Constraints:
- Graduate school begins the end of August.
- The first week of August I will be at ESA.
- I can only work at my current job until May 19th.
Opportunities:
- If I spend a minimum of 6 weeks this summer doing graduate school type stuff (could include ESA and trips to workshops), I can accept a 6K fellowship.
- I've been offered a one-week position in late June to help out with a summer class here at the bio station on math/ecology, which could be a lot of fun. It's being taught by my all-time favorite post-doc.
Desires:
- visiting family and friends in the SW before or after ESA
- getting the heck out of the USA, seeing some place new and different and memorable, and having an adventure
- spending time with Eugenie
- spending time with my family, maybe helping mom and dad build a cabin
- visiting friends
- doing stuff not related to ecology or mathematics
- doing something to help other people
Any suggestions people?
I'm trying to decide about accepting a summer fellowship (6K, fun place, but it would eat up 6 weeks of my 'last' summer). On one hand, listing fellowships on a CV is good, and it's hard to argue with 6K. On the other, I really do want to do things that aren't ecology and that help other people out this summer. I'm in the fortunate position of not needing that money to last the summer, although it could help pay for other adventures/travels.
I also wonder about the merits of spending six weeks volunteering/some sort of community service, versus me working six weeks at a job that I am skilled at, and just donating my earnings. The first would probably have a bigger impact on my life, while the second might have a larger overall benefit. I dunno.
If I take the fellowship, probably any big trips would need to happen between May and June, which is really soon, and I still don't know where I'd want to go (excited about lots of places).
Yikes!
3 comments:
I have found that the positive version of double-booking myself works well on holidays.
I went to Europe [travel] to visit my cousins [family] with my friend [quality friend time]. Can Eugenie go with you on any of the things on the list? Or your friends or family?
If you don't need the money, you can grab a friend (or five) and volunteer as a team - such as for Habitat for Humanity. You can then fit in the fellowship if you want one. PS: Can the fellowship apply to international locations?
Good luck!
Double booking is always good. Not much in the way of international family right now though - my aunt and uncle that spent years living in various countries have recently moved back to the US, go figure.
All my friends seem to be either committed to doing research/grad school over the summer, or need to work and save for school. Alas. Although in the off chance that Eugenie doesn't get a research position this summer (eek), I'm thinking I might be able to convince her to travel. We'll see I guess. If she does research, she's busy alllll summer.
I think the fellowship would apply to doing some international stuff; for example, my advisor told me about a workshop in Italy that might be really neat.
Your cv is already awesome, so I don't think you need to do the summer fellowship academically. $6K is a LOT of money, but if you don't need it then I think you should do something totally different this summer. Go live out a backpack for a month or more in a the southern hemisphere, or- actually, I just saw insanely cheap tickets advertised for my favorite Remote Foreign Country. I'll forward you the email. You could WWOOF your way around someplace or just travel on a shoestring. Or, now that you have a car, do a big road trip adventure across the US.
At this point, I think you should base your decision on what will have a bigger impact on your life. Let me know if I can help!
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