Why Research is important to your college admissions application: Writing Skills for Everyday Impact

Hello, this is Shellee Howard with Parents as Your Teen College Ready, and today I have a wonderful guest, one of my students from College Ready, Miss Layla. Welcome to the show.

Hi, thank you for having me.

So today I wanted to talk about your experience with your research project. Can you share with families, our listeners, how did you decide to do research and how did you choose which one you were going to work with?

Yeah, so I never really thought about doing research or even let alone writing a paper. But since I joined College Ready, they gave me— my mentor gave me the suggestion to write a paper or do research on something that would be interesting to me. And I was like, that's an awesome idea. I love that. And so that's really why I chose to do research in the first place. And I knew I chose to do research on Alzheimer's disease, and I knew that I wanted to go through that path because I've always been interested in medical and being in that medical field. And I already had a connection with Alzheimer's disease because I was president of a club and I raised money for the cause. So I just thought it would be great to do more research and learn more about it. So yeah.

How did you pick Alzheimer's? Is there somebody in your family? Like, what, what was, what was your why?

Well, actually my great-grandma, she had Alzheimer's and then went into dementia and then she passed. So I was like, you know what, I'll just do some research about that. I want to kind of like understand what she had, what she was going through and all of that.

Mm, total curiosity, family tree kind of thing. And so, uh, what do you— I know you're a junior going into— you were finishing your junior year. Have you thought much about what you might want to major in?

Um, definitely like something that has to do molecular biology or maybe like biochem, definitely in the sciences.

And so when you were deciding to do research, how did you even get started? Like, for students who are like, I never thought of it, one, two, okay, sounds— you make it sound pretty awesome. What do you do with that?

So, I mean, through the College Ready portal, there's links to the sites of multiple different programs that offer research projects, and I looked through them, and I felt that Lumière would fit best for me, especially because you have the opportunity to publish your paper as well, which I'm also, I'm doing right now, and it's almost gonna get published, so I'm excited. And it's honestly pretty easy. On the website, it has it all listed out, like a deadline for everything, and once you get into the program, they email you, set you up with a mentor, you have meetings, every week, and it's really nice because you can fit it exactly to your schedule and whenever you want. So it works out really well.

I love that. Okay, so the College Ready link got you there.

Yeah.

Now, how did you pick who you were going to write your research paper with? Like, how did you get to choose, or was somebody chosen for you?

Completely random. Completely random. But It turned out being great. I loved my mentor and she— I told, when you fill out the form or your application, you're supposed to have an idea of what you want to research of. So they set you up with someone who has experience in that and who's like graduated, has like a lot of experience in that field.

So yeah, they kind of know Okay, and so you find this, or they match you, right? And, um, how did you know it was going to be a good fit for what you wanted? And what was their education or background?

Yeah, so actually when they match you, they give you like an entire like biography basically of what, like who they are, what their education is, if they've done research, and you can see their published research and their entire academic background, and you get to read through everything. And when you have a meeting with them, you can kind of tell if it would be a good fit for you. And if it's not, you can email Lumiere and say, "Hey, I don't think this is a great fit," and they'll set you up with someone new. And you can kind of just feel it out from there. But for me, it was perfect from the jump.

Okay, awesome. And so, What— how was this person skilled, or what knowledge did they have, or were they a university professor? Like, what was this person like?

So she had graduated, and I think, um, she was currently a student at Stanford, but I'm not undergrad. Um, she already, um, completed that, and she was in Stanford, and I know, um, she had a lot of experience with, um, neurological, like, disorders and that field of, like, the brain and Alzheimer's. And I know she did research, like, um, at UCLA and a bunch of other schools. So, um, she was really, like, experienced in, like, the brain. So it just— it was a great— it was a great, um, match for that.

I love it. So you have this experience team member of your team, and then you meet, and then what happens? Do you have to figure it out? Does she guide you? What does that look like?

Yeah, so for the first meeting, it was really just to get to know the person, and from there, she already had a bunch of, um, experience publishing papers and doing research, so she knew, um, exactly like what search engines I should use and how I should be reading papers and getting information from them. So the first couple of meetings was really, here's a paper and here's how to understand it so that when I have to read a bunch of papers, I can understand them and incorporate them to my own review paper. So throughout the process, your mentor is really there to guide you through what to do, what not to do, and how to do these things. But obviously you're doing them yourself. You're just being guided. By this mentor.

Awesome. And then you said you met with her weekly. And so did she have deadlines for you or how did, how did you move forward and how did you— let's start with that. How did you do it?

Yeah, so I met with her weekly. We had an hour, but we usually just went to like 30 minutes. And Lumiere actually has the deadline. So once you're accepted, they have a schedule, a laid out schedule of weekly submissions of what you did that week or the work that you accomplished. So there are deadlines every week that you have to meet, but you can ask for an extension and get extra time. But for me, I didn't need any. I felt it was incorporated really well into my schedule. And I was able to get my work done and get everything done in the deadline. So yeah, but they have that option to like get an extension if you feel like you need more time. But I feel like the 1 week allotted time works really well.

