Join the Party!

 

Today’s guest blogger is Brittany Kamai. Brittany is currently a Ph.D. student in physics at Vanderbilt University. Her research is on the Fermilab Holometer, an experiment designed to test whether a fundamental description of space-time has large scale measurable effects. She is a National Academy of Sciences Ford Fellow, a NSF Graduate Research Fellow, Fermi National Laboratory URA Scholar and Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago Visiting Graduate Student. Brittany got her B.Sc. degree at the University of Hawaii and her M.A. at Fisk University.

 

Let's re-think this -- the academic world is a giant party! At first glance, you may not see what I mean, but here is a way I have reframed the situation to make it less intimidating. What I reference here as "the party" is the scientific world itself. It's a strange new environment that doesn’t make sense. Party goers may appear unapproachable and may even be speaking a different language. The party itself may seem daunting and overwhelming. Forget all that!

 

Invite yourself to the party!
You need to invite yourself to the party. Yes, this is a nerve racking experience because you may feel out of place and awkward. The reality is that the party is where you need to be! You are an intelligent, interesting scientist who the host maybe hasn't met yet. You may have slipped under the radar, and the organizers aren't fully aware of what you can bring to the table. In most cases, it wasn't a personal slight towards you. They just weren't paying attention and missed giving you an invitation.