#7 Adrian Sakr's: Journey of Managing Studies, Goals, Finance & Life, UF Graduate Student

[0:00] my name is adrian zaker the kind of
[0:02] impacts that i want to have on the world
[0:04] every day i'm busy from seven a.m to you
[0:07] know midnight or something
[0:09] and so it's so easy to just get caught
[0:12] up in all the things that i'm doing and
[0:13] suddenly months and years go by and it's
[0:16] you know it's like what happened really
[0:17] go
[0:18] the importance of
[0:19] being in the moment and appreciating
[0:21] what i'm doing
[0:27] we will start with sharing a background
[0:29] about
[0:30] who adrian is my name is adrian saker
[0:35] i am a
[0:37] environmental engineering master's
[0:38] student right now uf i just graduated my
[0:42] undergraduate degree this past may um
[0:44] since spring of 2021 and environmental
[0:46] engineering from uf
[0:48] i am
[0:50] currently
[0:51] my research focus is ecological
[0:53] engineering um so i'm looking at ways to
[0:55] integrate ecological theory with applied
[0:58] engineering systems and
[1:00] have
[1:01] benefits for both anthropogenic and
[1:03] ecological systems
[1:06] through engineering projects
[1:08] i'm currently i'm on a phd track i
[1:10] suppose so um once i finish my master's
[1:13] degree next spring i'll start on my phd
[1:15] and i'll probably do it at uf so i'll be
[1:17] here for a few years yet
[1:21] very much i'm still
[1:23] figuring out
[1:24] what exactly it is i want to do
[1:26] in terms of research and life in general
[1:29] i
[1:31] want to
[1:33] my driving motivators to
[1:36] integrate both ecological and
[1:38] anthropological benefits in what i do
[1:41] and it's
[1:42] been pretty hard to find that balance so
[1:45] far so i'm still
[1:47] exploring and
[1:50] just trying to find my way
[1:54] in terms of who i am i suppose besides
[1:55] academics because that's a relatively
[1:57] small part of it i think
[2:00] i
[2:01] like to exercise a lot i do a lot of
[2:04] running and biking and rock climbing and
[2:07] tennis and other things and i also teach
[2:10] pottery
[2:11] at a pottery studio here at uf
[2:14] so i do pottery pretty much every day as
[2:15] well
[2:16] and i suppose those are the
[2:19] main aspects of
[2:21] who i am in terms of what i do
[2:23] you've been in uf for i think five years
[2:26] now or six
[2:28] five yeah five years
[2:29] so
[2:30] in these five years what you wanted to
[2:32] become in highest school and now is
[2:36] there a change uh what we wanted to
[2:38] become originally
[2:41] i think it's changed
[2:43] in so far as i didn't really know going
[2:45] into it
[2:46] so it's just changing that i've
[2:48] developed a somewhat clear idea of what
[2:51] i want to do
[2:53] when i started
[2:56] so i guess if we're talking about what i
[2:57] want to do it kind of is rooted back in
[3:00] high school
[3:02] right so
[3:03] first
[3:05] before in high school starting off i
[3:06] wanted to be a marine biologist that was
[3:09] my
[3:10] um
[3:11] kind of childhood
[3:13] ambition
[3:15] um
[3:16] and then
[3:17] through high school i guess that sort of
[3:20] got tempered by reality and i kind of
[3:22] had to you know reconsider a little bit
[3:24] and i kind of didn't really know exactly
[3:26] what i wanted to do
[3:27] um and then i spoke with
[3:30] a friend of my mom's he was an
[3:32] environmental engineer and i didn't even
[3:34] know what environmental engineering was
[3:35] before this wasn't
[3:37] maybe sophomore junior year of high
[3:38] school
[3:39] um and he said yeah you can
[3:42] do both ecological work and also have
[3:46] you know applied engineering
[3:48] impacts on society and also make a
[3:51] little bit more money than a marine
[3:52] biologist would
[3:53] um so i decided to i applied to colleges
[3:56] under environmental engineering not
[3:58] fully knowing what it was or what i
[4:00] wanted to do in it but it just kind of
[4:02] sounding like a good
[4:04] um you know balance of various interests
[4:08] so at the beginning of college when i
