I believe that everyone’s individual experience at the REDI Lab is vastly different. Just in our group alone, there were a range of students who came into REDI Lab. Some arrived with a full project plan while others came with a blank canvas. I fell somewhere in the middle. When I was first interviewed, Mr. Thorpe asked me whether I knew what I wanted to do if I ended up coming to REDI Lab and I answered pretty quickly, “Something with piano or something in the medical field.” These topics have been my passions for as long as I can remember, and to be able to combine them into a promising project was something I didn’t think was possible.
The first few weeks at the REDI Lab were a little bit harder than I thought. I spent a majority of time on my schoolwork and tasks that were assigned at REDI lab. At the same time, I had so many ideas but didn’t know where to start. My ideas seemed disconnected from my project and I felt di
scouraged. When we had our first check-ins, I had to explain what I had accomplished (which was nothing). Apparently I wasn’t alone in the way I felt as none of the teachers were upset or surprised with us. In that meeting, I was able to express my thoughts out loud and get new perspectives and angles on developing my project. My ideas just expanded exponentially and from that moment onwards, I was able to jump-start my research.
Alas, despite my acceleration, I hit a road block. That road block represented what I would say is the the hardest part of REDI Lab, figuring out how to narrow down my project. I was not able to do that without the help of the teachers and my curious cardinal! Curious Cardinals is an amazing program that I recommend for all REDI Lab students. Through the program, I was able to connect with a current college student with the same interests as me. The person I was matched with was a music major focused on how music interacts with social sciences at Yale. It was a great experience and he was an invaluable resource in helping me execute my project. As presentation day approached, I had to compile my efforts into a concise presentation that could fit within five minutes. At the end I felt accomplished and inspired.
If I were to redo my time at REDI Lab, I am not sure that I would change a thing. Though there was downtime, every experience was part of a process that got me to my final product and helped me learn more about myself. I have many takeaways from my time at the REDI Lab experience such as how to motivate myself to do independent work, use advisors and mentors to help develop ideas, learn to defend and develop ideas during critiques and public speaking! I appreciate every single person who guided me throughout my project, I could not have done it without you!