PIttsburgh Section Wins the ChemLuminary Award for Best Project SEED Program

Duquesne University and The Pittsburgh Section of the ACS has been recognized for two of the last three years as the best Project SEED program in the country!

Tell me that ain't cool...?

The Final Symposium

The Colorado Convention Center was huge! I was expecting something more like the one we have back in Pittsburgh, but this one is so much bigger. It had a lot of art inside too.

They had a lot of hanging art, including the metal waves in the picture above, and some discs that I thought looked like spaceships. Other than that there were a lot of plants (I think they were all real) and different painting and pictures everywhere. It was all really beautiful.

The big blue bear looking into the convention center was a sculpture done by a local artist, Lawernce Argent. It's called "I See What You Mean". It was built back in 2005 to add a sense of fun and playfulness to the atmosphere.

Liz and I got there early to setup our posters. There was a row of boards for the Project SEED kids and I think there were about five of us altogether. I was surprised that some of them were already in college, I didn't know that Project SEED programs ran that long. Other than that they all had really nice posters.

Overall, I think a lot of people visited the Project SEED posters, but I feel like I got somewhere between 20-30 people at mine. Some were fans of Project SEED, being old mentors or high school teachers, but there were others attracted to it because of my Coordination Polymer topic.

By the end of the day, I felt really proud of myself. So many people had come and complimented me on my work and on doing Project SEED. A lot of professors and graduate students asked about my future plans for college and majors, a good number of them urging me to take on chemistry, and still more gave me advice on applying and opportunities I should look out for.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my poster! Thanks to everyone who made Project SEED possible.

The Big Night!

Last night I presented the work that I have been doing for the past two summers at the convention center in Denver, Colorado. I was so nervous about presenting that I stayed up the night before going to Colorado and thought about the presentations. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to present it at such a big convention, and was terrified of what the outcome might be- Would I be able to explain my work properly? What kind of questions will I be asked? How many people are going to come to my poster? What if I don’t have anyone come to my poster?!-Questions like that kept me from sleeping an entire night, but when the big day came I was no longer nervous. I knew I was ready, and as the time grew closer to presenting I became very excited about showing everyone that I could the work that I had done. After setting up my poster I waited to meet the other Project SEED students. I wanted to hear about how they became involved in Project SEED, what the experience has been like for them, and just get to know them. After meeting the other Project SEED students I realized that our experiences were very similar, and found myself relating to them easily. Then the time came to put on my heels and try to grab as many people as I could, which was not very difficult because my posters was in the very front.

After a few moments the doors opened, and tons of people flooded in. I was shocked, and excited, and then I became scared. I wasn’t scared of presenting anymore, I was scared that I was not going to get any traffic. In an instant Marissa had somebody at her poster, and they just kept coming, I guess coordination polymers are very exciting right now. At that moment I thought back on when Dr. Wheeler had shared with us that there was a competition for the most unique and interesting title in the talks he had went to. One of the titles was ‘Pop and Lock’...I really wished that I had an eye catching title like that at my poster, but I did not have to wait very long, suddenly I had many people coming to my poster. As the night went on and I presented to more and more people I became more and more confident. I became so confident after George Richter-ADDO, the professor and Chair of the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Oklahoma asked me if I would like to work for him. He told me about the research that he had worked on and gave me his card so I can get in touch with him later. He also told me that he had worked with Dr. Wheeler before Dr. Wheeler came to Duquesne, and I was just so happy that he enjoyed my presentation and that I was offered a chance to work for him. My confidence went through the roof after that. I wished I would have kept count of all the people that came to my poster, but to be honest there were just too many. If I had to guess I would say I presented to at least twenty people. After the convention ended I both exhausted and restless(not to mention I could barely walk). I would love to do another convention, it was just so exciting, and I shocked so many people when they found out that I was a high school student. I am so proud of myself, and so grateful for this experience, I really can not wait to show my family. I just want to bring my poster everywhere and present it to everyone!

First Day in Denver!

First day in Denver woo! From up in the sky everything looked really flat. From down in the city...it's still quite flat. It seems really calm here. Theres not a lot of people or noise and the sidewalks and streets kind of blend together. I found out, at the first place we ate at, that they call their pizzas pies here. Weird. What do they call pies then? After that we stopped by the convention center and got a taste of what it'll be like tomorrow. Its huuuuge and theres sooo many posters. I'm kinda nervous for tomorrow....But anyway, then we walked around Denver some more and stopped by the mall. Its mostly outside, which makes me wonder what shopping is like in the winter...Now we're getting ready to go to dinner, bye!

