Ben here. I write this post as I am about to finish the 6th week of my summer job. And the main question I ask myself is, "Where did May and the first half of June go?" School ended May 6th, and I was blessed enough to find a full-time position in the Bio. dept as a research assistant. It's a 14-week position ending August 12th. On the side, I am running roughly one experiment per week for my own thesis work. My thesis has yet to be narrowed down, but is in the realm of molecular toxicology. My research assistant summer job, however, is in aquatic microbial ecology, an area where my grasp used to be somewhat tenuous. But after six weeks, I feel much more confident in this area, and I'm learning many new skills.
Sarah has been continuing her same position and is approaching her one-year anniversary of working with the GCEGC. But she has actually resigned from her job; her last day is June 30th. She spent roughly six weeks in April and May looking for a new position in Muncie. One evening on a drive back to home, we started discussing the possibility of her returning to school. The next day, she made contact with the directors of two different Master's programs at Ball State. After a meeting with the director of the PR program, words of advice from one of her college professors, and weighing her options, she opted to apply for the public relations Master's degree. The professor she met with said that they actually still had spots available for this fall, and that they even had two assistantships that had just recently become available. She completed the necessary applications, had recommendations sent in, and registered for the GRE. To our surprise, the department contacted her before they had even received all of her admissions materials, and they offered her a full assistantship for this coming fall! It was a huge blessing and a clear sign from God that she was pursuing the right track.
So that is where we stand now. After seventeen days of practicing verbal and math problems and memorizing 400+ new vocab words, she took the GRE this past Monday. All of the hard work paid off, and she exceeded the minimum standards for enrollment in the program. That was the last piece of her admissions requirements. She'll wrap up her job in two weeks, and the long commutes will be over! She has a couple of leads on temporary positions for July and August, so we'll see what happens with those.
Not too much else to report. This past semester was busy and hard, but I believe I finished strong. This upcoming semester will be fairly light in terms of classes, but I'll spend many hours per week on research. Thank you to all who read this and pray for us. We do appreciate it.
