Adventures at ASU

One of the best parts about the Senior Research Project is the internship experience. The past couple weeks, I've been too enthusiastic about sharing what I've learned in class, so I'll change it up a bit this time. During my internship, I feel like a slightly-less-busy grad student. On a typical day at ASU, I do some work at the Hayden Library with Tina (who also kindly drives me to ASU every week, along with her sister, Vicki), meet with my professor, grab some lunch (if we want to be fancy or have something to celebrate, maybe Engrained), do some more work, then go to class.

Sometimes, however, I try to take a little more advantage of pretending to be a college student. Two weeks ago, Tina and I decided to visit Gammage, the arts auditorium at ASU Tempe, and stumbled across an art museum. Underground. Although I was too engrossed by the artwork to take any pictures, here is a picture of the art museum itself (according to Google):

It's a petite museum, but definitely one worth visiting, as I'm on the campus anyways. Maybe I'll go back once the construction is finished because I plan to make the most of my semi-college experience.

On March 24th, there was a farmers market in front of the student services center that I vowed to myself and Tina to visit. And of course, I forgot. But, I definitely will go to the next one on April 7th!

While working with Dr. Yoo, I've been introduced to many of his colleagues, such as Professor Karen Kuo. Who also happens to be my classmate Massimo's mother, once again reminding me of the significance of networks. It's a small world.

This Thursday, I was drawn to the henna tattoo booth set up in front of the Memorial Union. The artist that was decorating my hand told me a bit about henna (also called mehndi). Henna is generally used in the Middle East, Pakistan, and India to dye skin, hair, and fabrics for celebrating special occasions. It's supposed to last for a week, so it's still pretty visible on my hand.

As for the project progress, I am almost finished typing up the survey after weeks of finding and sorting through different measures and obtaining permissions to use them. Honestly, I've experienced a bit of frustration with formatting and organizing the different measures into a cohesive survey, but my professor says I have it a lot easier. He had to look everything up in books and libraries, writing things by hand, manual copy and paste. I couldn't complain after that.

In the next week or two, I'll contact the IRB (Institutional Review Board) to receive official approval for the study and create an online survey to be distributed to Asian American high school students all across Arizona. More updates on the survey coming soon (if you are an Asian American high school student living in Arizona and would like to participate, I need around 200 people)!