in person again! I feel like my first year at ASU was such an odd experience as we all spent the past year through Zoom meetings and stuck at home. While we are still in the mix of a pandemic, I hope many of you have been staying healthy and well!

This will be my third semester in the STEM/TRAIN program! WOAH... I am actually in disbelief with how time has flown by since I first joined the program back at Phoenix College. It's almost like a bittersweet feeling as my fourth semester approaches but I am excited for the new journey that awaits me. And for many of you that are new, this program will teach you a lot about research, networking, what to expect with your future studies, job hunts, etc! oh and not to forget to mention, the amazing mentors! I spent my first two years at Phoenix College doing a whole lot of Research in Microplastics, working in labs with Dr. Beth Polidoro, collecting/creating data analysis on what I have gathered, to presenting at many different conferences. Doing all of that made me aware of the passion I really have with data! I am now pursuing my Major in Applied Computing with a Minor in Business Data Analytics. I am hoping to go into the Data Analyst Field and who knows, maybe I will want to go towards my Master's in Data Science. 

One of the many questions for our first blog post is what is my current online presence? That's a really great and simple question that requires to sit down and reflect, cause truly what is my online presence? Other than having an Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter to socialize with friends and family... it might not be so appealing for a corporation when they ask to look into that. It truly is filled with memes or important political posts that advocate for Global Justice. In other words I do have an LinkedIn where I have even some of my ASU STEM colleagues on and it is super exciting to see them grow and expand their professionalism and skills! 

I hope to hear all from you and the research you guys will be doing throughout the STEM/TRAIN program! 

Best, 

Francisco 

Last Blog Post for the Semester!

1. What are your professional goals, 1 year, 5 years and 10 years into the future? What will accomplishing these goals let you do? How will accomplishing these goals impact those around you and what will it make possible for those in your community? 

Wow! Can you believe we are close to ending the 2020-2021 academic year?! Crazy how fast time has flown! I hope everyone had a good year so far. I know many challenges have came across each and every one of you but it's always good to stay optimistic about our futures while we can. This year I've had a lot of growth within my professional work + school where I finally can see myself doing something that I like. I have four more semesters left till I graduate from ASU with my Bachelor's in Applied Computing. So my hopes in the two years is to have a job as a data analyst whether that be in a government job or for a tech company. 

2. What are societal challenges that matter to you that you think it's important to deal with now? What do you think are the challenges that will matter 10 years in the future, and 20 years in the future? How do you think these challenges will be addressed, and what will need to happen to make sure that they are?

I think some of the societal challenges that matter to me the most is Racial Injustice, Equality and Climate justice. I feel like Racial Injustice is something that will always matter in the future as we continue to unravel lots of work in fighting for equality whether that be wages, opportunities, to discrimination across many different degrees. A lot of the challenges that we are facing today comes from social movements and bring up awareness of this matter just like the George Floyd incident back in June of 2020. Till now we are finally seeing Derek Chauvin finally being charged all three counts, something we highly doubted but finally saw happen! 

3. What is something that makes you optimistic about the future, and why? This could be something big and impersonal (improving price of Li-ion batteries) or something small and personal (a new pet). Please describe how it feels to focus on this thing that makes you optimistic, and discuss whether you think it is a good idea to be intentional about being optimistic.  

I'm very optimistic to having a financially stable future and a place where I want to be. It feels very good to know how far I have came with school and knowing how close I am to finishing. Feelings of excitement and knowing all of this hard work is paying off. But for now it's good to focus on my small goal like maintaining passing grades, having my work being turned in on time, and continuing to create relationships with my peers! 

Second Blog Post

 1. What did you know about your field 3 years ago, and what have you learned about that has 'wowed' you? (Supplemental questions: What did you used to think was an advanced topic in your subject, and what do you think is now? What was the experience that you feel you learned the most from?)

