The Kate Adventures

     When I decided to go to ECU I was told that going to East Central University was going to just be an extension of Ada High School since they are in the same town...whoever said that was incredibly wrong. I started my second year at ECU this week and was reminded how awesome my University is!       1.) Small campus with a big community! I love that I can see people I know every time I leave my dorm room! I know professors, football players, band members, sorority girls and everyone in between. I am so glad that I can be friends with so many different people because I go to a small school. It makes life so much more interesting to have a lot of different kinds of people in your friend group! 2.) Parking You always hear horror stories about parking at college but at ECU the parking is not a problem and is pretty cheap! 3.) Athletic Teams I LOVE that I am able to know the college athletes and then get to support them at their games! School spi...

Hi guys!      I am finally back in Oklahoma and it feels so good! The last week in Maryland was tough. There was a lot to get done in preparation for our symposium and our departure. On Thursday August 10, 2017 I was able to present my research on blue crab population ecology at the final symposium. I was able to go first and it went very smoothly. We also had a poster session where we all presented our posters. I was so glad to finish this project and have a completed product! Presenting my research!      On Friday August 11, I flew out of Salisbury and flew into Charlotte. I stayed in Charlotte for four hours until I boarded my last plane that took me back to OKC. It was such a smoother travel day this go round. None of my planes were delayed and both my luggage and I successfully got back to Oklahoma. I flew into the most beautiful Oklahoma sunset and was so happy to be home!      The next morning, I moved into my dorm room! I was ...

Dear Class of 2018,      In just over a week you will begin an adventure of "lasts." You will have your last first day of school, your last football game, your last state test, and so many more lasts. This new journey is one full of excitement, nerves, and unknowns. You will walk into the high school as a senior and you will feel on top of the world. Pep assemblies, sporting events, and all other activities will seem so much more important than they were last year, but with the fun comes a new level of responsibility. You will start applying to college, have a lot of big decisions to make, and will have the underclassmen looking up to you. I hope that as you go throughout your senior you find joy and have fun, but that you don't forget the things in life that are most important.      Two years ago, when I was a senior, I made a list of 50 Things to Remember During Senior Year . This list put life into perspective and helped me figure out where I wanted m...

Debbie's Car      I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT I ONLY HAVE TWO WEEKS LEFT! It is crazy how fast this week went and I am sure that the next two will only go faster! This week has been filled with activities that are helping us produce our final projects. Each intern has to have a final report, PowerPoint presentation, and poster. Most of us are doing all of these for the first time so we appreciate all of the help we are getting! On Monday, we had another REU group come in and we did some collaborative seminars that taught us how to write elevator pitches and how to best make a resume. These activities were very informative and it was neat to meet more interns. Friday was anther seminar day. We had a two part communications seminar where we learned how to make a good PowerPoint presentation and a good research poster. All of the interns got a lot of work done at this seminar and it helped me a lot! Right now, I am about half way done with both my poster and presentation. The ...

     Hi guys! I feel like I haven't posted in a long time but I have been SO busy this week!      I have been teaching Primary classes at church on Sundays and have loved that! It brings me extra peace each week to spend a couple hours with some kiddos. I thoroughly miss my daycare kids and my Primary kids back at home and cannot wait to see them in just a couple weeks! I know!! Just three more weeks until I am back in Oklahoma! Crabs! Crabs      As we are nearing the end of this internship, the workload is increasing! Our final presentation is on August 11 and for that symposium we have to have a poster, PowerPoint presentation, and a final paper. All of these things have the same information on them so theoretically they shouldn't be very hard, but trying to format them nicely takes some time. I have been finishing my last bits of data analysis this week and started these final presentations. This "crunch time" work reminds me of ...

     Hi guys! I have had such a good week and I am so excited to tell y'all about it!      The majority of this week has been full of work. I have been working a lot on more data formatting and analysis. To put it in perspective, I have 27 years worth of data about blue crabs in the Maryland Coastal Bays. That means that in order to get meaningful results I have to extract certain facts about the crabs and this is a very time consuming and tedious job. I am getting more and more excited about my work as I am getting closer to having results and I am hoping that I can get everything done within the next three weeks! Rocket launch pad!      This weekend was our last set of field trips and it was so much fun! On Friday we got up and headed to the NASA center at Wallop's Island. I was so excited to go visit NASA because ever since I saw Hidden Figures I have dreamed about working for NASA. Unfortunately, the field of science that I am real...

     Ever since I was about 5 years old I have had a special place in my heart for boy bands. I have loved the Backstreet Boys, One Direction, Five Seconds of Summer, and especially New Kids on the Block! NKOTB announced a tour for summer of 2017 but I figured that no one would want to go to their concert with me and that the tickets would be too expensive so I pushed the concert to the back of my head. In early May, my dad and I were on a road trip and for some reason the New Kids concert came up and I decided that I was going to try my darnedest to get to their show!      I some how convinced my mom and my mom's best friend to go to the concert with me and I was ecstatic!I bought the tickets, got off work, got a new outfit, and pulled my Keds out of the closet. I was so excited and more than prepared for this once in a life time opportunity.      So on a Wednesday afternoon we packed up the car and drove to Tulsa for the best night of my ...

