I applied for the CO-OP program for a few reasons. The first reason was that I had a really good experience with the CO-OP program at Montgomery college many years ago. Additionally I knew that I had some major cross-training up-coming and thought it would be a good time to try the workplace learning for credit program out. The third reason is that I am dragging my feet on some of the upper level biology classes because I am honestly afraid I wont be able to pass them. I know I can do my work so this seemed like a good option for the upper level credits.
I was very confused at the beginning of the application process. It took a long long time (months) to hear back from anyone at UMUC about the status of my application. When I did this before it was very fast and informal and I was working for the program the same week I applied for it.
Partially this is because the program was (apparently) full for the summer semester when I applied and my application was pushed back to the fall. Partially it was because I had horrible luck getting a hold of anyone in teh work place study office. It was like one sided phone tag. lol
The other problem was that my boss wanted me to start cross-training immediately and I had to stall until the fall semester to get things lined up right.
Strangely helpful in all of this was the fact that I had some semi to very serious medical things pop-up during the summer so that draggng my feet became quite legitimate.
Now we are in week 2 of the semester and things seem to be squared around.
Last week I was more than a little worried about how things would go. Dr. McLaughlin didn't get my learning contract and Yuye (my trainer from QC) was so swamped that he had no time to train me.
I emailed Dr. McLaughlin about it and she reassured me quite a bit by telling me that things frequently start slowly but that they tend to pick up steam later on.
I am happy to report that my daily bugging of Yuye paid off yesterday and we set a firm appointment for today after lunch.
Huzzah!
I had been walked through the full QC PCR process at the beginning of the summer and the amount of detail seemed really daunting, so yesterday I asked if he would show me how to make the gel plates.
I hoped that this simple task would both help QC, as I can stock inventory fairly usefully, and give me a good foot in the door.
Nothing succeeds like success eh?
Today I watched the data analysis for several types of PCR plates and then I watched Yuye make and run a set of gels.
He then asked me if i was ready to make a few myself. I said yes and here they are!
They look OK to me. We shall see. If tomorrow no one complains then I will have the accomplishment to go with my current feeling of triumph.
Yay learning new stuff.
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