Duquesne Project SEED feature on Imagine Pittsburgh

Read the article here.

Last Blog Challenge :(

Interview with Kim

How did you arrive at Duquesne University?

Undergraduate research and wanted to be close to family.

Did you always want to be a chemist?

No, got offered a position in lab and always wanted to be a teacher.

What do you like most about your job?

I always have something new to do everyday.

What don't you like?

It's hard, so basically the pressure and the stress.

Do you have any regrets or missteps?

No, I'm pretty satisfied with everything.

Where is it that your actually from?

Beaver Dell, PA.. where the sinking school was.

Did you ever study abroad?

I didn't, I came from a poor family so really couldn't afford but someone else in my lab does and I just look at her pictures and picture me being there.

Would you do anything different?

Travel more so I can have spring breaks in other countries and also have a summer because I don't have that now.

How many years of school do you have left?

Starting my 3rd year now, and have 3 more to go.

Did you enjoy your summer with Mr. Lucas being in your lab?

Of course!!

Will you be back here next year?

Oh yes, I'm stuck here now.

Quote from Kim "THINGS WORK OUT" no matter what the situation may be :)

Thanks Kim for your time, hope to see you again next year!

Last words from me, project seed has been an awesome experience so happy I did it and I hope to be back next year! GOODBYE :)

This is it.

I cant believe it the final blog post. When I began Project SEED just eight short weeks ago I almost though I would never make it to this point.

I would like to begin by saying that this program was great and has helped me in many ways. First of all it helped me solidify my interest in the sciences. This is something that will be extremely beneficial to me in the future. It has also given me the opportunity to see what its like in the different sectors of chemistry. By that I mean I had the opportunity to see both the academic and the corporate side of chemistry, a privilege that very few get. I now have an understanding of corporate chemistry which could be very beneficial. SEED has also helped make my future choice making a little bit easier with this experience I can now say what interests me a little bit easier.

Its almost impossible to express how much I have learned this summer in a single paragraph. Aside from the things mentioned above I have earned many things. Probably one of the most important things that I have learned this summer is a sense of patience. It was sometimes tough to understand some of the technical papers and things like that but one of the things that I learned to do was be patient until I do. I learned some new ins and outs of Microsoft word and powerpoint that I didn't know before, as well as the proper way to keep your audience interested in what your saying. I could go on, but the point of the previous is to express the immense amount of knowledge that I now posses.

And finally the people that I have met during the summer have been amazing. From my fellow SEED students to my grad students Gavin and Kristen who I would like to thank very much. Also I would like to thank my professor Dr. Gawalt who was also very helpful me me. I would also like to thank everyone else who helped me along the way.

Well I guess thats it this has been a great experience that I will remember for a long time to come.

The final Blog Challenge

Above is an interview that I conducted with Deja's grad students Bonnie and Tim. They had some pretty good things to say and it was interesting to hear part of their story. They ended the interview with some great advice

Chemistry Live! With Graduate Students, Gavin and Kristen!

This week we were assigned to interview different graduate students from other labs and ask them about their research here at Duquesne, why they chose to study chemistry, any regrets and if they had any advice for us high schoolers. We decided to interview Gavin and Kristen from Dr. Gawalt's lab. Both of them were very enthusiastic about helping us and all of their advice was very helpful and much appreciated. Thanks guys!

Last Day of Project SEED Forever!

Wow I can't believe that this is my last day of Project SEED. I still remember my first day two years ago when I was absolutely terrified of this place. Everything was overwhelming and I felt like there was no way I was going to be able to do any of this. Even this year, with my new project and graduate student I was a little overwhelmed.

I've learned a lot though, from my two summers with Project SEED. It really opened my eyes to what working in an academic lab is like and how different the atmosphere is between high school and college; between secondary school and the professional world.

Being from a small high school where most people didn't go outside of our small town, it was an immensely new experience to work with people from India, the Philippines and other places. College is really a place that thrives from it's diversity.

The lab that I worked in is an Inorganic, Organometallic and Polymer Chemistry lab. So a lot of research goes on here. My first year there were a lot of people working in the lab and my project was optimizing the GC and IR for simple reaction mixture analysis of ATRA. A lot of it involved wondering why our machines weren't working...But in the end I got my data.