Three years ago, I was considering on proceeding into a major in Biology. I learned so much approaching this career path. Learning from research, the possible career outcomes within this field, different skills and the many graduate programs that an undergraduate can research. When I entered this field I was astonished at the different types of research you can do in your graduate program! The experience did feel overwhelming though I was very overwhelmed with how much experience you must have when applying for job post graduate and the amount of work that goes into when taking the upper level course work. I feel although the amount of studying needed to succeed in these courses, I learned time management and organizing to better prepare myself to succeed as a student in college. 

2. What do you want to learn about over the next 3 years? (Is it scientific or personal? Why do you want to learn it? How do you plan on developing this knowledge?)

 Over the next three years, I really want to take a moment to develop more skills and gain my knowledge in the work of field I will be pursuing. The reason why is I want to prepare myself land more job opportunities once out of college. Speaking to numerous post-grad students has helped with providing an insight on what the field looks like. Job shadowing as well helps to know what type of job I will be working on and help gain an understanding of what skills employers will look for. 

First Blog Post of Spring 2021!

Hello everyone! I hope everyone's semester has been going great!  In this blog post I will be talking about who I am grateful for who has helped me get to where I am today and what advice I would give to my younger self. The first few people that have popped into my head when thinking about answering this question is my mom and sisters. I remember a couple of years ago, I was struggling with my mental health and financial situation. It was my first year as a college student and did not know whether I would be prepared or able to afford to pay for school. As my sister was a previous ASU alumni, she had walked me through different resources and options to applying for FAFSA and applying towards different scholarship programs offered through the institute I was attending which was Phoenix College at the time. By doing that I got into the STEM/TRAIN mentorship program which now has brought me to being at ASU today! Knowing all the wonderful mentors and colleagues I have grown with over the years! I am super grateful my family had pushed me through especially during hard times. 

Advice that I would give my younger self would be not to feel discouraged or avoid feeling like I am not smart/good enough for a career path I am wanting to go in. Thinking back, I had to constantly doubted myself into going into that career path simply because I let fear interfere with me pursuing anything I wanted. I've learned over the years that it is great to accept the feeling rather than avoiding and dissecting down why I feel that certain way to identify it and move forward. I believe many student's can feel this way as we all face different situations that can cause high stress and emotions. My advice would be instead of avoiding those feelings, sit with and reflect, accept and move forward. :) 

November Post

 Hello Everyone, 

Hope everyone has been having a fun and safe weekend! Can you believe that we are already finished with this semester? I feel like this whole entire semester has flown by so fast!!! It's crazy thinking about it!  

I feel like this whole semester I have been doing a lot of work using Excel, which has been super great! I really love being able to use excel and put graphs together. It's making me realize more and more what kind of work I want to do after graduation. Being a data analyst scientist sounds pretty cool! 

This semester I mentioned how Marissa and I had been doing a research project for the NCUIRE Racial Justice Project. That went pretty well, we were able to do a scatter plot graph and look at the correlation analysis of COVID-19 Cases and annual income per zip code. The data was collected around September, so I feel like the data has been outdated now that we are seeing the second peak. It would be interesting to see an ongoing research in a year or two of the aftermath of COVID-19 and be able to provide a more stable data collection of the impact from the first and second peak of Covid-19 cases. 

I don't have the graph, I would need to get it to you guys so you guys can see a visual representation. I'm considering maybe presenting it next spring at the NCUIRE research conference next semester (-: 

Hope everyone is staying healthy during these trying times. Hope to see all of you soon, miss interacting with each and every one of you. 

Best, 

Francisco 

October Post

 Hi Everyone! 

Hope everyone has been having a great semester so far! How have your classes been with the transition of doing online this semester. Not going to lie, I really do miss being physically present when doing labs and being there with a team. Its been hard to get to be with people physically, but hopefully soon things will be a bit different. I have hope (: 

This semester I got to participate in an NCUIRE Research project with Marissa. We have collected data from azdhs on covid cases and population sizes by zip. Within this experiment we will evaluate the covid cases by percentage within each zip code and provide a line scatter plot graph to see the rate of change within each area. Its important to look at the average income base and covid-19 cases to demonstrate the impact of covid-19 has had in certain areas based on class and race. We are currently writing up our research paper to turn in, so hopefully by the next post we will have the graph to present (: 

September Blog Post

 Hello Everyone! 

