No Longer a Newbie: The Rapid Academic and Personal Growth at ERG

[Monkgogi Otlhogile, ERG grad student]

Something very strange has been happening to the class of 2016.* In a few months, we will be celebrating our first ERG birthday! A huge growth spurt has occurred overnight for the “babies” of ERG. In a matter of months, I have gone from crawling through Energy and Society’s first problem set to taking full strides (not so confident but strides nonetheless) into my Master’s project. I have noticed that when first-years introduce themselves, we no longer speak of vague research interests but have concrete and specific research goals. Our cohort is now fully integrated into the ERG community, and I have become privy to how my fellow first-years have become resources for the community at large. Our second semester is coming to a close, and I am coming to terms that in a matter of weeks we will no longer be “newbies” at ERG.

... my own transformation at ERG has been so rapid that I didn’t even recognize that I was no longer the jet-lagged newbie nervously introducing myself to my awesome cohort in late August.

I started thinking about my own growth at ERG, when I joined the ERG welcome committee and began interacting with prospective students. I was shocked that prospective students were looking to me for answers, because my own transformation at ERG has been so rapid that I didn’t even recognize that I was no longer the jet-lagged newbie nervously introducing myself to my awesome cohort in late August. I have given lots of thought about what ERG has taught me in the last eight months and realized that ERG’s contribution goes beyond my own intellectual experience but has spread to those around me. I have taught my parents how to do back-of-the envelope calculations over Skype, I told my friends when was the best time to buy gas and I now get a kick out of telling people how many grains of sand are on all the beaches in the world — thanks to John Harte. However, according to those closest to me the most important thing that ERG has given me is an unabashed excitement about my own research and my potential career path.

Joe, Katie and Laney hanging out in "ERG Town" (ERG's recently renovated study space)

...no one person’s intellectual space looks the same at ERG, and the tools given to us could be used in an infinite number of ways.

Being a newbie is not just about not knowing where Wellman Hall is or not knowing that Kay Burns can literally save your life with a couple of key strokes. Being a newbie at ERG is about being given your own intellectual space and tools with which to carve your space into new, pertinent and interesting research. This process is even more daunting then using TeleBears for the first time while in Botswana. In the first months, everyone else’s intellectual space is so impressive that some days at ERG felt like being surrounded by numerous Jimi Hendrixes playing the most beautiful solo when you can barely strum a single cord. However, it was older ERGies who reminded me that no one person’s intellectual space looks the same at ERG, and the tools given to us could be used in an infinite number of ways.  I was encouraged to not look around at what the other cool kids in the classroom were doing but to invest in research that excites me and feeds my intellectual hunger.

ERGies out enjoying the Bay Area

Being a newbie at ERG is about being given your own intellectual space and tools with which to carve your space into new, pertinent and interesting research.

By no means do I have a refined research question (sorry Margaret and Duncan!), but my year at ERG has given me not only new friends, new faculty-related jokes, and new quantitative skills but also a new outlook on my research that has restored my faith in academia and my choice to join this program. Even though I am still in awe of the many incredible researchers at ERG, I know that the enthusiasm I bring to my research will eventually allow me to be one of the cool kids.  In a few weeks our cohort will no longer be newbies, but my hope is that even as we transition into becoming the cool kids, we never forget the “research excitement” we experienced as newbies at ERG.


Top image: Newbies 2014 at the end of their first semester at ERG, having a holiday dinner
* Fall 2014 entering ERG cohort, a.k.a. Newbies 2014.



Note: The views expressed here belong solely to the author of each entry and are not representative of the position of the Energy and Resources Group, UC Berkeley.