This year I had a new graduate student, Raj, and a new project, the synthesis of copper(I) cyanide coordination polymers. It was really interesting since this research is recently becoming more popular because of the applications for metal organic frameworks (MOF's). MOF's are porous materials that can kind of act like a net to catch different molecules.

At first we made some known coordination polymers, but then we started synthesizing new ones. Sometimes it was hard to get good crystals for X-ray crystallography, because our coordination polymers would crash out and we would get powder instead. It was exciting when we did get nice crystals though! Those were good days.

Some of my favorite parts of SEED were the field trips. Of course, just working here at first was it's own experience, but the field trips to different companies and research facilities provided even more exposure into the post-high-school world of science. Visiting W&J was really beneficial because, before, I had heard that it was a good school, but I always shrugged it off and never thought it was somewhere I would go. After visiting there's no question about applying for W&J, it's just too nice of a school to not apply and when I say nice I mean in terms of academics, faculty, opportunities, food(!), and more.

Overall, I've learned a lot from Project SEED. It's hard to express in words how much this has has changed me and my future decisions. It's best described as your eyes being opened to something that was there all along, you just had to know where to look and how to find it.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who made this possible; my graduate students, Matt Taylor and Carol Ricardo (first year) and Raj Kaur (second year), my professor (Dr. Tomislav Pintauer, an awesome professor), my advisor Josh Lucas, Dr. Aitken, all of the Project SEED students (2010, 2011 and the alumni who returned), the American Chemical Society Project SEED Office, Sto-Rox High School's faculty and staff, Gavin and Kristen from Dr. Gawalt's lab and everyone else at Duquesne University for making this such a wonderful experience.

Thank you!

Big Blog Challenge

For my interview I chose to do Raj, a grad student from Dr. Pintauer's lab. She's currently studying abroad and had a lot of interesting things to say.

Q: How did you get interested in science?

A: I always wanted to be a part of something sciencey. And the subject where I am now is the ost interesting to me.

Q: Is it everything you expected it to be?

A: Yes, it is very fulfilling.

Q: What is your favorite form of science?

A: Biochemistry or science, definitely. They are both limitless in potential.

Q: What was your biggest fear going into college?

A: I actually had none, I was completely optimistic.

Q: If you have 3 oranges and 2 apples in one hand, and 3 apples in another, what do you have?

A: Not enough oranges! I want more!! Also, really big hands.

Q: How is the study abroad program?

A: It is such a great experience. The culture and people here are so different it's nice to know there is a different world.

Q: If you could change one thing about your academic career what would it be?

A: I think I'd play more sports. FIeld hockey was one fo my favorites.

Q: How do you feel about your project?

A: I feel fantastic, mainly because we are studying coordination polymers at room temperature, which is definitely more green than at 180 degrees celsius.

Q: What was your hardest class in college?

A: Quantum Mechanics for sure.

Q: Are you looking forward to getting your phd?

A: Yes, but at the same time I'll miss it. I feel as though I'm doing the same kind of work now that I will be doing when I get a job, but I definitely will miss the college life. I guess it'll be bittersweet.

Thanks a lot for your time Raj, you were really fun to interview!

Goodbye Project SEED!

Just yesterday it felt like the first day of project SEED and now it is the very last! Time flys! This summer I've made some new friends, made so many memories, learned so many things and met some new people with encouraging words. This program was an experiance of a life time. I learned so much about what college will be somewhat like and how to get my life started on the right track. This is very important to me since i am a junior this year! This is when everything starts to count. From the SATs, ACTs, PSSAs, all that fun stuff that colleges look at. I feel like this program has made me a all around better person and im so excited to take on my junior year and become a successful person. Everything i've learned this summer will stick with me for the rest of my life. I think without this program i would go finish high school and think that college would be a piece of cake and just walk around like i knew everything. From meeting other successful past SEED students i will take there advice such as studying as much as possible and maybe not to travel so far away from home for college and apply it to myself when my time comes for college. I really hope i can be a part of this program next year because i truly love it! I would like to give a special thanks to Josh Lucas for encouraging me to fill out the Project SEED application and Dr. Aitken for welcoming me here at Duquesne. I would like to thank Dr. Wetzel for taking me as her Project SEED student and giving me the knowledge needed for my project. Lastly i would just like to thank the graduate students on the chemistry floor for being so nice and welcoming to myself and all the other project SEED students! Well hope to see you all next year !

