Chelsey Hancock

Please list all accomplishments, achievements, publications, presentations, or other scholarly productivity that resulted from your ORCA project. This may include submissions to peer-reviewed journals, conference presentations or papers, performances, exhibitions, internships, scholarships, graduate school opportunities, local presentations, or awards that followed your mentoring experience.

Through this ORCA grant, I was able to present my research project at the Spring Student Research Conference sponsored through BYU’s College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. My research experience has also helped supplement my application for graduate school applications and has led to other research opportunities.

What was the best part about your mentoring experience?

From my mentoring experience, I really felt like I was able to develop strong research habits and practices. I learned how to address a question and to formulate an experiment to answer this question. I also learned how to use scholarly sources to find more information and apply them to my own personal project. The best part of this experience was that I was able to learn what areas of research I am truly interested in. I have discovered a new branch of applied medicine that I am looking forward to researching more as I apply to pharmacy schools.

How could your mentoring experience have been improved?

The primary problem with my mentoring experience was that I rarely received any direct input from my mentor. I usually was working with a graduate student, and felt like I was not making much progress because of complications in the synthesis design. I never felt like my mentoring professor knew what I was working on or what roadblocks I was experiencing. Due to the slow progress of my organic chemistry research, I decided to make a significant change in the middle of the year. I switched research labs and began working for Dr. Jerry Johnson’s Evolutionary Ecology research lab. In this new lab, I already feel like I have made a greater impact and am learning new concepts at a faster rate.

Did any personal or spiritual development result from the mentoring experience? How has mentoring impacted your undergraduate experience at BYU?

From this mentoring experience, I learned how to make changes and avoid getting stuck in a rut. In my organic chemistry research, I felt discouraged and unmotivated. Even though it was a difficult choice to leave the synthesis lab, I knew that it was the right choice. With my new research, I feel invigorated and excited about the projects I am working on. I understand how my research is going to apply to my future career as a pharmacist, and this mentoring experience has helped me learn how to make differences in my own life. Before this experience, I would have been afraid to leave the chemistry lab, feeling like I would cause disappointment in those around me. But by taking this leap of faith, I have been able to make much greater progress in my research and feel more fulfilled.

Please leave any final comments here for your donor who funded this ORCA project:

Thank you so much for helping me in this research opportunity. I have learned so much about my research style and interests, and am looking forward to continuing to make differences in the study of medicine when I apply to pharmacy school in the future.