How to Start the New Year

2021 brought me new goals, a mentorship, and a drive to work hard and complete my goals. I entered the year ready to put behind me all the events of 2020, and now it’s time to put my best effort into ISM and my original work project.

Over winter break, I had my first meeting with my mentor. The meeting was largely formalities concerning the mentorship as it relates to ISM, but I spent a significant amount of time discussing my original work proposal and hearing my mentor’s initial thoughts on my idea. He gave me a few ideas to start my research, and a few resources to look into for background information. My mentor also introduced me to a mailing list that sends out articles on a regular basis - articles about trends and news in the civil engineering industry. I signed up for this mailing list, and I believe it will help me stay up to date and introduce me to new ideas that I may not find through my research otherwise. The regular emails will also spark motivation and remind me to stay on track with my research, so I won’t end up procrastinating on my project.

I went into the new year thinking about the starting points that my mentor gave me, and I was ready to begin my research once the school year resumed. I spent my first week looking into one of the articles that was sent to me through the email list - this article briefly looked into a few new materials used in construction that are more environmentally conscious than their regular counterparts. This was a very basic article that only skimmed the surface of what I’d like to research, but it’s a good starting point, and helped me come up with several questions and research points for future study.

The year has just begun, and I’m ready to keep up my work and stay strong for the next few months.