[4:10] started my undergraduate degree i
[4:12] had a vague idea of what i wanted to do
[4:14] but it was very much not clear at all
[4:18] so over the four years during undergrad
[4:22] i think it kind of
[4:24] crystallized into
[4:27] not necessarily having a clear idea of
[4:29] um the work or you know what kind of job
[4:33] i wanted to have but
[4:34] the kind of impacts that i want to have
[4:36] on the world
[4:38] and so
[4:39] you know i'm still just now coming out
[4:40] of undergraduate so i think where i am
[4:42] now is that
[4:44] i've
[4:45] developed a more
[4:47] accurate idea of what i want to be doing
[4:50] what i want my
[4:51] impact on the world to be i just haven't
[4:53] figured out yet what kind of job that
[4:56] would
[4:57] be
[5:00] well we will see the journey right
[5:02] yeah
[5:06] how did you prepare your college list
[5:08] and
[5:09] what was your journey for your admission
[5:12] um
[5:14] i think i probably put a lot less effort
[5:16] into preparing my college list than i
[5:19] could or should have
[5:22] the
[5:23] i was pretty burned out by the end of
[5:25] high school and i
[5:27] wasn't really inclined to put much
[5:28] effort into anything
[5:30] um i was definitely focusing on in-state
[5:32] schools just because tuition was cheaper
[5:35] um and also at the end of high school i
[5:37] got the benekisto scholarship
[5:39] which
[5:40] pays full cost of attendance for any um
[5:43] in-state university that's through the
[5:45] nms qt
[5:48] so
[5:50] that's kind of
[5:52] pretty much made my decision for me um i
[5:55] had looked at some out-of-state schools
[5:57] just to you know i had always wanted to
[5:59] move out of state
[6:00] um and so i thought it would be nice to
[6:02] go to california or the northeast or
[6:04] something or even internationally and i
[6:06] looked at and applied to a few schools
[6:07] there
[6:08] um but i was only i think really
[6:10] seriously considering in-state schools
[6:12] for tuition reasons
[6:14] um and obviously this keystone
[6:16] scholarship
[6:17] um
[6:18] so
[6:20] yeah i applied to most in state schools
[6:23] actually maybe not that many but once i
[6:24] got into uf um that pretty much sealed
[6:27] the deal for me
[6:30] that he was the national scholar as well
[6:33] benny crystal scholarship
[6:35] covers 100 of your tuition as well as
[6:38] resident i mean any expense that you
[6:40] have so you probably have not spent any
[6:43] time from your pocket
[6:45] in last five years yes yeah
[6:48] and uh um i don't know if you know but
[6:50] my son vadik he also got benefits
[6:53] scholarship
[6:55] so he had a choice between
[6:57] georgia tech
[6:58] and
[7:00] uf
[7:01] and he selected uf because he was unsure
[7:05] whether he want to go in the engineering
[7:06] path or medical path
[7:09] and then um uf was covering 100 percent
[7:12] of this scholarship
[7:17] so as we are on a scholarship of finance
[7:20] sections you've been there five years um
[7:24] on your own how do you manage your
[7:26] finance and do you do a written budget
[7:29] or something
[7:32] no
[7:33] i'm not very proud of that it's really
[7:35] just thanks to you know having been a
[7:37] quisto and
[7:39] honestly just having enough money to be
[7:41] comfortable
[7:42] without having to keep track of my money
[7:44] too closely i definitely think that
[7:47] um
[7:48] everyone should do a budget and i should
[7:50] do a budget and
[7:51] i kind of wish that i were forced
[7:55] more acutely to develop better financial
[7:57] management skills um because i need to
[8:00] now
[8:01] um and you know so i wish i just started
[8:03] thinking about it earlier
[8:05] um i think regardless of what one's
[8:08] financial position is it's good to have
[8:10] a budget
[8:11] but for me i was always
[8:13] i never
[8:14] needed to track my finances that closely
[8:17] um
[8:19] and so i kind of just
[8:21] lived comfortably without thinking about
[8:23] money too much
[8:25] so a tip for you
[8:28] uh there are many online budget software
