Cash incentives for filling out applications??!

This is how cool my graduate school/program is:

I applied for all those fellowships, right? Well, I filled out a form to receive $200 in "incentive cash" just for applying, courtesy of the graduate school. AND, my research department is offering me $300 for incentives as well. So I get $500, just for filling out two fellowship applications. Granted, I probably spent 60hours working on them, but still... that's pretty cool...

Headed Home

I am leaving Houghton for a few days to visit my family downstate. I'm looking forward to having a few days off. This semester has gone by fast.

I submitted most of my fellowship applications! I've applied for:
-National Science Foundation Grad Research Fellowship
-Fannie and John Hertz Fellowship
-SMART ASEE Fellowship
-Amelia Earhart Fellowship
-Association for Women in Science Fellowship
-King Chavez Parks Initiative
-Michigan Space Grant Consortium/University of Michigan Graduate Fellowship
-Graduate Women in Science Fellowship

I am going to talk to my advisor about traveling to Ireland for a year, also. How cool would that be?? :)
The histology work I did this summer has been accepted for presentation at the Orthopaedic Research Society's meeting in Feb in Vegas. Woohoo! I'm excited. I have a lot of work to do before then, and I don't know yet if I get a podium or poster- but it's good to know I have been accepted. I also have my manuscript ready to be revised by Dan and Dr Haut at Michigan State, and Dr. Leetun, too. Once that is through the authors, I can submit it... :) That will be my first first-author manuscript, and I wrote it all by myself!

In other news, my computer crashed last Monday, and I was scrambling to figure out if I should have it fixed or just buy a new one. The WECN support staff fixed it, I guess it was just bogged-down RAM, but it makes me strongly consider getting a new computer (I'm looking at the new MacBooks!).

What a week!

It's been a long one. This week was particularly busy, full of meetings and projects and deadlines. I submitted my Hertz Fellowship application on Friday evening, and luckily my recommenders all submitted their letters, too! That was a relief.

Arnie K., Margot, and I are working on putting together a New Year's Eve run in Hancock. We met Wednesday to talk about the course and logistics. Hopefully it won't be too much work for three people. It's going to be a low-key run, with a loop of 2-miles, so people can do one loop or more, whatever they want to do. The goal is to get people to do something healthy on New Years Eve. We're hoping to have some cool shirts, a neat little get-together afterwards, and some sweet raffle prizes.

I also got the website underway for the Bike Commuting Task Force. This weekend, I have to make a poster for the World Usability Day- the focus of the conference is Transportation, and we totally fit in! The website is making progress... I still need photos, but it will hopefully get a lot of visits once it is advertised.

Other than that, I've just been trying to tackle revisions to a manuscript that my advisor submitted this summer, as well as write my own! I'm not gonna lie, I really like writing...