It’s been a while since i’ve made a blog post! How’s everyone doing? I’m sure that’s a common question you’ve been asked this year. I’ve learned how important it is to check up on one another especially during these difficult unpredictable times. 

I’m officially a Sun Devil!!!! I’ve been waiting for the day to finally transfer, and let me just say, I did not expect to be transferring to ASU fully being online. It is what it is! Got to make the best out of it. It still feels great to be learning during this pandemic! Gives you a mini break from what’s happening in the world. 

So many of you are probably curious as to how being fully online this semester has been for me? So far I’ve been taking some electives where it’s reading and writing papers, and that’s been easy! On the other hand, my chemistry class has been challenging! I didn’t so good with my first exam, but I have faith with getting better grades for my upcoming classes. I’ve been taking advantage of the online tutoring, I just wish I had a group I can rely to or a peer in my class to do group sessions. It’s so much easier for me to reach out in person than online. That’s been my experience so far. I hope your guys experience has been more better than mine haha. Also forgot to mention I received NCUIRE Racial Injustice Funding this semester! I’m doing research on collecting data on Covid-19 cases by zip code as well as collecting income within each country to  compare/contrast the impact it has on different demographics! It’s been super exciting to be apart of this! will be blogging about my progress, so stay tuned! Stay safe out there! 

Week 10 - STEAM Research Poster

Hello!

Hope everyone is having an easy week. I know most of you have already turned in most of your research rough draft.

My lab this year has been a little hectic just cause there was things that have came up. Life can be pretty hard sometimes and balancing everything can be hard. I've learned that taking some time to meditate and breath to ease anxiety and stress is the #1 key. Please do so, and also take care of your mental health.

I will be presenting my research poster I put together for my statistics class with my group. It was so much fun to be a leader as they knew I had the experience with presenting (even though I don't consider myself an expert) they were able to rely on me for help. (: Hope to see some of you there so you guys can look at what data I analyzed this semester. (:

Week 8: Finishing up Identifying Microplastics + Microfibers

Hello!

Hope everyone's week is starting off good! I was not in last week since ASU had their fall break! This week I came in very refreshed since I spent my weekend up in Flagstaff exploring and chasing the fall colors at Snowbowl. It was so memorizing and beautiful! Makes me wish Phoenix could have Aspen and Ponderosa trees down here. Here are some pictures I took. (:

This week, I am wrapping up identifying the micro-plastics and microfibers from our samples from the American Samoa. So I got a bit confused with the part of my project. I know I had said we are investigating the organic contaminants and micro-plastics in the Philippians (which the rest of the group is focused on that project), but what I am doing is double checking a new method that was used in the previous semesters that Beth Polidoro's group has finished up doing. I looked at three out of four sites of samples that had gone through 4 different washes using hydrogen peroxide and sodium chloride to see if there would be more microplastics and microfibers extracted. From what I've had to discover, its pretty good to say that there is a good amount of microplastics and microfibers that were identified using this method. Here are some pictures of my set up in lab. 

Week 6!

Hello everyone!

I wish I had taken pictures of what I did in the lab this week! I continued identifying the microplastics and microfibers under the microscope while my lab partner Kristi was measuring bivalves clams shells and weighing out the tissue for a doctoral student's research with Dr. Beth Polidoro. The reason for examining the marine organism like clams is because they filter feed, meaning they take a particulate food such as phytoplankton from the water. While doing this, they are taking in concentrations of contaminants and accumulate in the tissue of the organism. I found this super interesting since I love seafood because now doing the research of how most marine ecosystems are becoming more and more polluted, we need to find the importance of continuing to find more research in this field and continue educating others. Maybe we should eat less of what we eat weekly of seafood to reduce our chances of any chronic problems such as reproductive disorders, muscular and neurological abnormalities.

Let me know if you guys have any questions with the research im doing! (: Im learning more and more from you guys. I hope your guys project is going well!


