Days of My Life

Dear Jacqueline M Burns,

The Undergraduate Research Grants Committee (URGC) has completed its
review of over 200 proposals for the 2009 Summer Grants. As chair of
the Committee, I am pleased to inform you that your proposal [20080181]
received favorable review. Thus, by this letter you are awarded a
Northwestern University Summer Undergraduate Research Grant in the
amount noted below intended to cover research and living expenses for
the summer of 2009.

According to URGC policy, in order to accept this grant you must agree
to devote at least eight (8) summer weeks of full-time (40 hours per
week) work to your project. Furthermore, you must agree not to
entertain other sources of employment or income during the 2009 summer
without prior approval by URGC.

...

After obsessively checking my email from 9 am to 3 pm on Friday (literally, every 5 minutes.. oh the wonders of the iPhone!), I received the above email. The amount of screaming and jumping up and down that subsequently ensued was possibly the most of any in my life (it felt like getting in to college all over again). I started screaming, "IGOTMYGRANTAAAHHHHHIGOTMYGRANT!!!!" and Suz spun my around in circles in the lounge. My roommate came rushing out of our room down the hall, asking frantically who was being attacked by a dog, but once she realized what was going on, joined in my excitement. I called my parents, texted all my friends and then went out to celebrate with my dear friends. I still cannot believe how blessed I am.

For those of you who are not sure what all this means, at the end of winter quarter, I applied for Northwestern's Undergraduate Research Grant, which is a grant of $3000 awarded to select students who propose to complete some sort of research project over the summer. My topic is the Gulag and the Soviet family- I want to explore the effect of the Gulag (Soviet concentration camps) on the family unit and record the stories of people who were directly affected by the Gulag. The stories of these people are NOT being told - an entire chapter of history is missing, as I see it. I spent an entire month and countless hours researching and writing my proposal (I submitted draft number 9 and read possibly 15 books), which is part of the reason winter quarter was the craziest time of my life. I invested so much of myself into this project that my proposal felt like my child. (The only thing I have ever felt as attached to was my college application essay.) These grants are awarded primarily to juniors and sometimes sophomores - I was told more than once that my topic was great, but I was a freshman, so I had better just come back next year and apply because my chances would be so much better. So you can imagine my excitement when I found out that I had made it, and had proved all the pessimists wrong. I still can't help randomly grinning from ear to ear and muttering under my breath, "Haha, I got my grant!" My summer is going to be absolutely and utterly perfect.

Life is sweet right now.. I love my university, I love the opportunities that are given to me, I am so thankful that I am here and nowhere else in the world, and I am amazingly excited for this summer and my research project!