Procrastination...

My room is clean, and I even vacuumed. My desk in the lab is tidy. I finished going through all of the pictures from Costa Rica, bringing the grand total down to 3,831. Okay, that's still a ton of pictures, but at least now they're organized.

So what am I trying to avoid? It's an application for a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. I have to write four essays for the application, answering the following questions:

1. Describe any personal, professional, or educational experiences or situations that have contributed to your desire to pursue advanced study in science, mathematics, or engineering.

2. Describe your experiences in the following or describe how you would address the following in your professional career: integrating research and education, advancing diversity in science, enhancing scientific and technical understanding, and otherwise benefiting society.

3. In a clear, concise, and original statement, describe research topics you may pursue while on fellowship tenure, and include how you became interested in these topics. Your statement should reflect your own thinking and work, demonstrate your understanding of research principles necessary to pursue these interests, and explain the relationship to your previous research, if any. Present your plan with a clear hypothesis or questions to be asked by the research. If you have not yet formulated a plan of research, your statement should include a description of one question that interests you and an analysis of how you think the question may best be answered. A listing of courses alone is not sufficient. Research topics discussed in your proposed plan may be used in determining eligibility.

4. Describe any scientific research activities in which you have participated, such as experience in undergraduate research programs, or research experience gained through summer or part-time employment or in work-study programs, or other research activities, either academic or job-related. Explain the purpose of the research and your specific role in the research, including the extent to which you worked independently and/or as part of a team, and what you learned from your research. In your statement, distinguish between undergraduate and graduate research experience. If you have no direct research experience, describe any activities that you believe have prepared you to undertake research. At the end of your statement, list any publications and/or presentations made at national and/or regional professional meetings.

Whew. That's actually only a total of six pages or so, and I do have essays that I wrote last year. But apparently last year's essays didn't quite cut the mustard. One of my biggest problems is writing for an unknown, anonymous audeice. The other is my tendency to be overly honest. For instance, last year I had a hard time answering question number two. I think I'll bring in some stuff on Costa Rica this year, and talk about the need for diversity in biological research in terms of study systems. Compared to their relative diversity, insects are vastly under-studied. I know this might not be quite the type of answer they're looking for, though. At the same time, I think insects are important to look at because many people living in densely populated urban areas don't interact that much with animals at all, and interactions with insects would at least get them to see that they're surrounded by nature, like it or not.

Yeah. Okay, time to stop procrastinating and start writing.

Essay Number 1

Folks--if you're bored and have the time, please give me some feedback on the following essay! This is a first draft, so it's liable to change, but any feedback, positive or negative, is appreciated. My real question is--do I come across in this essay?

Essay directions: Describe any personal, professional, or educational experiences or situations that have contributed to your desire to pursue advanced study in science, mathematics, or engineering.

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If I take a step back and look at my life up until now, it is clear that things that I am passionate about—teaching, research, and behavior—are what have drawn me to graduate studies in animal behavior, and what will guide my future pursuits. A number of moments during my undergraduate studies and beginning graduate studies highlight this passion.
My first real experience with teaching began when, as a sophomore, I was accepted into the Writing Fellows Program at Tufts University. Through this program, I was trained to work with professors teaching courses with substantial writing requirements. Each semester, students in one such course submitted drafts of their papers to me and I then met with them to help them revise their paper before they turned it in for a grade. As a Writing Fellow, I worked one-on-one with professors and with students with a range of writing skills in history, mechanical engineering, psychology, and biology, and taught students to appreciate writing conventions and techniques applicable to each of these disciplines. It was incredible to see how much each hour-long discussion changed the way that one of my fellow students approached writing, and the transformation in my own ideas and understanding of writing was also invaluable.
Now, as a graduate teaching assistant, I love teaching my students to use the scientific method to solve problems and to appreciate the incredible complexity of the living world. There’s nothing quite like seeing a student get excited by a new idea or insight, and that’s something that I want to continue facilitating. Through teaching, I help others understand how biology applies to their everyday lives, and how scientific discoveries improve knowledge and everyone’s quality of life. Teaching is an investment in the future that I want to continue to make.
Beyond my love of teaching, a love of the research process continues to inspire me. My desire to research and understand social insect behavior began in a course on Animal Behavior that I took as an undergraduate. I quickly fell in love with animal behavior because it broadened my understanding of the application of evolutionary theory to behavior. I still remember two films on social insects that especially fueled my imagination—a documentary on termite behavior, and one on army ants. After watching these relatively simple organisms complete complex tasks, like building perfect arches or intricate, living bridges, I began to wonder, what is it that allows these individuals to work together so effectively? My previous energies had been focused on the human brain and human behavior, but through animal behavior, a whole new world opened up to me, and I became aware that human behaviors are a minute subset of the range of fascinating behaviors in the natural world. Through additional reading and coursework, I also began to make connections between my understanding of human behavior and the behavior of social insect colonies. Specifically, it became clear that both types of behavior share a common foundation: both the human brain and social insect colonies function as vast, interconnected networks with unique organizational properties.
Now, one year into my graduate studies, my fascination and appreciation for social insects continues to grow. The more I learn about ants, the more complex they seem, and it has become increasingly clear to me that we have so much more to gain from studying the organization of intricate systems like ant colonies.
In summary, my twin interests in teaching and researching social complexity are what have inspired me and what continue to inspire me to pursue an advanced degree in biology, and eventually a research and teaching career in the biological sciences.