Lab Rats

Going to Dr. Sasha Kauffman’s lab at UCSD was really interesting. When I think of a lab, my first thought is a building where it looks boring and people are doing their own thing and not working together. That was not the case when I walked into the lab. When I walked into the lab, the environment felt really nice. The people in the lab were all very friendly and they were also really funny. I thought I was going to be intimidated by the people leading the different research techniques because they were all experienced and I felt like I was going to do something wrong. What really surprised me was how much I enjoyed the lab visit.

To be honest, I didn’t think I was going to find it as interesting as I did in the end because the idea of looking at mouse brains was disgusting to me. I know that they’re used for research but I didn’t really grasp that concept. After going into the lab and trying the different techniques they use for research, I found it super interesting and I wouldn’t mind looking more into neuroscience to see if it something that I would like to study in college. Besides the lab visit, studying inside of the UCSD Geisel Library was a cool experience. We went to the 6th floor and it was silent, so it was a different setting for me because at school, we don’t really have silent studying. Although studying silent was something new to me, it was cool to see what it’s like being a college student.