So long and thanks for all the fish

So this is it. This is the end of our program, the annihlation of what has consumed our lives for eight weeks. These weeks were tough, some more than others, and more than one time the question arose in my head if this was worth it. Looking back now, reviewing all my experiences, I can answer that question with a yes.

First off, (when I say this it is in the same league as Oscar the Grouch's voice) what else would I have done with my summer? That's a no brainer though, sit at home, get a dungeon tan, and play video games. Is that neccesarily a bad thing? The lazy teenager in my head says no, but my brain tells me yes. Where else would I have gotten this kind of experience with college level work routines and the college students themselves? I'll give you a hint, the place begins with an n and ends in an e. Give up? The answer is nowhere. Anything I could've possibly did this summer pales in comparison to this project. For once in my life, I really feel as if I've taken the best possible course of action.

I know I'm gushing, but hey it's hard not to. The people here at Duquesne were just fantastic, through and through. My personal mentor, Scott Boesch, has the most patience I've ever seen. Personally, if I had to deal with a know-nothing highschool kid through the long hot summer months, I would've pulled my teeth out with pliers. Luckily for me though he's better than that. he coached me through learning about proteins, equilibrium, use of the Linux operating system, and just about everything else. He isn't the only one who helped though, my professor, Dr.Wheeler, helped me realize how to act in a proper manner. I mean I'm not Conan the Barbian or anything, but I was definitely lacking etiquette. He left it up to me to get my work done on my own, and even set up our group meetings. At first I though he was just being mean, but then I started to look past the actions themselves. What did I learn by him not holding my hand? To take responsibilty for myself, and that when I further my education I'm not always going to have a teacher available. Sometimes, I'm going to need to put my nose to the grindstone and do it myself. Right now I found that concept a little daunting, but hey I still have two years left of highschool, cut me some slack. Last but not least, there's my grad student Linh. When I say nice what do you think of? Kittens? Cookies? Unlimited lives on Pac Man? Well I think of Linh. She was one of the most kind and caring people I've met in my whole life. She supplied me with pictures for my paper and presentations, and her knowledge about cytochrome bc1 itself. Once I learned that my research was going to play a supporting role in hers ( which is a Phd project ) I was very meticulous with my work. Double checking everything as I went,making sure that my numbers were as accurate as possible. These are only some of the many amazing people I met here, and I wouldn't be have been successful in this program without any of those people.

On to my SEED overseer and the project manager. During the school year Mr.Lucas was definitely a different person. He was laid back, joking around, but he always pushed us to do our work. If I remember correctly, he's one of the main reasons I did this program. In the beginning of SEED though, I realized something: Duquesne was no place to mess around. This was a place where people take their learning seriously. I learned that almost immediately and I'm glad I did. It actually surprised me at first, realizing how much I would have to grow up to succeed. Mr. Lucas really helped me at the beginning and most likely set me on a path for success. I had one more influential person in my SEED experience and that was Dr. Aitken. She wasn't around as much as the others, but that was because she was on a sabbatical with RJ Lee group. They are a well renowned research company and I was impressed that she could transfer from an academic environment to an industrial one so well. I should've expected it though, the woman radiates adaptivity. That is why she was so helpful when we spoke, she could see both sides of the coin, and helped me realize that some things just can't be split up black and white.

I can honestly say that this experience was an eye opener. I didn' t think college was going to be easy by any means, but I definitely didn't think my work routine would have to be so disciplined. I'm really grateful that I got to partake in this program, if not for the people I met, then for the oppurtunity to expand my horizon. If all goes well I will do this again next year and have even more fun! Byebye everybody!

Overall Reflection of Project SEED.

Project SEED has helped me notice that I will definitely need to go to college to pursue my career and also that college won't be that expensive because of scholarships, financial aid, etc. As we went on field trips I seen all the different scientists and how successful they are with their career and I want that to be me one day. Project SEED has affected my decisions and choices a lot and I'm glad I did this program this summer, it was a wonderful experience. It allowed me to see that I can accomplish my dreams as long as I stay on task and do what I have to do. Anything is POSSIBLE!

My first summer as a SEED student I learned about amino acids, proteins, cations and anions and how the amino acid effects the ions. We did different things such as, created saltboxes using the different computer programs like VMD and running them through the supercomputer to find more info on them.

