Winging It in Oz: Growing Up

I’m settling well into my new job at The Shepherd Chemical Company in Cincinnati. Despite the fact that it’s chemistry, I’m enjoying it remarkably well! I think that’s because it’s a very stimulating job where I’m never bored. The two aspects of my job are chemical inventory of the R&D lab and working to improve a “green” process for making an ingredient in a personal care product on the market. Last week (my third week) I felt SO overwhelmed with everything. There was so much new information to learn, like the chemistry I’d be doing, the instruments we have (some of which I have used before in chemistry lab several years ago, such as the FTIR and NMR, and some of which I have never used or heard of, such as XRD, TGA, and PSD, just to name a few), lab procedures, locations of things in the lab, etc. I also watched my supervisor, Stephen, do some really cool computer tricks/shortcuts that I probably should know but don’t. He said not to worry and that he learned all those things after years of grad school. I guess there’s hope for me yet! Stephen and I also sat down and discussed my project in more detail, and at one point he asked me what we want to know about the products were would be making and how we could figure these things out. I was like a deer in headlights. I felt I didn’t have a good enough grasp on the basics to be able to be “creative” and ask good and informed questions. By the end of last week I felt a bit more settled but I still had a lot to digest and synthesize.

This week has been a bit smoother and less nerve-wracking. I’ve made six batches of the product we’re investigating, and now we’re waiting to get all the test results back (we send each sample off to another lab in the building next door to do some of the tests we can’t do in our lab) and then we’ll collate all the information and determine where to go from here. Our ultimate goal is to optimize the production process and then upscale it to make the compound in mass quantities in the plant and then sell it to the customer. It will be pretty neat to see how the whole process works!

Overall I’m having a remarkably enjoyable time. It’s definitely an adjustment to my normal schedule (I now sometimes go to bed before my parents!) but I look forward to going to work every day and the days go by quickly. I think I like it because it’s stimulating and never boring. I’m learning skills that may be useful in my career, plus I’m finally getting a “big-girl” paycheck!

Two weekends ago I chaperoned at the annual Girl Scout Cadette Senior Ambassador Association Leadership Conference. CSA is a girl-run association for older girls. I used to be a member when I was a girl and at one point was President. Now that I’m an adult I was able to chaperone for the first time! It had been six years since I’d last been, and I had a wonderful time. I, along with another chaperone, was in charge of a group of 19 girls. Boy was it a totally different experience than it was when I was a girl participant! I was responsible for the girls, not just myself, and I had to serve as a good role model. On the last night of the conference I chaperoned the dance, and at times I had to remind myself that I was there as an adult and role model and I had to let the girls bust out all their moves and keep mine in!

At the conference I also presented a bat workshop. I had originally only had five girls signed up, but another workshop at that time was cancelled and the girls in it were moved to my workshop, giving me a total of 15 girls. I was pretty nervous that the girls wouldn’t be interested and that I’d run out of things to do (the workshop was 1 1/2 hours), but I was pleasantly surprised. The girls asked SO many great questions and were so enthusiastic that the time was easily filled. When the girls left at the end several told me that they had a really good time. I did too, and I must say it was probably the best group I’ve ever presented to!

Lots of bat cookies for my bat workshop at the Girl Scout conference.

Presenting “The World of Bats” to the girls at the Girl Scout Cadette Senior Ambassador Association Leadership Conference.

I’ve also started zoo volunteer training at the Cincinnati Zoo to become a Volunteer Educator. I have been attending training sessions every Saturday morning for the past several weeks, and in the spring will volunteer at the Educator carts located throughout the zoo. I also hope to start volunteering with CREW (the Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife), the research branch of the Cincinnati Zoo. I’d love to be able to continue doing some sort of biological/conservation research while waiting to start graduate school. I’ll keep you posted on what I end up doing and how it all goes!