My First Day

This poster struck me because it was a study done that has to do with how meth and AIDS effect the brain. Reading the abstract and the background information was really cool and so was getting to see the pictures of the brains. It was a cool visually appealing science poster


My workspace is a small office that is an overflow area that I share with Calvin. We have a really large computer that runs linux and windows! Im pretty excited to have my own office! This lab is right down the hill from the UCSD campus, but it is still a part of the UCSD researching lab.


This is me working! Dr. Jernigan had Calvin and I read over the description of the study, some protocols and the forms they give to the participants of various ages. For each different age group the permission form was worded slightly different so the reader would understand it better.



This is my mentor Dr. Jernigan. She is my example of what people in the office wear. Everyone wears something on a different level of professional, some wear jeans, others wear slacks and we were told about one professor that wears shorts and a Hawaiian shirt.


In our office, we had a really cool pinata, so we chose it as our cool experience of the day. There was also a piece of paper outside that said no pinatas in the office so it was pretty funny to find one there.

My Day

Today I woke up around 8 and got ready for my day. I wasnt sure if I was dressed professionally enough but in the end I decided I was after an opinion from my step mom. I used my car, a beautiful red 2001 Mitsubishi Mirage with a manual 5 speed to get to my internship. I left the house a few minutes late so I knew I had to hustle to get La Jolla on time. My drive took about 15-20 minutes with all of the stoplights and my search for parking. The drive went smoothly, but I felt a bit discouraged when someone with a handicapped license plate passed me on the highway. I got a bit lost getting to the building, I went up and down the right staircase twice thinking it was the wrong one. I made to the right suite at about 9:35 (when I should have been there at 9:30) and went to a briefing in my mentors (Dr. Terry Jernigan) office with her colleague Sarah, Calvin and a UCSD graduate Connor. We talked about what our project would be and about the new study that is taking place right now. Our mentor told us that we would get to do really fun and interesting things, while other people at our level did not, so I am pretty excited to dive into the internship. We started out our day by reading some materials and getting our very own username and password. For lunch Calvin and I met up with Christian and we went to the food court on campus. It was weird because we were surrounded by college kids and I felt really judged. I got jamba juice, Calvin got burger king and Christian got panda express.

In the next few days, I see myself working on experimenting with brain images and making them more appealing to children. I also think that we will work on miscellaneous things to help with the new study or related to something else. I know at some point we are also going to go visit Dr. Jernigans other lab that is on the UCSD campus and maybe do some work there. I have no idea what lies in the weeks ahead but I think it will be fun and interesting things that will help me learn a lot about how a research study works, the brain and what its like to work in a lab. Im really excited to be an intern here! My commute home was smooth for the most part, and I was able to navigate my way home really well, even through almost-kinda rush hour traffic. I got home around 3:35 and I saw all of the media arts students walking to the bus stop.


Economic Questions:

How have other departments been effected by the recession and budgets cuts as compared to this one?

-They have been effected in a negative way because people working at UCSD have been forced to take furlough days. The work load doesnt decrease, but their pay has. Some professors avoid the pay decrease by having a research project so then they receive stimulus money, but not everyone has that option.

Have you lost any research money or grants due to the recession?

-Actually no, since UCSD is a federal research entity they have received money from the stimulus package and it is funding the latest research project that Calvin and I are helping out with.