{"id":4016,"date":"2019-06-26T23:16:43","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T23:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/?p=4016"},"modified":"2019-06-27T16:14:38","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T16:14:38","slug":"embracing-the-opportunity-to-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/2019\/06\/26\/embracing-the-opportunity-to-grow\/","title":{"rendered":"Embracing the Opportunity to Grow"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Logan Adams met Stephen Good at an Honors College faculty-student matching reception, it seemed like a perfect match. Logan, an HC ecological engineering and international studies student, who graduated in spring, 2019, was interested in working on water issues for his thesis, and Dr. Good is a hydrology expert in the School of Biological and Ecological Engineering.<\/p>\n

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After initial forays in less engaging and demanding projects, Logan approached Dr. Good about taking on something more complicated, using physical variables to develop a model that could predict drought severity.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSteve said, \u2018It\u2019s going to be a lot of work; are your willing to do it?\u2019\u201d Logan recalls.<\/p>\n

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He embraced the challenge, immersing himself in research papers, teaching himself how to code in Python and building a foundation of knowledge in statistical analysis and fluid mechanics. But some of the key things he learned were about process, and the first step was embracing his own limitations.<\/p>\n

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Logan with other honors graduates from the College of Engineering<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u201cGoing to my mentor, to this person I want to impress, and saying \u2018I don\u2019t know how to do this\u2019 is scary,\u201d says Logan. \u201cBut then I realized \u2013 a mentor\u2019s role is to help me grow. When I first met Steve, it was scary \u2013 he\u2019s a really smart person and can ask great questions that can let you know your premise isn\u2019t working. But talking with him more on a human level, working in the lab together, I understand how he got there, the steps, the fifteen years of experience he has.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019d come to meetings and say, \u2018I couldn\u2019t get this to work,\u2019 and I was afraid he would be disappointed, but he\u2019d always say, \u2018Let\u2019s go fix it.\u2019 He was always positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Another key element of the process for Logan was learning how to make sure he remained motivated an on track.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis thesis ended up being largely coding and statistical analysis. You\u2019re going to have ebbs and flows of passion. Sometimes you want to spend eight hours a day working, and sometimes you don\u2019t want to think about it. You still have to meet deadlines and have to maintain that work ethic for months or years at a time. The project showed me how to do that. In the minutiae, I might think, \u2018I don\u2019t care about the rate of this factor,\u2019 but then I could step back and realize, \u2018I do care about the impact of drought on human society,\u2019 so I keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A schedule of weekly check-ins provided some additional motivation.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI needed contact with Steve, or I\u2019d go weeks without turning in anything. It\u2019s been valuable for the future. When I\u2019ve talked with prospective employers, I\u2019ve asked, \u2018What are the mentorship opportunities in your company?\u2019 or \u2018How comfortable are you with people asking questions?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dr. Good\u2019s mentorship extended beyond the research. \u201cSteve would check in on research but also on me,\u201d Logan says. Conversations with Dr. Good helped him realize that he needed to take a break before move on to graduate school. Now, he plans to take some time to travel and get a job while deciding on his next steps.<\/p>\n

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Logan before commencement<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u201cOne of the nice things about the thesis process is you have to ask yourself hard questions that people usually don\u2019t ask until later in college or even after: What do I really want to work on, commit time to? What am I passionate enough about to keep doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

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In Logan\u2019s time in the Honors College, he found one passion in being a part of the Honors College community. He has served as a student ambassador, talking about the HC with incoming students, for four years and a student development assistant, talking about the HC with alumni and donors, for three years. He also was previously a member of the residential staff in the Honors College Living and Learning Community.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBeing a part of the Honors College community has been very instrumental. You form connections and relationships, especially in the first couple of years, and as you go on and gain friends in your academic major, you still maintain friendships with people of all majors, which gives you a good perspective. I can hang out with people who are not just in engineering and who have the same drive in classes and in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

International opportunities have given him further perspective and helped provide additional context for the potential impact of his education. Logan spent one summer working at a nonprofit in Guatemala and joined the Honors College spring break service trip to Nepal. \u201cOSU does a great job of promoting global work and education \u2013 but actually going and living abroad somewhere and seeing a completely different part of the world is so eye opening.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But, in the end, few experiences have been as valuable as the thesis and the mentorship relationship he developed during the thesis process. \u201cThis thesis isn\u2019t what I thought I would do. I thought maybe I\u2019d do a \u2018cool\u2019 thesis outside of my major, or as an engineer, would build something,\u201d Logan recalls. \u201cThis thesis has been coding and statistical analysis. But I\u2019m proud of the effort I put in, and it\u2019s taught me important skills and life experiences. This is what people do \u2013 make compromises and ask \u2018What am I able to do in the time allotted?\u2019 I\u2019ve learned for the future \u2013 when you have an idea in your head, you have to really work for it to come into fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Logan Adams met Stephen Good at an Honors College faculty-student matching reception, it seemed like a perfect match. Logan, an HC ecological engineering and international studies student, who graduated in spring, 2019, was interested in working on water issues for his thesis, and Dr. Good is a hydrology expert in the School of Biological […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9319,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1205,82,1306],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories","category-features","category-student"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9319"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4016"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4049,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016\/revisions\/4049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}