[8:31] uh but the one that i use personally is
[8:35] called every dollar
[8:38] and
[8:39] it came from
[8:40] dave ramsey which is kind of close to
[8:44] the
[8:45] the
[8:46] philosophy money philosophy that my
[8:49] parents and their parents have used that
[8:52] don't use too much credit um pay for a
[8:56] pay cash or
[8:58] spend
[8:59] less than what you earn
[9:01] so based on that so um if
[9:05] you're interested go to everydollar.com
[9:08] and then create an account it's a free
[9:10] account unless you want your
[9:14] bank account automatically linked to
[9:17] this
[9:18] um otherwise the free account you can
[9:20] create budget and you can also learn
[9:24] uh what this mean right what budgeting
[9:26] mean
[9:28] where you spend most of your money
[9:31] what's your biggest expense
[9:34] that is a good question
[9:36] i would say i mean obviously rent and
[9:38] food are the two biggest monthly
[9:40] expenses
[9:41] um
[9:43] besides that
[9:44] i guess a monthly subscription to a
[9:48] membership to a climbing gym
[9:50] and
[9:51] just a lot of other miscellaneous things
[9:53] that all seem small in the moment but
[9:56] add up to
[9:57] uh you know significant monthly
[9:59] expenditures
[10:01] um i think for me it's easy to
[10:05] you know
[10:06] buy a lot of small things and it doesn't
[10:07] seem like it's a big deal but they add
[10:10] up fast
[10:11] just like time management adrian what
[10:13] you're doing is you're tracking
[10:16] your spending
[10:17] you know that what you have spent up and
[10:21] and in time management that's kind of
[10:23] the first thing that you try to know
[10:25] uh how you spend your time and then you
[10:29] go to the next level where you plan
[10:32] before you spend your time right so
[10:34] you're already there you're halfway
[10:36] there
[10:38] and most people and some people don't
[10:39] even do that it's sad but that's a
[10:42] reality today
[10:44] yeah
[10:49] well we we're spending a lot of time on
[10:51] finance and i wanted to ask more
[10:53] questions on finance um and
[10:56] so tracking of your money
[10:58] budgeting for your money
[11:00] and then the third level next level is
[11:03] uh uh investing your money do you do any
[11:06] kind of investing
[11:08] i did actually just open an ira
[11:10] a couple of
[11:12] um that's about the extent of it i've
[11:15] started trying to get into it a little
[11:17] bit now that i just have more savings
[11:19] it's really just since getting this
[11:21] scholarship the fellowship now that i
[11:23] have
[11:24] any kind of real
[11:26] monthly savings so now i'm starting to
[11:28] get into it a little bit
[11:30] and i definitely know lots of other
[11:31] people my age in college who do a lot of
[11:33] investing and have and make a lot of
[11:35] money from it
[11:37] for me i'm kind of just starting
[11:39] i personally would like to have more
[11:41] secure long-term things so the ira was
[11:44] the first priority for me
[11:46] um
[11:47] and so i'm just putting you know a few
[11:49] hundred into that every month
[11:51] but um
[11:53] i would also like to open a cma or they
[11:55] can get into
[11:57] more volatile short-term things but
[11:59] it's very much upgrading
[12:02] yeah yeah
[12:04] last question on this
[12:05] when you're investing in a roth ira
[12:08] where are you putting are you buying
[12:09] individual stock are you buying a fund
[12:12] or what
[12:14] um i actually so i only have um stock
[12:18] right now and it's over in a couple of
[12:20] companies
[12:21] um
[12:22] but yeah i'm still i just started it so
[12:25] i'm still just trying to figure out what
[12:26] i want to put the money into
[12:28] yeah as long as you know that this
[12:30] company can survive next 10 20 years it
[12:33] will grow definitely and then another
[12:36] safest option is to buy or
[12:39] regularly invest in s p 500 based on and
[12:43] there are some from vanguard
[12:45] which has low fees
[12:48] and good reputation so you have to look
[12:50] last 10 15 20 years of s p 500.
