Embracing the Struggle, Asking for Guidance, and Growing in the Process

Anita On, PRYDE Scholar

I did not learn how to swim until I was 18 years old. It took months of flailing around in the shallow end of the community pool, practicing my kicks and arm movement for hours every day, until I could muster the courage to jump feet first into the deep end of the lane swimming pool and confidently swim multiple laps back and forth.

The Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters seemed a lot like the times when I was splashing around in the pool without any success. Amidst being 3,000 miles away from Ithaca and joining classes virtually, I was uncertain about how much progress I was truly making in the PRYDE class, my research project, or my academics. However, it’s important to zoom out whenever we feel stagnant. Compared to weeks, months, years ago, how far have we come along?

Reflecting on the past several months and years, I am surprised at how many of these crazy wild dreams and goals I achieved-one of them being a PRYDE scholar.

It was in this past year and a half that I realized that struggle and discomfort is sometimes necessary for growth. I learned to embrace uncertainty due to my lack of knowledge or skill and used it as an opportunity to learn from others. I mustered the courage to ask questions often in order to fill in my knowledge gaps in research and for class assignments. Surprisingly, I found that people were receptive to answering questions because expressing uncertainty was my way of demonstrating that I was thinking deeply about the project, that I cared about it, and that I was brave enough to admit and accept my lack of knowledge as an opportunity rather than a weakness.

My experiences in both the PRYDE classroom and in my research lab really pushed me throughout the past year and a half and helped me to grow.

In the PRYDE class, we were “thrown into the pool” to help complete Youth Investigators, a curriculum designed to teach late middle to early high school students the basics and applications of social science research. This was an exciting project because I wanted to share with young people that research is not off-limits to them. I hoped that this program could show them that even if they did not want to become professors or researchers, they could still use research skills to be better informed of the world, to be better at communicating their knowledge, thoughts, findings, and to look at research and think critically about all the information around them.

However exciting, this project was a big undertaking. As expected, many questions and discussions arose about the vision and desired products from our end. Is this a curriculum to help youth conduct their own research, or is it more of an introductory “Social Science Research 101”? (We decided on a compromise of both). What’s the formatting on the narrative, activities, and lessons? How can we design the curriculum to be both engaging and relatable for teens?

With the help and guidance of Esther, the Program Assistant of PRYDE, and Dr. Tony Burrow, the director of PRYDE and the leader of our discussions, we navigated a semester of uncertainty with real products that came together as the complete Youth Investigators curriculum. Now in Fall 2021, we are planning to pilot the modules alongside the junior cohort! I am looking forward to delivering the modules and hearing youth feedback about the program this semester.

Excitingly, Youth Investigators will not be the only youth program that I will help pilot this semester. As a PRYDE scholar, I am also a part of the Leak Research Group, a public health nutrition lab that seeks to empower and educate young people who are experiencing or at risk for nutrition-related diseases.

During the Fall 2020, Spring 2021, and Summer 2021 semesters, I worked diligently alongside the members of the Leak Research Group to adapt our nutrition and cooking education program, Advanced Cooking Education (ACE) for 8th grade students, to the shifting modalities amidst the pandemic. Originally planned for a full in-person program, I have walked through adaptations of the program from a hybrid format to a completely virtual system. As the head of InDesign edits and website management, I sometimes felt overwhelmed by the shifting demands in structure and content of the program. However, while I was challenged, I was always supported by my PI, Dr. Tashara Leak, and the graduate students of the lab, Navika and Felicia. This challenging yet supportive dynamic helped me grow in my knowledge and confidence. I can now proudly hold the printed version of the Facilitator Guide and Student Workbook booklets in my hands and say that we are piloting the program this semester in Fall 2021!

From both my work with Youth Investigators and ACE, I learned how much hard work goes behind the planning, creation, and implementation of feasibility testing in youth programs. I have seen this from the constant drafting and redrafting of materials, responding to the important feedback from the community, and the rigorous consistency that goes into gathering data for a pilot program. I hope to take these skills and experiences for such processes in translational research out into the world as I continue to pursue a career working with youth in the future.

So, the take-home message? Embrace the struggle. Be compassionate with yourself when you do come across obstacles and failures. Reach out to others during that struggle. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, for guidance, for someone to teach you. You don’t have to be perfect every time, but you can get better and grow. And along the way, you will build great relationships with mentors that can make a big difference: people who believe in you even when you don’t believe in yourself. So you got this. Keep fighting!