Posts by Hong Tran

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Posts by Hong Tran

Living the American Dream as a Graduate Student

April 18, 2013 | By Hong Tran, Ph.D. Student, Chemical Biology

We survived the Vietnam War, and now I’m a graduate student living the American Dream. I am a first generation graduate student. But before that, I am also a first generation college student, first generation American-born, and first generation child of a pair of refugees from the Vietnam War. The most interesting story from this list is that of my parents, sister, and brother surviving the war and surviving the escape to America to live the Dream, and from somewhere in the middle of all of that I was born. I have a particularly unusual set of circumstances for someone…

Published in: Student Voices

My Disillusionment, and How I Consequently Made Friends in Graduate School

March 14, 2013 | By Hong Tran, Ph.D. Student, Chemical Biology

I was having a talk with my bestie about making friends in graduate school. I’ve been in my program for close to 3 years now, since I came straight out of college. She worked for a couple years and then went back to graduate school for architecture this past fall. I experienced this too when I started, but recently she’s been telling me about her work-life balance and/or mid-life crisis of spending all her time working and never actually getting a chance to get to know people. All of this got me thinking about the past years and how my…

Published in: Student Voices

Setting Your Own Goals for Graduate School

January 2, 2013 | By Hong Tran, Ph.D. Student, Chemical Biology

Here is a problem: attrition rates in graduate school are high and are increasing per year. The percentage of students who don’t complete graduate school can be anywhere from 20% to 60% of the cohort size (depending on which study you read). That’s 20% to 60% of college graduates not reaching their original career aspirations. So the question is, why do these students, who have excelled in their studies throughout their lives, suddenly decide to quit? Could it be that they were wrong? Maybe not wrong, but that they needed to take a step back for some perspective? Will some…

Published in: Student Voices

“Stereotype threat” – what if it’s not based on a stereotype?

July 31, 2012 | By Hong Tran, Ph.D. Student, Chemical Biology

So this interesting story came out on NPR a little while back, and flooded into my inbox from various sources. Although I feel a conflicted response to the stance in this article (to feel conflicted indicates that one is carefully thinking about it, in my opinion), it did articulate something I haven’t really been able to explain all this time—how I respond to my peers as a whole. I wouldn’t say that I respond differently to men than I do to women in science, even as I look around at my male-dominated lab environment. This “disengagement” they talk about in…

Published in: Student Voices

Writing: The Medium Is the Message

June 26, 2012 | By Hong Tran, Ph.D. Student, Chemical Biology

I came into the world of scientific research because of two things: 1) I like science and 2) I like writing. Some teacher in high school suggested I should consider doing scientific research instead of going the pre-med route as I had intended, and somewhere down the line I decided that it would be a good idea. It wasn’t until much later that I realized that scientific writing and English/creative writing were so different that it is hard to draw a good comparison between the two. Let me say that I was a chemistry major in undergraduate, and that creative…

Published in: Student Voices

You know it’s summer in Ann Arbor when…

May 24, 2012 | By Hong Tran, Ph.D. Student, Chemical Biology

(As a graduate student) You know it’s summer in Ann Arbor when… You don’t have to fight your way through mobs of undergrads to get from one building to another—HUZZAH! (For the scientists) You are the only people on the streets wearing long pants and closed-toed shoes when it’s 90 degrees outside. Unfortunately, most of the on-campus food options are closed when you finally get around to taking lunch (around 3 in the afternoon). Art Fair hits town. And believe me, just give up and don’t expect to get anything done, since even getting to work is a task in…

Published in: Student Voices

What Comes Next: To Be Continued…

May 7, 2012 | By Hong Tran, Ph.D. Student, Chemical Biology

This question makes me think of those old “Choose your own adventure” books. So first before we choose what comes next, maybe we should do a quick recap of the past. Work and life balance: My work and life balance was completely off balance throughout my first and second years of grad school, with too much emphasis on the former and very little of the latter. I think I’ve been improving gradually, learning from experience that emphasizing the importance of life makes work more productive, and importantly, more fulfilling. Faculty connections: I’ve made errors, but mistakes are to be learned…