[12:58] during all this time uh adrian have you
[13:00] done any internship or job
[13:03] while you were studying
[13:04] i worked as a studio assistant at the
[13:07] pottery studio for
[13:09] two years during undergrad
[13:11] um so that was just a part time like 10
[13:14] 15 hours a week minimum wage
[13:16] mostly just because i enjoyed it yeah
[13:18] i'm a small source of additional income
[13:19] but i just
[13:20] like spending time with the pottery
[13:22] studio
[13:23] um and now i also teach the pottery
[13:25] classes so that's uh
[13:27] just a few hours a week um but
[13:30] yeah so just a little bit of additional
[13:31] money but most of the income comes from
[13:33] scholarships or fellowships
[13:36] um so i had internships in high school i
[13:39] did two research internships
[13:41] at different institutions
[13:43] while i was in high school
[13:45] and since starting undergrad i've been
[13:47] doing research um for i did research for
[13:50] all four years that i was an undergrad
[13:52] um so i was working in a lab and leading
[13:54] on projects
[13:55] but as far as specific internships gone
[13:58] i didn't have any
[14:00] um
[14:02] any of those most people in engineering
[14:05] do some kind of engineering like summer
[14:07] contracting internship
[14:09] um contracting being the biggest
[14:12] occupation in environmental engineering
[14:14] so
[14:15] most people do some kind of summer
[14:16] internship and
[14:18] you know work for some contracting firm
[14:20] doing water waste water treatment or
[14:22] something like that
[14:24] for me i've never really
[14:27] the conventional environmental
[14:28] engineering jobs that never really
[14:29] appealed to me um so i never really had
[14:31] any interest in getting any kind of
[14:33] internship like that
[14:34] and those are just most of the
[14:35] internships that are available
[14:38] um
[14:38] so i think
[14:40] for me i haven't done any internships
[14:42] because
[14:44] the ones available didn't really align
[14:46] with what i want to do and i'm still
[14:47] just trying to figure out what it is
[14:49] that i want to do okay
[14:54] so changing the topic to
[14:56] time management
[14:57] you have
[14:58] obviously
[15:00] a very busy schedule
[15:02] you have college
[15:04] bunch of classes then you do research
[15:06] and then um
[15:08] many other things right so how do you
[15:09] manage your time
[15:12] um
[15:13] my calendar is probably the most open
[15:16] website
[15:17] um
[15:18] that i have you know right now
[15:20] i everything that i do every like class
[15:23] or research time or social activity or
[15:26] anything gets put onto the calendar
[15:28] um i guess it's a combination of
[15:31] on like a weekly scale i have everything
[15:32] in the calendar and so
[15:34] um i kind of just check every day and i
[15:37] see what i have for the whole week or
[15:38] for the next few days um and then just
[15:41] figure out
[15:42] you know in between my obligations what
[15:44] time i have to study or eat or
[15:46] do whatever i need to do
[15:48] um
[15:49] and then on a daily scale it's really
[15:51] more just
[15:53] waking up in the morning knowing what
[15:55] are the tasks that i have to achieve
[15:57] that day and then just figuring out what
[15:59] time i have you know what windows i have
[16:01] to do it
[16:03] i guess it's really pretty
[16:04] my time management is more short-term
[16:07] focused um really more on a day-by-day
[16:10] basis
[16:11] um
[16:12] kind of just trying to figure out you
[16:14] know
[16:15] when i can do what and between classes
[16:17] and everything else each day
[16:19] and you know maybe what i'm going to do
[16:21] in the evening as far as
[16:23] climbing or watching a movie or
[16:24] something
[16:26] um
[16:27] but definitely i think the calendar is
[16:29] the most important resource for me just
[16:31] being able to see everything and have it
[16:33] and i set um you know reminders for
[16:36] every events like an hour or a day in
[16:37] advance so i don't forget about anything
[16:40] and that's really what keeps me
[16:41] functional
[16:43] are you using google calendar yeah yeah
[16:46] and then for your task list are you
[16:48] using an application or a notebook so
[16:51] the canvas application the uf elearning