I really liked project seed, it really boost my confidence of becoming what I want to be. Hopefully I can do this program next year again. Meeting and working with the other SEED kids was the best, I hope we can stay in touch. I want to thank all the donors for letting us have a chance to experience this, you're greatly appreciated. I'd like to thank Mary Krawczak, my professor Dr. Madura and Tim for helping me this summer with all my work, you guys were a big help. Mr. Lucas and Dr. Aitken, I can't forget about to guys, you also were a great help and I'd like to thank you too for creating this program and making it possible to do productive and important things over the summer break. Finally, I'd like to thank Duquesne University for letting us be here for the summer to experience a great thing such as this. With nothing else to be said, I'd just like to thank everyone for everything. BYE!!!! :)

Big Blog Challenge

Interview someone else's professor or a graduate student who you do not work with. Get them to tell you their story. Ask questions like....

How did they arrive at Duquesne University?

Did they always want to be a chemist?

What do they like most about their job?

What are some of their regrets and missteps?

What would they do differently?

Creative questioning is preferred.

Summarize your conversation on the blog. Pictures and video are worth bonus, but there must be written content too. This blog has a high value reward.

The past week

This blog post is a little overdue and I have a lot to cover so lets begin.

Lets start with last weeks field trip to Bayer Materials Science. With a trip to another corporate chemical firm, comes another very informative look into the world of what is the business of chemistry. However Bayer differed from our last corporate trip in a few ways. What we saw at Bayer was the development of things that can, and will directly impact the lives of each and every one of us. From bowling balls, to particle board, to the material that is used in the dashboards of cars Bayer is working to manufacture products that will better the lives of many. Now a word about the people that we encountered on our trip. We began the day meeting some fellow Seed students who were conducting their research at Bayer, as well as their coordinator. We then moved on to meet some of the college students who were also doing research at the company, they were also very informative. We had a series of different tour guides and presenters along the way who were very knowledgeable and could answer any of the questions that we may have had. Overall the Bayer trip was a good one and I now have an understanding of the important R & D that goes on there.

Next I'll move on to the research symposium, and i must say it was the apex of the entire experience. Having the opportunity to present my summer research to interested patrons was a good experience. Also the speakers in the morning portion of the symposium were good. Once again we got to meet some fellow students who had come from West Virginia University to present their research.

The final thing that I have to talk about is the alumni lunch, which happened yesterday afternoon. We had the opportunity to hear of some of the life experiences, as well as get some advice from former SEED students.

So a lot has happened since my last blog post, and the above summarizes it all

The Return of the Alumni

Yesterday the Project SEED alumni (that could make it) came back to visit, eat pizza, and share their college student wisdom with us. Tim McFadden, Dawnee Sloan, Chrysten Pfabe, Tristan Stagger, Chris Sidun, Amanda Anderson and Sydney Burkholder and Mary Krawzack all came to visit. I feel like this year's reunion went a lot better than last years.

They had some really good advice about preparation for college and what to do once we got there. Talking to them eased some of my fears. I'm still a little tentative about the schools I want to apply to and how much everything's going to cost...It's all going to cost quite a lot. And while cost is something that needs to be considered when applying, I think it should be considered after I look at what the schools will offer me if I go there and after I see what scholarships I can get. For now I'm just going to focus on getting accepted! I'll start looking at scholarships too. I'm excited! I can't wait to just finish school and go to college, but at the same

Almost finished !

The research symposium was last Friday and it was a lot of fun. To see my panels in spot number 40 was a sigh of relief. I felt so accomplished and felt like I did so much to make my research the best it could be. I had 6 or 7 visitors visit me to talk about my research. A lot of people to visit for my first year in project seed right? And Im only junior in high school . I was very shocked. I only thought I would get only about 2 or 3 people, but when i saw people approach me I was very excited to talk about my research. I also visited a person from Washington and Jefferson College which we visited about 2 weeks ago. She shared a lot of information anout her research with me. She also told me a little bit about the college because I am thinking about applying there for college in chemistry. But i still have time to decide. Then it was time for me to leave and return to band camp for my performance. I wish I could of visited more people about there research.

Yesterday was the Project SEED alumni lunch. The alumni were very nice and gave a lot of pointers to get me started into a successful college life out of high school. It was really interesting to see people from Sto-Rox and see how far they have gotten out of a low income school. After hearing a former Sto-Rox graduate, Tim McFadden's story I feel like I could be a very successful person and not hold back at all coming from such a poor and small school.

