Okay, so. This May post was not supposed to happen — or rather, I was not supposed to write it. But here we are. June, and I’m finally hitting publish on May. Bear with me. 💛
May was… something else.
It began, as most of my months do, with paper prep. But somewhere in the first week, one of my lab mates asked me, almost casually: “Hey Priscilla, have you gotten an internship for the summer?”
Now, normally that wouldn’t have meant much. But given the conversations our advisor had already had with us about funding challenges, I immediately understood where she was coming from.
Our advisor had informed us that he was facing financial constraints and might not be able to fully fund us during the summer. Suddenly, it hit me. I didn’t have an internship despite having two interviews after more than 120+ application. My advisor didn’t have sufficient funding. And summer was approaching very quickly. That realization completely shifted my mood, my productivity, and honestly every aspect of my life. I had to stop and reevaluate everything — my finances, my plans, my hobbies, and my priorities. The question became very simple: How am I going to survive the summer?
Asking for help with Panic
Once the initial panic settled, I knew I had to do something. I started reaching out to people, making inquiries, asking questions, and exploring every possible option. I wasn’t in a position to be picky. I simply needed a solution.
One of the first people I contacted was a “mentor” of mine. I explained my situation and shared my concerns about summer funding. Thankfully, she suggested a mentorship program being run through the AI Institute on campus.
At that point, I was willing to pursue any opportunity that could help. So I walked into the AI Institute’s office. No scheduled meeting, no appointment. Just me, my predicament, and a whole lot of audacity. I basically said:
“This is my current predicament. Are you hiring? Even if it’s a reception position, I am open to anything this summer.”
The administrator was incredibly kind. She explained that they were running an AI mentorship program which runs from 22 June to 31 July and that if my research aligned with AI, I could potentially serve as a mentor. I immediately thought:
“My research sits at the intersection of formal verification, privacy compliance, and large language models”
So yes, AI-aligned? Absolutely. The only requirements were that my advisor recommend me and that the director approve the application, she said. Everything moved surprisingly quickly after that.
A Huge Relief
The AI mentorship program ultimately provided about 31% of the funding I would normally receive during the summer. My advisor was then able to secure approximately 46% of my usual summer support. Together, that brought me to about 77% of my typical summer income.
Now, a part of me could fixate on that missing 23%. But two weeks before any of this came together, I genuinely had no idea how I was going to get through the summer. So 77%? That is something to be grateful for. Not perfect, not ideal, but it was far better than where I started. And I’m not taking that for granted.
The Paper Saga Continues
Alongside all of the financial navigation, May was also a month of paper evolution — or maybe paper chaos, depending on how you look at it.
I had been working toward submitting to EMNLP, with a deadline of May 25th. After I finished running my experiments and submitted a draft to my advisor, he came back and said: this isn’t the right venue. He redirected us toward Oakland 2027, a security and privacy conference. Then, after I’d already completed the first draft, we hit another wall: the benchmark we were targeting, our results weren’t beating it. We needed to fix the errors, close the gap, and make sure we were actually surpassing the state of the art.
So Oakland 2027 (Cycle 1, thank goodness — Cycle 2 is in November) didn’t happen either. We’re now working toward USENIX 2027. And in the meantime, May was mostly template-switching, restructuring the paper, reworking ideas, and pushing forward.
It was not the most glamorous month of research. But it’s the work. We keeping going and pushing!
Something to Look Forward To
One genuinely exciting thing coming out of all of this: the mentorship program means I’ll be teaching. I’ll be assigned three to four undergraduate students and walking them through my research in an AI-aligned context. And honestly? I’m really looking forward to it.
I know students ask the kinds of questions that make you rethink things from the ground up. And I think their curiosity will push me to see my own research differently — to refine it, interrogate it, and maybe even find clearer ways to explain it. That, to me, is invaluable. Again, I absolutely look for to this with so much excitement!
A Little Ghanaian Wisdom Before I Go
There’s an adage in Ghana that says: if you don’t say what’s in your head, you will get a bad haircut. Literally. And what it means is — if you don’t voice your problems, nobody can help you. Nobody can know what you need if you never say it.
If I hadn’t talked to my “mentor”, she wouldn’t have known what I was going through. She wouldn’t have mentioned the AI Institute. I wouldn’t have walked into that office. I wouldn’t have gotten 31% of my summer funding, which eventually became 77% when combined with what my advisor pulled together. You see where this is going?
Speak up. Ask for help. People are willing to help more than you think. Don’t sit in your bubble and suffer in silence. Talk to a friend, an acquaintance, a mentor. Someone who loves you is out there ready to give with open arms, but only if they know you need it.
That’s my biggest takeaway from May. Not a race medal (from April’s 5k run), not a photo shoot (April’s Spring Photo shoot), not a new experience. Just that — ask for help.
It’s a wrap
This post wasn’t supposed to be published. It felt too personal, too heavy, too much. That’s why it’s coming out in June instead of May. But I’m glad I wrote it. And I’m glad you read it.
May showed me that no matter how difficult a situation gets, there’s always a way through. It might not be perfect. It might not look the way you planned. But there is always a way. Likewise it also reminded me of the kindness of people, the importance of community, and the value of speaking up when you need support.
Thank you for staying till the end.
Love,
Priscilla 💞
