When I joined the Franke Global Leadership Initiative my freshman year, I honestly had no idea what to expect. I knew that the completion of a Beyond the Classroom experience would serve as an integral part of the program, but I never gave it too much thought, as it felt like I had plenty of time to ponder what I would want to do. To my dismay, time passed quickly, and the time came for me to start planning for my experience. I was overwhelmed and had no clue where to even begin. I saw others joining student exchange programs, traveling abroad and working with international organizations on impressive projects. Though exciting, none of it felt quite right for me. I was worried about falling behind in my classes and the logistics of leaving the country for an extended period of time. After spending several months talking with my advisors, I landed on the plan of pursuing research for my Beyond the Classroom experience. I began researching several domestic programs offering summer research roles to out-of-state undergraduates and eventually landed on the perfect one. The University of Washington’s Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine— a network of labs dedicated to furthering the understanding of stem cells and their use within human medicine. After a grueling application process, I was finally admitted to their fellowship program.

Once spring semester ended, it was time for me to move from Missoula to Seattle. Once there, I was greeted by my program directors, alongside the other two students in the program with me. I was then assigned to the lab I would be working in, located in their department of orthopedics and sports medicine. My PI greeted me upon my arrival, briefly showing me around my new workplace and introducing me to the others I would be working with. In all honesty, I was terrified—  I knew absolutely no one and felt as if I was completely and utterly underqualified to be there. However, I didn’t have much time to dwell on my feelings, as I was immediately pulled into the lab’s office to be briefed on my project for the summer. Dr. Ronald Kwon, my PI, began to explain to me that what they wanted me to work on was something that the lab had never done before—  entering the field of evolutionary biology to investigate the osteoblast lineage in bone across vertebrates. He expressed that this would be far outside what they would normally assign to a summer undergraduate and I could decline if it felt like it would be too much. Despite my fears of inadequacy, I accepted graciously with a smile. Before I fully understood what I had committed to, I was ushered out of the office and into the lab to begin my work.

The first obstacle that stood in the way of me and any “real” research was the daunting task of learning a new programming language, R. I had some prior experience in Python and C+, but never to the degree to which was necessary for this job. I knew the world of programming to be relatively unpleasant and difficult, but I pushed forward nonetheless. A week later, after countless hours spent awake in front of a screen, I had learned enough to formally begin my project. I thought that everything would be much easier from there, as my studies are within the field of biology. However, I was quickly proven wrong, as every new task came with a set of new problems. I spent every day combing through research papers, searching gene databases, and debugging my code. At first, the entire experience felt like a Sisyphean task. Everything I pursued led to nowhere and every analysis yielded no results. But, after several weeks of what seemed like nothing, I began to obtain meaningful results from my work. Data I found corroborated my hypotheses, trends were being observed, and I was able to draw real, incontestable conclusions.

Once I gained my momentum, my progress began to increase dramatically. Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. Before I knew it, the summer had passed, and it was time for me to compile my findings into one, cumulative presentation. This was then presented to the greater scientific community within Seattle and across ISCRM’s network. I was able to stand in front of a giant poster—  all of my hard work put into one glossy 3×4 piece of paper.

I was able to explain my work to a vast number of people, all from different departments, disciplines, and levels of education. This experience was absolutely incredible, as I was able to gain greater insight into my own work through the inquiries of others.

After hours of exchanges between scientists and students, the symposium ended, and it was time for me to prepare to leave for Missoula. Weeks spent away from home had passed in an instant, and I had to bid farewell to all those I met while working there.

This story ended a week ago for me, as I arrived back in Montana the Sunday before semester began. The memories and experience I gained from my summer in Seattle have remained in my mind since, and will likely remain there forever. I had originally left to do nothing more than pursue a question. But since returning home, I concluded that I was able to gain much more than just experience in a lab. The relationships I was able to create, the lessons I learned, and the ideas exchanged— all of those will be what made my summer truly valuable.

From this, I would like nothing more than to urge others to pursue an experience that they think is right for them and to challenge themselves with what they choose to do. My experience, though different from my peers, proved just as valuable to me as their experiences did to them and the difficulties I faced allowed me to push myself far beyond what I believed myself to be capable of. My Beyond the Classroom experience has taught me that, even if you feel like you aren’t “good enough”, you can become great— a lesson that I will forever carry with me going forward.

Thank you to anyone reading this post, and a special thanks to everyone— the GLI, my mentors, and my companions— who have allowed me to pursue such an experience.

Best,

Tia Schlosser