So what time of year did you do this? And I know you're a very busy young lady, like you're the president of Empower Education. You're a student at a very competitive high school, like you've got a full plate. And so I'm wondering, students are going like, how in the world did you even fit this in? Maybe you can speak to the students and say how you were able to manage that.

So I actually started in the summer. So sorry, my dog is in the background. I don't know if you hear her, but I started in the summer. So I had a lot of less APs and schoolwork to accomplish, which I feel really benefited me. And it went on towards the beginning of the school year. But it wasn't that much of a hard, like, like, incorporation to my schedule because I'm, as I said, that one week, it was like a lot of time to get your work done. And it's not, it's really not that much work when you are doing it. It sounds like a lot, like, oh my gosh, I have to research this, read this, write this, do all of this. But when you set yourself a schedule and write it out, This, do this day, this at this time. You can get it done. You can get it done.

Okay, I'm starting to feel a little bit better for all the students who are listening. Now let's talk about the, the research itself. Did you enjoy research? Some people, you know, they're, they're like, no, I did it because I had to. But did you enjoy the research part of the paper?

Since it was something that I was like personally connected to and interested in, I did enjoy doing the research and learning more, especially because I was more focused on non-pharma, non-pharmaceutical interventions, meaning that it's no medications. You really don't need to pay a ton of money to do it. So it's accessible for a lot of people with the disease, like focusing on their diets, their sleep, sleep schedules and fitness. So I was really excited to like discover more things about the disease that you could potentially slow the progression of in ways that you don't need to spend so much money or take a bunch of like medications and a bunch of like things that some people don't trust. Mm, yeah.

So you did the research. How long did it take you to write the paper?

Um, I would say, so in the schedule it tells you like when you should start writing and then when it's due. And if I remember correctly, I think it was about 8 weeks, but that was mostly just like writing the paper, and then at the same time, once you like write a specific section or subsection, you would meet with your mentor and they would edit it and help you. And on top of that, Lumière also provides a specific editing mentor or a writing mentor where they can even give you even more help from like their standpoint because they know how to like write papers better. And so, yeah, you really just have a bunch of people to help you with, as well as a publication mentor. So you would talk with that person when you're ready if you choose to publish your paper as well.

All right. New question. What does it mean to publish a paper and why would you do that?

So to publish a paper means to have your research and what you wrote be accessible to anyone online. So I'm publishing it to a journal, and basically I chose to do this because I felt like I did— I put so much work and effort into my research and my paper, I wanted it to be like shown and seen by a bunch of other people who are also interested in this. And even if not, like, I just wanted my name to be out there that I did this, and I wanted like proof of what I did because I'm proud of it.

Yes, I love that. Of course you should be. You chose to give up time to help another person, or people for that matter. So what happens once it's published? Uh, do you just— are you done, or is there anything else that you need to, to navigate?

So, I mean, I haven't like officially published it yet because it is a pretty long process. But I mean, once it's published, it's published, it's there for everyone to see. So I'm not sure yet if there are extra steps, but I know that Lumiere does have an extra program or add-on where you can turn your research into like your own startup, which I actually did and I just finished last week. So I made a digital platform for both caregivers and people, um, patients with the disease, that they can access, um, and have like their own, um, scheduled plans, a calendar, um, an AI chat, um, things that they can access that can make their own diet plans, sleep schedules, and fitness, um, requirements.

Leila, that's amazing! I am so proud of you. Wow. So here was something you didn't even know was on your radar.

Nope.

You found that you had big interest in it. You know, if you want to go to med school, it's only going to help you, right? It's proof that you have a true, deep passion for it. And I'm, I'm just in awe. I think that is amazing. So for a student who may not even known this was on their radar, What would, what would you recommend as a good starting place?

Well, I mean, for me, not knowing it was on my radar, a great starting place is College Ready because they will introduce you to so many opportunities and options that you can choose from. And I feel like this one was one of like the best ones. So this is like, I think starting with College Ready is like the best, um, starting place to be at.

Amazing. So now you have a research paper and you just were named president of EmpowerEducation.world. You have big, big plans for your future. What do you want people to know as they look at Empower Education and why they might want to join?

For Empower Education, I've been on Empower Education, I think, for over a year now, I'm pretty sure. And once I started, I didn't know anybody, but the whole group, everybody was so welcoming and we just grew and grew into a greater group. So I would say like joining Empower Education, you'll find like yourself, like a family, like a community in that group. And it's so amazing to see the impact that you make. Um, when Yona, who is one of the— who is the director of the Green Hill Education over in Uganda— when he sends over videos of the students and pictures of all the things that we've created for them, and we're watching the students use them and learn from them, it's It's an accomplishment for us, and it just makes like everyone so proud to see that their work is being used and students are learning from them that didn't get that opportunity before, and we're giving them that opportunity. So it's, it's just such a good feeling. And I think that everyone should— everyone who has the opportunity to give should give.

That's awesome. Well, Leila, thank you so much for being on the podcast, and we know you're going to do great things. It is a pleasure. And for those of you who are listening, Leyla's the one you want to follow. So EmpowerEducation.World is the nonprofit that she is now leading, and your student is welcome to join. So thank you, Leyla, for being on the show.

Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure.