Today we created works of art. Team Zaaga’igan printed out our posters and marveled at the finished products of hours of hard work. It definitely is an artistic skill to make a research poster. I feel like my partner, Ida, has the skills necessary to make a poster look great, I just have the stubbornness to not stop until it’s done. All in all, nothing compares to the feeling of seeing a 3×4 work of art that you worked so hard on all summer represented by a single pdf document.

This marks the second to last week of our internship and the last few days leading up to the date that our final products are due. We have been feverishly writing and rewriting abstracts, sending e-mails up to the deadline of abstract submissions for upcoming conferences and having our words critiqued over and over again. It’s all worth it in the end when you’re standing up there answering questions about complex research feeling like a rockstar when people respond to your poster with oohs and aaahs. I think one of the aspects of internships like this that bond students together is the common struggle of arriving feeling like you’re in over your head and leaving feeling like you potentially could be the next expert in the field. (May be slightly over exaggerated.)

Ida and Ma’Ko’Quah get some last critiques from mentor Chad Yost on their research poster.

Jordan and Jesse bask in the after printed poster glow.