After today there is only about a week left of Project SEED. Boy does time fly! The last thing to do is write my research paper and then I'm all finished! Even though this program was so much fun I just can't wait until it's over. I want to sleep in, waking up early is so much work.

Symposium and the alumni lunch!

The symposium was actually my favorite part of the whole summer! Knowing that the big rush of trying to get everything done was finally over made me happy. Only about three people came to actually talk to me about my poster and my grandpa recorded it. Maybe I could share it on here with you guys.

We are now down to the last two weeks of Project SEED they're going to be pretty easy hopefully. I'm very happy I did this program this year it was a great experience to work with new things, I loved it! Hopefully, I can come back next year. Last but not least, today we had lunch with the alumni of project seed from previous years. It was very nice to share what we are doing this summer with the others. It was also nice for them to share what they're doing now with their life, sounds like their becoming successful and I know Project SEED helped make that happen.

Apex of our year

So much has happened since my last blog I don't even feel like doing this.

<-----END TRANSMISSION----->


Yeah I wish. Last Friday was the main event for the year, the big shebang. Our research symposium was a huge success. There was a few keynote speakers to lead off the event, people had to give their dissertations. You could tell that they were good by the fact that I saw no one sleeping. I mean, it was 9:30 and it was a room full of college students. After that came the best part of the day....I mean lunch. This was when we got to socialize with even more SEED students, these ones hailing from WVU. It was good to talk to them and learn about their projects. I was so happy that it pretty much negated my anger from my ice cream prematurely melting. Almost.....I was really looking forward to that.

Anyways, after lunch came the poster session. It was pretty amazing to see the varying kind of research that had been done. It went from analyzing characters in Russian fairytales to molecular dynamic simulations of the norepinephrine and serotonin transporters in a lipid bilayer membrane. Can you guess which one I understood?

Once it was my turn to present my poster my nerves were at an all time high. With my luck I'd get Stephen Hawking asking me to explain my poster. However, once my first visitors came, I found that I was readily prepared and even managed to slip in a smooth wink.

After the session was over, I realized that this might be the last time I get to see my group, so we didn't pass up the oppurtunity for some amazing photo ops.



After the dust settled from the symposium, we had the Project SEED alumni lunch. I was very anxious to meet some of my predesscesors. I thought they were going to be very stuck up and judgemental. I also thought the Steelers were going to win the Superbowl. Turns out I was wrong on both counts! Everyone was extremely friendly, and very eager to share their experiences and wisdom with us. There were even a few fellow Sto-Rox students who were in college. It is nice to be reminded evry now and then that you shouldn't let where you come from hinder you. Tim McFadden is just starting his PH.D program, and Chris Siden is in his third year of Duquesne's pharmacy program. If they could go on to do great things like that, who's to say I can't?

So that's about it, the last few days in a nutshell. SEED is almost over now and it is weird to think that I'll actually be able to sleep in soon. That is until school starts, at least.

These last two weeks....

There's always a lot to do. There's the pressure to finish everything before the summer is over (and of course for Denver), but everyone's also really excited to be done and have one week off before school starts.
I have to present again on Thursday, but I haven't had time to gather more results since I've been away at band camp. Last week was really crazy I heard though. But my days pretty much consisted of meals and practicing. Then on Friday I came back for the symposium. We sat in on some speakers, some of them we're really interesting. There was one girl who's project was about pandemics. She was trying to see if there was a way to predict the rise of diseases by looking at the thermometer sales, doctor visits and medicine sales. When I was talking to her about it afterwards though she said it was hard to make models to predict future pandemics when the models for the past weren't informative and it was hard to know how accurate the information was.
There was another person who did a project on the the pressure that's put on bovine heart valves when they're pregnant. The valves in the heart realign themselves while the cow is pregnant in order to compensate for all the pressure and blood.

After all the speakers were done we had lunch with our families, grad students and professors. Other Project SEED kids came from West Virginia to present at our symposium too. I didn't get a chance to go to their posters, but I presented to one of the girls and their mentor.
I feel like this year at SEED I did a lot better at the symposium. More people came to my poster and while I explained it to them, I feel like the language was more fluent.
After my hour was over I walked around to look at the other posters. I talked to the girl who did the pandemic project and then to a few posters that were about physics. There was one grad student from Pitt that was trying to finish filling in the Standard Model of Elementary Particles, specifically with Quarks. Physics is something that I've been thinking about majoring in and it seems like a good choice based on what she said. It's a major where women are a minority...so I hope that means I'll have good opportunities in it.