     If there is one quote that explains me it is, "I wasn't born in Oklahoma but I got there as fast as I could!"      I was born in Utah but at about a year old my parents moved us to Norman, Oklahoma. For awhile I only wanted to get out of Oklahoma. I wanted to move to Wyoming or Tennessee or anywhere but the Sooner State. I have since learned that I love Oklahoma and wouldn't mind if I stayed there for the entirety of my life!      As I have been here in Maryland, I have missed a few things about Oklahoma....      1. Cows! - as weird as it seems I absolutely miss seeing cows everyday. I didn't realize how many cows actually live in Oklahoma and just how comforting it is for me to seem them.      2. Country Music - I am still listening to Tim McGraw and George Strait while I am out here but the people I am with don't always appreciate my music choices.      3. Rodeos - I haven't been to...

     Happy Fourth of July everyone! I enjoyed my holiday so much and hope that you all did too!      When I was preparing for this internship I was worried about what I would end up doing for the Fourth. Would I hang out with friends or maybe church family? Would I even see fireworks? My parents kept assuring me that the interns would find something to do and although I did not believe them they ended up being right!      Twelve of the fourteen interns all hopped in the two vehicles we have and headed for Ocean City, Maryland. Ocean City is about an hour away and is a huge tourist destination. There is a boardwalk right on the beach with tons of cute shops and places to eat and then there is so much beach area! We decided to go there because we figured everyone could find something to do and it wasn't too far of a drive.      We left campus in the morning to avoid traffic and in hopes of finding parking. We arrived at Ocean...

     As many of you know, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (commonly known as Mormons). A cool thing about this church is that congregations meet all over the world, so if you are on vacation or moving to a new place you can usually find an LDS church a reasonable distance from you. All of these congregations are taught the same thing which makes the gospel universal. Whether you are in South Africa or South Carolina, if you can find an LDS ward you will be able to learn about our Savior every Sunday. For the most part of my life I have not had to worry about this because I have moved only once and don't travel very often, but the fact that I can find the gospel even when I am so far from home this summer is priceless. I will never again take for granted my amazing home ward and the amazing blessing that I have to get myself to church every Sunday!      I miss my home ward a lot and miss my callings there, but I am learning ...

     Hi guys! I feel as though I have not updated you guys for awhile but I also feel like I don't have that much to say so this may be a short post.      This week has gone by so fast! Next Wednesday will mark one month that I have been in Maryland and I cannot believe it! I have been working hard this week - I have been making graphs and charts and have continued to format the 26 years of data that I have. Each year takes about 2 hours to finish so this process is long and tiring.      There was a large church camp here for the end of last week and the majority of this week. That means that there were 700 extra people on campus and it was kind of crazy. The other interns and I got used to eating just the 14 of us and just not really seeing anyone around but for this week it was a different story. The cafeteria was always busy but we did get more food options which was nice. The campers went home Thursday so we are back to the campus being...

     Hi guys! I had a really good weekend full of fun adventures and am so excited to tell you about them! Okay, the interns here have kind of started this thing that we like to call "Fire Fridays." Every Friday we go out to a fire pit here on campus and have a bonfire complete with smores! It is always a lot of fun. We eat, chat, sing, and dance! We weren't out too late last Friday because we had a field trip on Saturday but it was still an adventurous night! Assateague Island. Beautiful! A stamp for my family's National Park Passport.      Saturday was nice because we got to sleep in and then left for our field trip at noon. We went to Assateague Island and went seining. I really enjoyed this trip and learned a lot! If you know my father, you know that we as a family love to go to as many National Parks as we can and over the years I have developed an affinity for the parks and visitor's centers. The visitor's center at Assateague was really c...

     Hello! I do not have a lot to update on the work side of the internship right now, but I was able to finish my proposal and turn it in to the program director and now I am working on a new set of data analysis that focuses on the sex and maturity of blue crabs in the Maryland Coastal Bays. This work is tedious and time consuming and not super exciting but by the end of the summer I will have a completed project that will hopefully show some cool new findings!      On the play side of things, we have had some adventures this week! There have not been many people on campus since we arrived, but this week that changed. There is a basketball camp that is going on so the UMES men's basketball team is here and there have been orientations all week that have brought a bunch of people to campus. It has been kind of fun to see new faces around and those basketball players are nice eye-candy ;) (one of them is 6'9 and I only come up to his waist! He is huge!). ...

     I have loved Gilmore Girls  for a few years now and one of my favorite things about the show is all of the witty and funny quotes by all of the Gilmore ladies. Here are a few of my favorite quotes and why I love them! Enjoy! 1. "If you're gonna throw your life away, he'd better have a motorcycle!"      When I was little I used to tell everyone that I wanted to be "the girl on the back of the motorcycle." Over the years I have changed my life goals and this is no longer my ultimate goal. I still want to ride a motorcycle but only once and I want to primarily be a scientist! 2. "It's all any of us wants, to find a nice person to hang out with 'til we drop dead. Not a lot to ask!"      Sometimes I have high expectations but I feel like this is NOT too much to ask for! ;) 3. "I can be flexible. As long as everything is exactly the way I want it, I'm totally flexible."      What can I say? I like plans and when th...

     This week has been incredibly busy. It has been full of research and writing and data analysis. I am really enjoying all the work that I am doing and hope that I will continue to enjoy my experience. The interns were able to go to the mall this weekend and have another bonfire. Both were very fun and I love all of my new friends here! I am so grateful for this opportunity to learn and grow so much. Some times it feels like I have been here for ever and other times I feel like my time here has gone by so fast. By the end of this summer I will have so many memories and so much experience under my belt. Earlier this week my mentor was giving me a kind of pep talk and she told me that I would be a real scientist by the end of this internship. This statement made me realize that I need to remember everything I learn here and take it with me for the rest of my life!      On another note, Happy Father's Day to the man that I am most like! I am so grateful fo...