[16:54] portal
[16:55] um provides like summary lists of all of
[16:57] your assignments for the day and that's
[17:00] usually most of what i'm doing each day
[17:01] is whatever you know homework tasks i've
[17:03] got coming up
[17:05] um so that's the most
[17:07] the easiest way to see what i have to do
[17:10] um
[17:11] but besides that now
[17:13] okay
[17:18] time management to your big goals and
[17:21] dreams the dreams and big goals are two
[17:24] years five years from now right um how
[17:27] do you manage that
[17:28] how do you identify what those are
[17:32] that's a good question
[17:34] um
[17:37] i think so i've been thinking a lot
[17:40] about this especially the last six
[17:41] months since graduating and now i'm
[17:43] trying to find my own personal path in
[17:45] grad school
[17:46] um
[17:48] so i think i kind of started off with
[17:50] some very vague parameters of what i
[17:52] want my what my goals and dreams are you
[17:54] know i had some
[17:57] you know vague idea that i wanted to
[17:58] incorporate ecology and engineering and
[18:01] social welfare
[18:03] into some kind of
[18:05] you know composite role that meets all
[18:07] three needs
[18:08] um
[18:09] and so
[18:11] that's you know my
[18:13] ultimate like you know
[18:15] top
[18:17] uh kind of idea and everything else is
[18:19] built off of that
[18:21] and so from that core i kind of
[18:23] develop a little bit more detail and get
[18:25] a little bit more focused focus
[18:27] and so the more i think about it and the
[18:29] more i talk to people and i do research
[18:31] work and i take my classes and i kind of
[18:34] get a better sense of how these three
[18:35] things work together and how they exist
[18:37] in the world
[18:38] i kind of start to
[18:40] clarify
[18:42] um you know what kind of ecological work
[18:44] i want to do or what kind of social
[18:46] impact that i can have or what
[18:47] engineering systems exist to satisfy
[18:50] those
[18:52] and so i guess my process of goals slash
[18:55] dream identification
[18:57] starts with this kind of core
[18:59] um
[19:01] and where that comes from i honestly
[19:03] can't say i suppose the ecological
[19:04] aspect comes from a you know childhood
[19:07] interest in marine biology
[19:09] and the engineering is just you know
[19:11] liking math and physics and wanting to
[19:14] have an applied impact on the world
[19:16] and the social just from you know
[19:19] seeing issues in the world wanting to
[19:21] help fix it
[19:23] so
[19:24] i suppose i just start with this very
[19:26] fuzzy idea and kind of increase
[19:29] resolution as i go
[19:30] and so in terms of applying that to my
[19:32] you know current time management
[19:35] i think i especially lately with me
[19:38] trying to figure out you know what kind
[19:39] of research work or anything i want to
[19:41] do
[19:42] i start and you know that's been a
[19:45] spectacularly difficult process just
[19:47] especially with this fellowship and i
[19:49] can do whatever research i want you know
[19:51] i have the whole
[19:53] world of research essentially to pick
[19:55] from
[19:56] and so i've been trying to kind of start
[19:58] with this core idea and kind of work
[20:00] backwards so if i say
[20:02] you know i want to do something like
[20:03] living short lines which is you know the
[20:05] application of ecological systems to
[20:07] like coastal protection wave attenuation
[20:10] water
[20:11] clarification stuff like that
[20:13] i'll kind of say okay you know what do i
[20:15] have to do to get there what is the
[20:18] previous step to implementing a
[20:19] full-scale living shoreline project
[20:22] um what kind of
[20:23] social benefits will that have you know
[20:25] how can i learn more about what that is
[20:27] and so i kind of just start with a
[20:29] really big thing
[20:30] and work backwards
[20:32] all the way down to okay what classes am
[20:34] i going to take this semester which
[20:36] research project do i want to do what
[20:37] paper should i read today
[20:39] um
[20:40] and that's
[20:42] you know it has
[20:44] varying levels of
[20:46] success depending on how motivated i am
[20:48] on a given day but that's generally the
[20:50] idea i think
[20:52] that's amazing
[20:54] many people after 10 15 years of job
