TRAIN Scholar Evelyn Rivera Elias' Blog

  On Friday, I helped out with the Hermanas workshop with Maya and Professor Herman. It went much better than expected, I missed my cue once or twice but the girls seemed to have a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it was at the same time as Cotter's research group but I was able to do some work in the lab and swab some of the wastewater samples onto some agar plates. It reduced the amount of time the group would have done on Friday so I was glad to do that at least. I also collected some of the water in the lab so we can use it as our control. 

  Last Friday was a lot but in a good way. I went to the wastewater treatment facility in Surprise and was expecting it to smell horrible. It didn't smell good but not nearly as bad as I thought it'd be. There was a lot more mechanical engineering involved in the filtration process than I thought. I was expecting the waste to be filtered through a net but it was more a spiral mechanic with bristles at the ends, so I'm more confident in the cleanliness of the water.  After the facility trip, I went with Maya to the ASU West Mixer. We were there on time but got to the actual party late from trying to navigate around campus. It was a lot of fun and everyone was so welcoming. Several people told me I could start the application even though my FAFSA isn't completed so that eased my nerves about renewal. This week I plan on working on the application!

  This week I will be meeting with Maya and Professor Herman to discuss the workshop for this year's Para Hermanas event. Last year was super fun but I was incredibly nervous. I'm not too worried now since I have some experience and the public speaking class I took boosted my confidence, so it'll be exciting!  Aside from the meeting, this Friday the research group will be heading to the waste waste treatment facility which I heard is overwhelmingly smelly but it will be interesting to see what gets into the water. Dr. Cotter said they also have a lab onsite so I'm curious to see what kind of work they do over there. 

  Last week I met with Dr. Cotter's research group, which went swimmingly. All of us are Student Success Specialists/MESA scholars and 3/4 of the group is also in TRAIN. The overlap in extracurriculars made it easier to talk to one another so I have no worries about communicating with the team.  Dr. Cotter broke us into smaller subgroups so I will be working with Johnathan on counting the microplastics. I'll create an AI program that counts the plastics and also test the samples under the SEM machine. I was given a glass microfiber filter to look at with Dr. Ong (see picture below), and it was cool to look at it because it almost looked like spider webbing.