I applied and was accepted into the EUREKA! Program the summer before my Freshman year at Clemson. Experiences in Undergraduate Research, Exploration and Knowledge Advancement (EUREKA!) is a unique and exciting program that enables honor students to pursue research and scholarly activities with faculty across all disciplines. Calhoun Honors College accepted freshman are able to apply for selection into this program where only 33 are accepted.
EUREKA! participants choose from research projects proposed by Clemson’s faculty. My research project as a participant was in Chemical Engineering. I was tasked with deciding if the current software was adequate or if the newer free software would be better to move to within the lab. I spent hours and hours translating the code to compare the two. My decision, in the end, is the current software we were using was better for what we needed in modeling the molecules and was not significantly slower. A final symposium was held in the Fall during Family Weekend. The participants presented posters describing their work and all members of the university community were invited.
I felt that the EUREKA! experience was so valuable that I decided to apply to become a counselor the summer after my Freshman year. I was honored that the director immediately, upon seeing my application, asked me to be the head counselor responsible for everything. This included planning all the activities for 5 weeks of the program. Participants attend speaker luncheons, social activities including an opening dinner, a 4th of July BBQ, whitewater rafting, hikes, and cultural and sporting events. I was solely responsible for all of the students including when we traveled to places like Greenville, Atlanta, and on a camping trip. I had to make decisions taking into account everyone’s perspective and do what was best, even if it wasn’t the most popular decision. As head counselor, I was on call 24/7 as well as responsible for the other counselors whom I delegated responsibilities. I also had my own research to complete in the field of Industrial Engineering. I worked with a team to help optimize the flow and scheduling of operating rooms. Being involved with the project for only 5 weeks, I was only able to be a part of the beginning stages of the research. The beginning stage was interviewing doctors, nurses, and other personnel on their perspective of the problem.
My background in DISC temperament greatly assisted me in these responsibilities. Growing up I learned about the DISC personality traits through years of working in and around my parent’s businesses. Knowing how to communicate with people in the way they want to be communicated with is important as a leader. If you are familiar with DISC, my personality temperament is CS/D.
EUREKA! was a huge part of my freshmen year at Clemson from being a participant before I actually started college to being the head counselor the following summer. I highly recommend this for all honors students.
Mackenzie Grumbles 