The following blog post was written by Peer Advisor Lily, a sophomore in SMPA studying political communication.
Interested in three-parent in-vitro fertilization, also known as mitochondrial replacement techniques (MRT)? Curious about the policy and biomedical implications of limited access to fetal tissue and/or embryonic stem cells? Thirsty for a deep dive into the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant-writing process? Desperate to lobby on the Hill with actual real-life staffers?
If you answered yes to any of these questions—or maybe just sat there like, um, well, I’m not sure but it kinda sounds interesting, maybe?—then my summer job would have been perfect for you.
Starting in June, I began the most rewarding work experience of my young life as an intern in the Public Policy & Media Relations department at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) in Bethesda. For those unfamiliar with the ASCB, the society is an international community of nearly 10,000 basic biomedical researchers who focus almost exclusively on the cell. To best serve members, the ASCB advocates on their behalf, analyzes relevant policies, organizes annual meetings, and promotes professional advancement and diversity initiatives.
In the Public Policy department, I worked with the director to help streamline these processes. I researched, emailed, compiled, penned, and became embroiled in numerous email exchanges with my bosses that consisted mainly of “Oh my god, did you see this tweet?” and “Holy crap, I cannot believe that this is happening” and “Actually, I can totally believe that this is happening.”
Beyond the incredible camaraderie that existed in the office, my work was gratifying because my boss trusted me to complete work effectively and independently. I was put in charge of emailing staffers to set up meetings, drafting our notes for the meetings, and then had the ability to participate in those meetings. I drafted articles for our newsletter and website and helped to create our grassroots advocacy page. By the end of the summer, my boss told me to start calling myself a summer associate.
Working in biomedical public policy may not be for everyone, but biomedical research certainly impacts everyone. Without critical innovations in basic science—which is funded primarily by the federal government—our society would be plagued with myriad more illnesses and injuries. I’m proud to have worked for an organization like the ASCB which actively promotes the welfare of scientists and scientific progress across the globe and I urge everyone in UHP to take note of the advancements happening in our very backyard.
Link to an ASCB article that I wrote here. Find another one here.
Tag: AY1718
#HonorsProblems: On You Doing You
The following post was written by peer advisor Julia, a junior in the Elliott School studying international affairs and sustainability.
As I Peer Advisor here in the Honors Program, I am in the midst of meeting with my freshman about the ~infamous~ Four Year Plan. As useful as it is, the project can also be daunting and overwhelming at times. What do you mean I’m suppose to plan out my next 4 years when I can’t even decide what to eat for breakfast? Meeting with my peer advisees has taken me back to when I was a freshman and has reminded me a thing or two about the value of not comparing yourself to others, a value I still need to apply even as a junior.
In a meeting last week with one of my peer advisees, she raised concerns about not being involved in enough clubs, as it seemed like all of her friends had joined a million already. I assured her that freshman year can be a hard adjustment and that it is never too late to get involved with student orgs at any point in your college career. Furthermore, I added that it is not the number of activities or extracurriculars you are involved in, it is the depth in which you are involved in them. Are you passionate about its cause? Do you have a leadership role? Does it make you happy?
But as the meeting came to an end I realized that I have not been taking my own advice. As I struggle with figuring out my study abroad plans, whether or not to graduate early, internships and the like I find myself constantly comparing myself to others – and not just my peers at GW but also my friends from home at other universities. This can be a slippery slope and one that can lead to constant feelings of inadequacy. But as cheesy as the line is, there is real value in you doing you. College is 4 years and although it can feel like it goes by quickly, it is too long to keep on worrying what everyone else is doing. No one is going to follow the same path all 4 years and why would you want to? You and this experience are extraordinarily unique – take pride in that. Whether you are a freshman struggling with this for the first time or an upperclassman who just needs a reminder – don’t get caught up in comparing yourself to others and do what is right for YOU! Although easier said than done, every decision you make independent of what others think will no doubt make you happier in the long run.
Win $500 Toward Research with the SURE Award
Did you know that Honors students have the exclusive opportunity to win up to $500 for their research? It’s true! Apply to the UHP/Sigelman Undergraduate Research Enhancement Award (SURE) and we might just cut you a check.
We know “Undergraduate Research Enhancement” doesn’t sound that exciting (well, to most people at least, but you are UHPers), but what you can actually do with that money is amazing. Some of last year’s winners used the funds to study youth activism in Bosnia and Herzegovina, explore the culture of recycling in Buenos Aires, and present research findings at a national conference!
The application includes:
- Student Application Form
- Faculty Support Form
The possibilities are endless, but the deadline to apply for funds for fall 2017 or spring or summer 2018 is Friday, October 6th.
