After the third week, I have gotten much closer with the undergraduate RAs in the lab. In the beginning, I was worried that I wouldn't get to know the lab members as well because everyone is on their own schedule. People bring their own lunch and eat whenever they have come to a good stopping point. However, soon I realized that the worrying was completely unnecessary.
I have been going to a lot of children's houses for testing appointments lately, usually with an undergraduate RA. Although the car rides are often longer than 30 min, they also give me a chance to get to know the undergrads individually. We talk about college life, the classes they enjoyed taking, good restaurants and shopping areas in Boston, and a lot of random topics.
 |
| I made most of the calls in a small room so I wouldn't disturb other lab members as they worked |
Last week was a bit hectic for me, as Jill and Alessandra, the only two other people working on the El Sistema project, were both on vacation. My job was to go through a long list to recruit parents into the study through calling and emailing, and schedule testing appointments. Color coding the list and leaving notes after each call is crucial because we would normally go through the list at least twice to make sure we get a response from each family. We want to maximize the number of participants that we can recruit, while not annoying the uninterested parents. Although calling and leaving voice mails sounds could get tedious, it is a really rewarding experience. We did end up recruiting a lot of families, which the cohort 2 control group desperately needed. It was also really cool that I had a chance to do what normally would be my undergrad RA's job, and I was really glad to help in the recruiting process.
 |
| Boston Public Garden |
The past weekend I also got to explore the city a little more. It's so hard to believe that I have already passed the half way point!
No comments:
Post a Comment