Published in: Student Voices

Defining Success: Still Under Review

April 3, 2012 | By Hong Tran, Ph.D. Student, Chemical Biology

I think I rewrote this blog post about 3 times before I realized this simple truth—I don't HAVE a definition for being a successful practitioner in my field. Sure, I think the short answer most people would give for a successful scholar in science would be one who has obtained a Nobel Prize for their efforts, but I don't really think that defines "success." I also thought of numerous qualities and accomplishments that would be involved in becoming a successful professor, but having all those requirements is not only unrealistic, it also conjured a picture of a king in my…

Published in: Student Voices

Science, Sciencey Stuff, and One’s Favorite Beer

February 10, 2012 | By Hong Tran, Ph.D. Student, Chemical Biology

If I had to answer why I chose U-M in one sentence, it would be my program. U-M is one of the only schools in the nation that offers a Program in Chemical Biology (PCB), is one of the most competitive schools across the nation in biochemistry research, and has an impressive list of faculty who could accommodate almost any research interest. Naturally, considering my background in biology and chemistry and little understanding of how to connect the two, Michigan ranked pretty highly solely because they offered a program to accommodate the category-less oddballs like myself. For Ph.D. programs in…

Published in: Student Voices

Winter in Ann Arbor: There’s a bunch of this white stuff falling from the sky!

February 2, 2012 | By Hong Tran, Ph.D. Student, Chemical Biology

As a bred and raised southerner, winter in Ann Arbor to me conjures up images of snow! I still get giddy and exclaim, “There’s white stuff falling from the sky!” every time it snows. And although it may be a pain to constantly be cleaning and digging my car out of the snow, I still love it. I made my first real snow angel last year after we got a foot or two of snow, went sledding for the first time (with cardboard boxes), and got out to some nearby “large hills” for a snowboarding trip or two. So far…

Published in: Student Voices

Candidacy Survival Guide: Tips From the Presently Submerged

December 14, 2011 | By Hong Tran, Ph.D. Student, Chemical Biology

Author’s note: Most Ph.D. students have to go through a candidacy examination sometime during their second year. In science, this means writing a proposal and then defending it in front of a committee in the form of an oral presentation. For my program in particular, I have to write and defend on my own project. Tips for surviving second year trauma candidacy from someone currently going through the experience: Start as early as possible. This mainly means reading relevant literature and really thinking about your project, but getting started on the writing and/or presentation is always good. Do not be…

Published in: Student Voices

Faculty Connections: It’s Not Always Easy

November 21, 2011 | By Hong Tran, Ph.D. Student, Chemical Biology

I wanted to say something first, before you read the rest of my blog entry. To be honest, I really struggled with writing this month’s topic. My first year in graduate school was rough primarily because I struggled with faculty connections and was unable to find support for myself when things had gone awry. I do realize that the politics can be somewhat skewed in the sciences due to the stressful nature of the field, especially with cuts in funding across the nation, and that they may not reflect experiences in other departments. I do not blame anyone in particular…

Published in: Student Voices

Balance: Work and Play is Like a Sandwich

October 17, 2011 | By Hong Tran, Ph.D. Student, Chemical Biology

Dear Reader, A long time ago, when I was 5 or so, my dad used to always tell me this piece of advice: “Work and play is like a sandwich [He then places his hands together like a sandwich]. You can’t eat a sandwich with just bread [He waves his right hand]. You can’t eat a sandwich with just meat [He waves his left hand]. Same thing for work and play. You can’t play too much [Right hand]. You can’t work too much [Left hand]. You have to have equal [Hands together as a sandwich].” At the time, he was…

Published in: Student Voices

Meet the Bloggers: Hong Tran

September 18, 2011 | By Hong Tran, Ph.D. Student, Chemical Biology

Dear reader, I am glad to have you in my company for the duration of this entry, and hopefully for following posts. I am a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in Chemical Biology (which is indeed different from Biological Chemistry, please see Wikipedia for details), finishing my first year and entering my second year. I was born in Plano, a small suburb just twenty minutes north of Dallas in Texas. My parents settled there after moving around the country in search of a job and an affordable place to live. You see, they are one of the many “boat people”…

Published in: Student Voices

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