Study Ablog: From Vietnam with Love
Peer advisor Dylan is a senior in the Milken School studying public health.
Wow, another GW kid went abroad! Groundbreaking.
Well, just like half of GW, I went abroad. To put it blankly: Abroad was one of the most rewarding but trying experiences in my life—and I would recommend it to anyone.
When choosing a program, I knew that it was important to me to choose something a little more atypical. There were a lot of contenders, but I ended up being a part of CET’s Public Health and Development program based out of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. My mother was thrilled!*
*My mother was the furthest thing from thrilled.
When it came to planning, I was very bad at it. I didn’t know much about the city, how to get around, or even how to say, “hello” in Vietnamese. However, that did not stop me from departing on February 12th for what would end up being one of the most incredible experiences of my life.
My first few days in Ho Chi Minh City (more commonly referred to as Saigon) was the capital of South Vietnam pre-1975. The city was, and still is, a cultural hub and blends Vietnamese tradition, French colonization, and Western influence in a haphazard way. My program paired me and the other American participants with a local Vietnamese roommate who studied at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities. My roommate, Thông, was majoring in Japanese Studies and we bonded over our love of food and memes.
The program was very small—only 4 American students—and is the primary reason the program proved to be so difficult at times. I am a fairly social creature so this small pool of potential friends was cause of great concern. But, I took this challenge in stride (after several dramatic phone calls/facetime sessions with friends and family at home) and tried to use this as an opportunity to engage with Saigon outside of my neighborhood. A lot of my neighborhood travel centered around visiting different cafes considering just how popular and delicious coffee was in Saigon. Vietnam houses a very large growing region in its central highlands. Also, aside from just coffee, Vietnam has amazing food. To this day I dream of the next time I’ll get to have cơm tấm, bún thịt nướng, or bột chiên.
There are so many experiences I had abroad that I could talk about now. There was the time I saw an abandoned water park, ate crickets, regularly rode around on motorbikes, climbed down a waterfall, attended a break dancing competition, saw a former emperor’s mausoleum, walked through a rice paddy, and sailed aboard a dragon boat. But, there was something so incredibly special about Vietnam that no amount of words could summarize. Vietnam was the first chance I had to be on my own and rely on myself. Saigon will forever have a place in my heart and 500 words is not nearly enough to tell you how. You’ll just have to see for yourself.
George Washington University Social Media Study Recruitment
As a busy student, we know it can be hard to find time to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Read below to learn more about the Healthy Body Healthy U Research Study (HBHU).
HBHU is a study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that is being conducted at GW and at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The purpose of this study is to find the most effective ways to help students lose and have a healthy body weight. Interested in participating in the HBHU study? Click here to complete a brief online screening questionnaire to see if you’re eligible. Please contact us at or if you have any questions at hbhu@gwu.edu (202)-994-4353
The How, What, and Where of News [Research Assistantship]
Professor: Nikki Usher
Department: Media and Public Affairs
Title: The How, What, and Where of News
Description: Work with Dr. Nikki Usher, a Faculty Fellow of UHP in Spring 2018. She is working on on “The How, What, and Where of News,” a book that will focus on the relationship between trust, authority, and the work that journalists do.
Duties: Research will involve assistance in building literature reviews, annotating/assisting with references, manuscript preparation, fact-checking, and coding. Sample tasks might involve going through field notes to check for dates, putting together a timeline of events, or preparing summaries of chapters/articles, or formatting endnotes. There will also be possible involvement in other research projects such as an in-progress study of beltway journalism and political communication. The student may be asked to do some research interviews after methods training and IRB certification. Possible for co-authorship on popular press and/or journal articles may be available depending on student’s capacity and interest (for a sample of this, see: http://www.slate.com/arti
Time commitment: 4-6 hours per week (average, perhaps paid!?)
Credit hour option*: 3
Please submit CV and weekly schedule of class/extra curriculars to Dr. Usher at nusher@gwu.edu.
*If credit is sought, all registration deadlines and requirements must be met. Students selected to be research assistants should contact Mary Rothemich at rothemich@gwu.edu whether they intend to pursue credit or not.
Four Year Plan Workshop
Does working on your four year plan have you channeling your inner Michael Scott?
Come to our Four Year Planning workshop! Join the peer advisors and freshmen of all schools and majors for a marathon four year planning session on Friday, 9/15 from 11-3. We’ll be set up in the Club Room in the townhouse with pizza, advice, and all the motivation and inspiration you need to take on your four year plan.
Whether you’re mostly done, haven’t even started, or fall somewhere in between, swing by for a slice and some advice!
Cornerstone Research – Upcoming Recruiting Events at GWU
Dear University Honors Program students,
I hope the fall semester is going well. I am contacting you on behalf of the company I work for, Cornerstone Research, for our Full-Time and Summer Analyst positions.
