Throughout college, there has always been the consistent theme of initiative. Initiative is hard to define because it takes on different forms. On one hand you hear often that "you should take the initiative to achieve", but no one really explains, gives an example, or defines the word for you. I think it is a difficult topic to teach and learn because it requires motivation and a passion. It depends on a person finding what is important to them and growing that desire of wanting to do or learn more into something productive to one's goals. For me, this initiative is defined by going beyond what is expected and to prove to yourself that you are more capable than originally percieved. Initiative is defined by growth and the courage to undertake possible failures.

    In research, it is a common theme: failure. I will ask a question to further explore my interests and often times not reach a conclusion, yet another question. It may be a failure in the sense I did not answer my original question, however, I found a new path to follow. When I started research freshman year I was confused on what I wanted to do. I was tossing up ideas, such as becoming a veterinarian, doctor, entrepreneur, or a marine biologist. I started joining as many clubs, organizations, and most importantly research opportunities to find what I found interesting while also making a good start on campus. Additionally, I signed up for several unique honors classes, such as SCHC 387 Healthcare Entrepreneurship.

    My professor, Mr. Stevenson, taught us that business and starting a business takes a special type of person. It takes someone with a will and an incredibly strong desire to follow through with their business plan. They will have to spend all the money they have and jeopardize their human relationships. There would have to be a sacrifice on one's social life. In many cases, initiative requires there to be sacrifices. Maybe not to the scale of starting a business, but I put multiple weekends from hanging with friends and family to achieve my goals while in school. While doing my final presentation for the class, where we came up with our own business model (linked below) I got a glimpse of the dedication required to start a business. It takes a lot of hard work, passion, and mainly luck to achieve one's goals or dreams. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to chase and explore my interests while at school. I took what Mr Stevenson taught me and applied it to my growing passion of research where I started out in Dr. Mousseau's lab.

    Initially, I started off with a project that at face value seemed incredibly interesting. I was to assess the abundance and occupancy of mammalian species around Chernobyl's nuclear site. This is the site where in 1986 one of the nuclear reactors in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, releasing radiation all across western Europe. Being that the effect to which this radiation has had on the surrounding environment is unknown, Mousseau's lab set out camera traps to capture and measure the relative occupancy of mammals in the area. As this initially seemed like an awesome project, it was inhibited by more than 2 million images needed to be processed. This meant that I was suppose to tediously count the number and type of animals in each image. I realized that this was unreasonable even with the 8 undergraduate research assitants on hand. Therefore, I proposed an alternative solution to create a computer model to do it for me which can be seen in my publication below.

    This project did not come together as nicely as I portray. I still have my constructive criticisms from my first rejected Magellan proposal. One reviewer wrote "The proposed project is interesting and has some novel ideas, but appears a bit overly ambitious in several aspects." I felt denied at first, but took this as a learning opportunity. I needed to simplify and work on appealing to an interdisiplinary audience. I constantly have to balance the beam between computer and ecological sciences. This is a skill learned through ambition and this publication is a product of my ambition. Utilizing these criticisms, I later applied for the South Carolina Honors College grant and recieved a stipend to continue my work. I learned that it takes the courage to look past a failure and utilize the lessons learned for future success.