[20:57] does not have this type of clarity that
[20:59] you have
[21:00] adrian
[21:02] it hardly seems like clarity but
[21:08] yeah it
[21:09] definitely on a day-to-day basis
[21:12] feels confusing and overwhelming a lot
[21:14] of the time um
[21:17] this happens to the people
[21:19] i mean that's my experience who want to
[21:21] do a lot
[21:23] um
[21:24] that's when you feel this and then the
[21:27] one solution for that is
[21:30] every day you pick up the top three
[21:32] things that you will finish
[21:35] and
[21:36] just
[21:37] you finishing one two or all three of
[21:40] those
[21:41] will give you a tremendous boost in
[21:43] everything you're doing in your life
[21:46] and i recently published a video i
[21:50] highly recommend you watching because
[21:52] she specifically said we have to think
[21:56] in
[21:57] 10
[21:58] 20 years
[22:00] duration and many
[22:02] time we don't have that patience
[22:05] to kind of
[22:08] wait and work that long
[22:11] so what are your big goals right now
[22:14] i suppose like so you know finishing my
[22:16] master's degree is a
[22:19] moderately big goal i guess
[22:21] um getting a phd after that is a
[22:23] slightly larger goal
[22:26] [Music]
[22:28] and then just
[22:29] being able to positively impact the
[22:31] world while doing something i enjoy
[22:35] is
[22:36] the ultimate goal
[22:38] how about family
[22:40] um
[22:42] in terms of me having my own family yes
[22:45] yeah i guess it's definitely
[22:48] something that exists in the back of my
[22:49] mind
[22:50] um
[22:52] i guess
[22:53] yeah it's something that i would like to
[22:54] have one day
[22:56] um
[22:57] but
[22:58] definitely not something that
[23:00] i think about or that i really need to
[23:03] think about at this point
[23:06] um
[23:07] but yeah it would be nice eventually
[23:14] i wanted to ask for your message to the
[23:17] audience i think the most
[23:21] significant or meaningful message that i
[23:23] have to offer anyone kind of applies to
[23:26] everybody regardless of
[23:28] age or position
[23:30] i think one of the most important things
[23:32] that i've started to learn
[23:33] over the last few years it's just the
[23:36] importance of
[23:37] being in the moment and appreciating
[23:39] what i'm doing
[23:40] um because that's always been such a
[23:41] difficult thing for me and i do so much
[23:44] every day i'm busy from seven a.m to you
[23:46] know midnight or something
[23:48] and so it's so easy to just get caught
[23:51] up in all the things that i'm doing and
[23:53] suddenly months and years go by and it's
[23:55] you know it's like what happened where
[23:56] to go
[23:58] um and so for me learning to
[24:01] just stop and appreciate my environment
[24:03] and really think about what i'm doing
[24:05] um you know and that's rooted in
[24:08] you know breathing and looking and
[24:10] listening just
[24:12] that's been you know just extremely
[24:14] beneficial for me in every aspect of my
[24:17] life and so i think that that's
[24:20] the most important thing
[24:22] that i wish i had been able to do
[24:24] earlier and so that i suppose
[24:26] i can offer it to other people
[24:30] thank you so much for your time today
[24:32] adrian it was fun chatting with you
[24:35] um
[24:35] [Music]
[24:37] and i think um
[24:39] i would like to re-engage months from
[24:42] now years from now and continue to have
[24:44] this conversation and able to share
[24:47] that how you grew from this conversation
[24:50] and today's life to
[24:52] a few years from now
[24:54] okay yeah thanks that sounds good i may
[24:57] actually so
[24:59] this conversation has
[25:01] caused me to reflect on both my
[25:03] financial and time management and i
[25:05] think i need to pursue both of those
[25:07] with a little bit more organization so i
[25:09] may ask you some questions
[25:11] as i started figuring things out about
[25:13] that but yeah maybe we have more focused
[25:16] conversation around that next time
[25:19] but
[25:20] but i love talking about those topics
[25:22] and i can help
[25:24] anyway um
[25:26] by providing the material by sharing my
[25:28] experience and anything that you need
[25:30] adrian i would really happy to do that
[25:33] thanks
[25:35] okay good to talk to you this is really
[25:37] fun
[25:48] you