A Summer Like No Other

The Road To Miss Murray

Stop #3: A Summer Like No Other

The summer of 2020 was truly a season like no other. Restaurants were closed, beaches were vacated and all of the simple pleasures that we once took for granted seemed completely unattainable. For many, this season was a time of sadness and hardship, but for me, the summer of 2020 served as a time of great personal growth and academic promise. As an undergraduate student at Mount Saint Mary College, I came to school with a dream. A dream to educate, to inspire, and to make a difference. If you have been following my blog up until this post then you know how much this dream means to me. In an effort to continue on the road to becoming Miss Murray, I knew that every moment mattered and that I needed to use all of my time wisely. Beyond that, I needed to make the most of my education and to push myself to become the best student that I could be. Although I did not know what this next step looked like, I knew that I needed to continue learning and growing, as I truly believe that all successful teachers are lifelong learners. After making this internal vow, perhaps by fate, I received an email from a professor of mine who stated that he was the head of a program at the Mount called SURE. Although I had never heard of this program, I decided to click on the link and learn more about this newfound opportunity. As I began to read, I could not believe my eyes! Could it be that I had found exactly what I was looking for? The Summer Undergraduate Research Experience or SURE Program is centered on providing students with valuable research experience across a wide range of disciplines. It essentially gives students the opportunity to search through an extensive list of course offerings and apply to work one on one with faculty mentors on a topic that is of great personal interest to them. As I scrolled through all of these options, I was both overwhelmed and excited by all of the experiences that lay before me. What was I going to choose? Where should I begin? Ready to give up, I decided to click on the final page and there it was...the experience of a lifetime. A research experience developed by one of my favorite professors at the Mount and entirely centered on teaching students sustainable living practices. Frankly, I was in shock, and at the moment, I knew that there was no other program for me. So I downloaded the application and got to work. Although I believe that all branches of science are integral to a child's education, there is nothing more important for students to be learning about than environmental sustainability because, in a few more years, this world will be left to them. Children are the ones that can make a difference. They are the ones that must be educated on this integral subject matter and inspired to make a change. Ecstatic about the opportunity that lay ahead of me, I reached out to my faculty mentor and sent in my completed application. After a few weeks, I learned that this research would be funded and that we were cleared to get to work. Little did I know how big of a deal the words "funded" and "work" would be in just a few short months when the whole world began to fall apart around me with the news of a new viral epidemic. Although the Corona Virus sparked a rapid change to an entirely virtual research format, I was lucky that the program was still allowed to run. Feeling blessed by the opportunity that lay before me, on the first day of Summer Session One, I logged onto Zoom eager to learn more about my role in this project. Little did I know, how much my life was going to change in just a matter of minutes. As I signed in and greeted everyone on the Zoom call, my professor unmuted her microphone and told me that through this program I would have the opportunity to lead a four-week educational summer program at Bishop Dunn Memorial School on the science of sustainability, if that was something I was interested in. I could not believe my ears! I was not only interested but overjoyed. So I immediately accepted, thanked the wonderful principal of Bishop Dunn for this incredible opportunity, and then logged off of the meeting to jump up and down in excitement. Could this really be happening? Was I actually going to get to teach science to a group of students?