Hometown: China

Major and class standing: Linguistics

Where you interned: Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

What was your internship title and role/responsibilities?
I interned at Yale University with Professor. Jason Shaw in New Haven, Connecticut as a Research Assistant. My primary responsibilities were assisting with an Electromagnetic Articulography experiment and I was also in charge of post-processing and data analysis.

How did you obtain your internship? What resources did you utilize to secure your internship?
The professor I work for at Michigan State collaborated with Professor Shaw on many papers. I was honored to be able to work for both of them on this current project and that’s how I obtained this opportunity.

What did your daily routine include?
My daily routine includes going to the lab, setting up all the equipment for the experiment with my partner, conducting the experiment on different participants and post-processing the collected data on the computer in the lab, and reporting any problems we discover to our supervisor.

Your favorite experience from the internship?
My favorite experiment from the internship is whenever an unexpected problem popped up, we all gather our thoughts and hypotheses and test each one of them until the problem is solved.

What was your least favorite part of the internship?
My least favorite part of the internship is you never know what problems you will encounter when experimenting on human subjects.

What skills did you learn and/or build upon during your internship?
I’ve definitely gained teamwork and communication skills as the main goal as a researcher is to collect different opinions and to build on top of them with our own. Communication became the key element when it came to working with so many brilliant minds.

What did you learn about the industry or your career path as a result of the internship? What are your future plans?
The more I experience life being a researcher, the more I’m in love with this career path. My future plans are to keep working in this field and hopefully contribute my own ideas and work to it one day.

What advice do you have for other students seeking out internship opportunities?
If I have any advice for other students seeking our internship opportunities, I would say, be confident in your decisions and opinions! Communication is really important so don’t be afraid to tell people your thoughts and also learn to listen to others as well. The most crucial thing: Enjoy the experience!