Week 1 May 30 - June 2
Due to Memorial Day being on Monday, I arrived on Auburn's campus Tuesday. My first week went by very quickly. It was a little rough, but I made it through. Coming from a small town in the Mississippi Delta was an enormous change for me. I am still trying to get familiar with the campus and  the surrounding areas. This week was fun despite all the driving. I traveled 6 hours by myself to get to Auburn, and when I made it, Dr. Thomas got me all settled in. Once she gave me my deliverables for the week, I started to work on them. She asked me to upload 5 papers to our dropbox and to create an annotated bibliography. She also told me to familiarize myself with some of the other things we would be working on. On Thursday, I traveled to Atlanta for the first time with Dr. Seals to the NSBC Conference where I really enjoyed myself. There were many people there in the computer science areas of study that I got to know, and that I learned from. Most of the sessions helped me decide on things I should do when it comes to graduate school. It is only week 1, and I have already been to Atlanta. I know the rest of this research experience will be great. ​
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Week 3 June 12 - June 16
It is week 3 and I am doing what I have to do. I become more and more comfortable each day, so that isn't a problem anymore. I finished up my CITI training on Monday. On Tuesday, I talked to my mentor about my work, and since I have been putting together an annotated bibliography, she thinks I can get started on the literature review. Dr. Seals met with us and presented a gaming powerpoint. We are also creating small online games. She also invited us to a seminar hosted by 2 graduate students that are working on  a UAV project, and that was interesting to me. The rest of the week, I researched the additional questions I came up with, continued to add to the annotated bibliography, and got started on the literature review. Most of the reading and watching I am doing is showing me that bedside manner is an important subject. Hopefully before the summer is over, we could get a couple of interviews from a few nurses in the area. Dr. Thomas is also trying to create a game that will improve bedside manner, but the literature has to be done first. 
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Week 5 June 26 - June 30
This week, I was able to complete the small powerpoint on the project. Dr. Seals wanted the undergraduates to present on Thursday, and I did. After meeting with Dr. Thomas, I had a new assignment which was to do a content analysis on an interview video, so I made sure that was done as well. Most of the women experiences were different, but there were a few that were similar. Transcribing the videos were interesting because it allows you to catch more than what you actually hear. I asked Dr. Seals for a little help learning Java, and she sent me a few lessons to get started on. Since this is the midway point, I will be trying to finish up the literature review as soon as possible. My presentation went well, and I am ready to head home for the holiday. 

Week 7 July 10 - July 14
There are only 2 weeks left, so it is time for me to start finishing up. This summer has been flying by, but it was an amazing one. This week, I started my final powerpoint presentation, final poster, and my final paper. Those are all required before I leave. I also did the content analysis on 2 more of the women in computing. Most of their stories are similar because of their demographics, but they all still made it. Though I am not in the same category as them, I think I can relate to their undergraduate experiences. I've attended seminars, camps, and other presentations, and I enjoyed them all. Next week I will wrap everything up, and hopefully I will be ready for presentation day on the 25th. 

Week 9 July 24 - July 28
This was my last week and everything went great, including the presentation on Tuesday. The experience has been so much different from what I am used to, but it was GREAT and I am very grateful. Hope I could get this opportunity again in the near future. Now it's time to hit the road.

Week 2 June 5 - June 9
​​My second week was not so bad. Being that I met so many people at the NSBC conference, I am receiving many emails about different research opportunities and grad schools. I think I am getting used to being here since I realized I have 7 more weeks. I continued my work from week 1 while also working on the CITI training Dr. Seals assigned me. On Monday, Dr. Seals met with us for about 45 minutes to explain some things that will give us a little inspiration along the way. Tuesday , I started my website and found answers to my questions. I also touched bases with my mentor to update her. This week I also met Chan'tel, the other undergraduate that will be working on this project with me. On Thursday we had our first undergraduate meeting to update Dr. Thomas and Dr. Seals on our goals and plans for the next few weeks. This week and next week will mostly be creating annotated bibliographies for different papers to come up with information to put in our literature review.
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Week 4 June 19 - June 23
Week 4 went by very slow. It was probably because it rained every single day. Despite all of the rain, I think it was a good week. I have started working from the annotated bibliography that I put together to get started on the literature review. I am implementing most of the information from articles we have in our dropbox. On Monday, a few others and I assisted Dr. Seals with a tiger camp for high school students. 

It is great that so many students are enrolling into majors in STEM related areas, and I was happy to help them out. I was able to submit my preliminary status report to the DREU portal this week as well. Dr. Thomas met with us and updated us on a couple of things to work on. We also talked about things we have gotten done and what to look forward to. Other than that, this week I am just working on the literature review, and researching more and more everyday.
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Week 6 July 3 - July 7
We had 2 days off because this week was the week of the fourth of July, but I was still completing my work. I completed my analysis on Dr. Marshall’s video, and it was interesting. She seemed to have a couple of things in common with me. Dr. Thomas came down on Thursday to go over my analysis, and she assigned me 2 more for next week. After we finish doing analysis on all of the interviews, we will finish the literature review. The Java lessons aren’t as hard as I thought they would be. They are somewhat similar to C++. On Friday, the CSSE department chair sponsored lunch for all of the REUs to get a chance to meet everyone. 

Week 8 July 17 - July 21
It feels like week 8 came after week 2, and it has gone by very fast. With this being my last week to work, I had to finish up everything in order to present on Tuesday. It wasn’t so bad because I was almost finished with everything anyway. I completed my poster, powerpoint, paper, and literature review. This has been my first opportunity to be away at a university for the summer, and I am glad that I came. Research takes time and effort, and it has been a great summer for me. My goals for next week are to have a good presentation, and to gooooo home :)