- Francisco

Week 5: Contination of Research

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone's week has been productive. I had to miss this weeks lab at ASU West due to car situations, glad that is over now. If you've seen Jasmine's post this week, you may have received a glimpse of what we are currently working on this semester. It is truly inspiring to be apart of future scientists who are wanting to learn, grow, and help bring awareness of what is being discovered underneath a microscope.

Like I said previously, Beth brought back water samples from the Philippines in the form of SPMD's (Semipermeable Membrane Devices) and Silicone Monitoring Device Wristbands. We are hoping that two different methods we will be using to test water contamination will give us the best results.

I didn't know until now that Beth has an article on ASU's Global Engagement page! I recommend for those who are curious to read about what we are doing, to look further into it. "https://asunow.asu.edu/20190918-global-engagement-asu-beth-polidoro-swat-lab-seafood-safe-microplastics"

Cant wait to be back in the lab next week!

Oh! I almost forgot to mention, who's all ready for November's Conference at ASU Tempe?! Super excited!!!!!

- Francisco

Week 4: Dilluting Samples in Hexane

Hello Everyone,

Hope everyone has been doing great! Its been a really long week since I have been dealing with car situation and what not, but its not the end of the world. This week in lab we finally proceeded with gather our samples (SPMD's and silicon wristbands) that were submerged in Philippines water, allowing the plastic to absorb bacteria or any organic chemicals. Once we rinsed off the plastic with DI water to get rid of any algae growth, we put it in it's proper container and submerge it with Hexane. The reason behind using Hexane as a solvent extraction is for its non-polar nature, low latent heat of evaporation, and high selectivity to solvents. After labeling everything, Beth Polidoro and Jazmin left it prepared for the next group of interns to go ahead and put it on the rotatory for a few days. We should see how it comes out! Beth Polidoro told us that the wristbands will swell when emerged in Hexane! So cool!

Week 3: Identifying contaminants under microscope

Hi guys! Hope everyone has had a productive week. This week Beth Polidoro got the microscope we needed to identify the microplastics and microfibers! To start identifying the microplastics/microfibers off the sample, I had to first coordinate the sample that way I knew where the microplastics/microfibers were located at. I labeled everything in my lab notebook with the sample name and drew out what coordinate the microplastics were at. 

It's pretty awesome seeing the microplastic underneath the microplastic because it is so hard identifying them with just your eyes. Who would've known! I'm excited to see how many of them we go through. All I know is we have a long way to go! Excited to show you guys the results. 

- Francisco 

Week 2 - Identifying Microplastics and Microfibers

Hello Everyone, 

I hope everyone's week has been great. I had kind of a hiccup this week. I ended up getting rear ended on monday on my way to ASU West which was not so great, but I'm glad I was fine. It kind of shifted my entire week though haha. I went in thinking I would already be starting on my project but Beth Polidoro ended up not having the right microscope to look at the micro-plastics! So it kind of ended up working out because I had been late because of the car accident I had. 

Next week will be the official start for me to identify the microplastics and microfibers samples that Beth has prepared for me. I believe there is a total of 30 samples total that I will be looking at. 

I will keep you guys up to date with my project. Hope everyone’s research is starting off well.

Week 1 - The start of the Fall Research

Hi guys, 

I hope everyone is starting out their research out very well. I'm still trying to get back in the groove of things, which has been a bit challenging but I am getting there. 

So for many of you who may be curious, what am I working on this semester over at ASU West? 

And to answer that, I am still learning more about it. Beth Polidoro had some of her undergrads go out to the Philippines to collect samples during the summer to bring it back to ASU so we could further examine any contaminants like microplastic or organic chemicals. The reason I'm so interested in working with Beth's lab has been in my high curiosity on pollution found in our water. It's nice to have multiple undergrads working in this lab. There's a total of six of us who some are graduating next year. I can't wait to show you guys what I will be working on, talk about the conferences, and opportunities I shall be obtaining from this.  

Other students will be starting the research this week but since I go in just on Monday's, I will be starting next week! Let me know if you guys have any questions or curious to know about any opportunities at ASU! (: Best of luck this entire semester everyone.

- Francisco