Several proposal drafts later along with practice presentations and presentation of the final proposal...
I am OFFICIALLY a Ph.D. candidate in Materials Science & Engineering (BY THE GRACE OF GOD ALONE!)
Although it was a stressful process, God blessed me with a wonderful advisor and labmates who were eager to help me in constructing a well thought-out proposal document and presentation.
This second go-around, I felt much more confident in the material I was presenting and was able to keep my nerves at bay! The main attendees at my presentation were my committee members and a visiting member from my internship experience, which I think helped to calm my nerves. One of my committee members actually had to attend via Skype, which turned out well despite my fears of the feed going out in the middle of my presentation and other crazy technical difficulties lol.
This happened on February 25, and since then I have been busy with my classes (really enjoying biochemistry!) and with lab work. I actually have one more class to take this fall semester that will satisfy my course requirements and then it's 100% lab work all the time until I can start writing my dissertation and defend! I really can't believe that's the next step now...did I mention that God is good!!
Even though the dissertation is the next step, I have to remind people that the progress of my research dictates when I actually finish lol. Research is dynamic and unpredictable so I could very well have 2-3 years ahead of me. I'm not complaining though...just taking it one day at a time and trusting God every step of the way!
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