Dear reader,

    I hope that you are excited to begin your SSP. In this letter, I will share some of the things that I have learned, and my advice to you for planning your SSP.

    Firstly, I will talk about a part of SSP that is not often spoken about: the book. For my book, I chose Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. It was closely aligned with my SSP, being about a woman who’s a scientist and rower. I resonated with how the book portrays rowing and science as an integral part of who the main character is. Science and rowing became who I am as well in my SSP.

    My favorite part of my SSP was my internship, and I highly recommend finding one that interests you for your own SSP. At my internship, I got to conduct real research and learn how the things that I learned in my science classes throughout my four years at BB&N applied in the real world. During my internship I had to manage my projects, understand my research, and learn to not only collect data but analyze it in a meaningful way.

    I also highly recommend Ms. Gold and Dr. Gatti’s crochet course. I was able to learn the skills to crochet and I have almost finished making a tank top that I can wear this summer! I’m so glad that I now have this skill. It’s a perfect outlet to have (especially during long regattas) and I’m already planning my next project!

    I also enjoyed my community service. Which was a continuation of a program that I did throughout my senior year. This pillar of my SSP taught me that five hours of community service can go by quickly when it is something that you enjoy. 

    I also continued rowing, something that I will be doing in college and hopefully beyond. This was not new to my SSP but having less stressful days improved my performance on the water.

    One thing that I would do differently if I were able to redo my SSP would be scheduling time to spend with my friends. My activities were mostly independent, and I did not spend a lot of time at school. Because of this, I rarely got to see any of my friends. We tried to schedule dinner together once a week, but every week certain people couldn’t make it due to other commitments, and we didn’t have any other time that overlapped in our schedules. I would recommend trying to set aside more time, whether it is part of your hours or not, to see your friends. As much as I enjoyed the things that I was doing, it would have been much better had I been able to see my friends and classmates on a more regular basis. 

Since my activities, like working in the lab, were mostly off campus, my SSP greatly deviated from the rest of my BB&N experience. However, it reflected how I want my life to look in college and beyond. I want to work in a laboratory and continue rowing competitively, while also pursuing creative hobbies, like crochet, and serving the community. SSP showed me that a life like that would be possible in the future. My advice to you would be to think about what it is that you really want to do, and apply it to activity/internship. Create a life for yourself in the way that you want to live it!

Best, 

Eliza Cohen