I’ve contacted all of my undergraduate assistants for the semester and my research is kicking off. They’re all excited to be working. It’s a good time to grab them too. Many of them are seniors who realize they need research experience before going on to graduate school, so they’re jumping to the opportunity. And don’t worry. I’m going to work them as hard as I know how (which isn’t very hard).
I have about 7 students under my care at this point. I’ve never had this many research assistants at once. If I keep them all busy, I’ll get a lot of data collected and entered this semester. Things are looking up for my research and as long as I continue to use the skills I’ve learned over the past 3 years, I’ll be shooting out publications in no time. I’m really starting to understand the importance of understanding management. The most successful people aren’t those who do everything themselves, but those who have competent, conscientious people working for them. I definitely have no problem with that. I don’t need a hand in everything.
Learning to trust other people to handle the tedious parts of my research is imperative. There’s no way I could collect all the data, enter all the data, and make all the copies while completing my project in time. God bless undergraduate research assistants!
