Megan Gabruk, Entry #2, Second Week

This week has been better than the first (even though the first was still pretty good). At my weekly RA meeting, Dr. Gotlib presented in the form of a question and answer session. I asked whether depression is just diagnosed by the criteria of behavioral symptoms or if neuroimaging could diagnose it as well. Dr. Gotlib said it was a brilliant question and gave a super long answer which was really helpful, but he basically said not really. He then said if any of us wanted to talk individually about our future in the world of psychology (such as graduate school), then he would be happy to talk one on one. I found this to be really inspiring because one of the most successful clinical psychology researchers was willing to take the time to talk with each of the RAs (and there are a lot of us) about our future.

At my weekly professional development meeting with Kate and her RAs, Kate presented on pursuing the academia track. She explained to us how hard it was to get the professor level, but that there were plenty of other options with a clinical psychology degree. She told us about how she got to where she is today and the tough decisions she had to make throughout her career so far. This talk was super helpful in terms of being aware of my opportunities and what would be the best path for me.

This week I edited a letter of inquiry for a funding opportunity I found. We only had two days to work on the letter, but it was nice that I got to help with this important task, especially since I have already read much of what the letter was about. Also, I found many more grant opportunities which are very important because, without funding, none of the research can be done. The MRI scans for the infants are very expensive and the researchers need to be paid as well, so funding is one of the most significant parts of the lab. Along with those tasks, I also cited a proposal that the lab has been working on for a while. There are a lot of references, but it goes much quicker now that I have been introduced to Mendeley. If I had known about this program when I was writing any of my research papers for school, it would have been so much easier. Lastly, I worked on recruiting some more as well. In order to get funding, piloting must be done to prove that the research is doable, so recruitment is vital. For this, I mostly put up flyers and will soon start handing out brochures once they get delivered.

Living on my own continues to be a pretty good experience. I know how to cook basic foods, so that is not a problem. People are super nice in Palo Alto and at my lab, so I have made some new friends. This weekend, I will be going to San Francisco and look forward to exploring that city as well.

Stanford's beautiful campus.