For those students interested in our full-time Analyst position, our resume drop closes on September 24th, at 11:59PM. For those students interested in our Summer Analyst position, our resume drop closes on October 16st at 11:59PM. We are looking for a diverse range of applicants from any and all majors.
Additional details of the positions and upcoming events can be found below.
Regards,
Alexandra Sides
As you begin exploring options for life after graduation, Cornerstone Research invites you to explore the Analyst experience at Cornerstone Research.
Please submit your application through Handshake and through our website. Our resume drop will close on September 24th at 11:59 p.m. An additional event we will be hosting at GWU is listed below.
Economics & Litigation Consulting Information Session and Case Competition Kick-Off
When: Monday, 9/18 at 7:00pm
Where: Duques Hall, Room 453
Please see the attached flyer for additional information. We look forward to seeing you at GWU!
Measuring the Erosion of Local Political News [Research Assistant]
Professor: Danny Hayes
Department: Political Science
Title: Measuring the Erosion of Local Political News
Description: The local news environment in the United States has withered in recent years. As revenues have fallen, newspapers have devoted fewer resources to public affairs reporting or shut down altogether. According to a growing body of research, these trends have resulted in declines in civic engagement. Yet our understanding of changes to the local news environment – and their consequences – remains incomplete, largely because of the
lack of longitudinal data. As a result, many questions remain unanswered: Has the erosion of local news been steady, or have there been a series of precipitous declines? Have the trends been similar throughout the country, or
have some papers been able to weather the storm better than others? Do cuts in circulation result in less political coverage, or do other topics take the hit? In this project, we rely on two new data sets to document changes in the volume of local political news between 1980 and 2016. We start with an examination of four decades worth of circulation and newsroom staff data at the largest circulating newspaper in each state. We then turn to a content analysis of the local political coverage in these papers over time. Although the patterns across the papers are not entirely uniform, the results paint a picture of an increasingly impoverished local news environment. Given this evidence of the erosion of local news, observers’ concerns about political engagement in communities across the United States appear very much justified.
Duties:
– Help collect data from the Library of Congress on the newsroom staff of local newspapers around the country
– Help conduct a content analysis of local and state political news coverage, using newspaper archives in LexisNexis and other databases
– Help analyze data from the content analysis to contribute to an ongoing book project
* Please note that I am flexible about the time commitment. Below, I have estimated that a student would spend 4-6 hours per week on the project. But if a student would like to work more and thus gain additional credit, I am happy to discuss that. Likewise, if a student would prefer to work less, for 1 credit, I am open to that as well.
Time commitment: 4-6 hours per week (average)
Credit hour option*: 2
Submit Cover Letter/Resume to: dwh@gwu.edu
*If credit is sought, all registration deadlines and requirements must be met. Students selected to be research assistants should contact Mary Rothemich at rothemich@gwu.edu whether they intend to pursue credit or not.
Sexual Communication with Parents and Peers [Research Assistant]
Professor: Katrina Pariera
Department: Organizational Sciences and Communication
Title: Sexual Communication with Parents and Peers
Description: I have two related research projects that require additional assistance. One study, “Critical Moments In Sexual Communication: Young Women’s Memories Of Mother-Daughter Sexual Communication” is a content analysis of the messages young women remember receiving from their mothers about sexuality. This project will assess dimensions of successful and unsuccessful sexual communication from parents. The data for this study has been collected, but because it is a content analysis I need a research assistant to help me develop and assess codes. The second project, “A Diary Study of Daily Sexual Communication Among Emerging Adults” is an evaluation of everyday discussions with friends, partners, parents, and colleagues about sex and sexuality. The data for this study has also been collected, but not yet analyzed. A research assistant would help with content analysis development and coding.
Duties: My research assistant would mostly help with developing codes for content analysis, then coding data. This entail reading through data (in this case, research participants’ comments) and analyzing patterns among them. We would work together to come up with a set of codes. The research assistant would then go through each response and apply the appropriate code. For example, the research assistant and I might determine that many participants recall their mother emphasizing the importance of saving one’s virginity for marriage. The research assistant would then go through each statement and indicate whether or not this code applies.
Note. I have indicated that this could be a 1-credit opportunity. However, this is flexible and I am open to offering more credit and providing more work on these projects.
Time commitment: 1-3 hours per week (average)
Credit hour option*: 1
Submit Cover Letter/Resume to: klp@gwu.edu
*If credit is sought, all registration deadlines and requirements must be met. Students selected to be research assistants should contact Mary Rothemich at rothemich@gwu.edu whether they intend to pursue credit or not.
