“She’s going to make a fierce lawyer!” became something akin to a chant I heard often from others around me. And I believed it, too. I arrived at the University of Michigan intent on earning my JD one day- but that all changed my first year when I walked into my Intro to World Politics lecture, where I adopted a new mantra: "interests, institutions, and interactions." Now, my resolute aim is a World Politics PhD to become an accomplished researcher in conflict and human rights. The path to achieving my goals started the moment I walked into university, and so I consciously engage in coursework and activities that will prepare me for rigorous work in research, from programming to research design. Here are 6 key steps I have taken so far:1. I have built a strong foundation in world politics courses by studying the forces driving actors’ interests, interactions, and the relevant institutions used to pursue interests, as well as tactics employed by international bodies to monitor and intervene in political conflict and violence.2. From courses on political methodology, I have explored the use of dataset construction and mining techniques to render data for statistical analysis, and the importance of modeling actors' interests and interactions through game theoretic strategies, capturing ideas of collective action and coordination.3. Last year, I completed a research project in which I coded a Markov chain predicting the equilibrium of Political Terror Scale scores using eigenvalue decomposition. I compiled my findings into an analytical paper explaining how certain thresholds of political terror predicted large-scale repression spells.4. I am coding an agent-based model identifying whether there exist state preferences for political neighborhoods to prevent democratic backsliding, for which I received a research award. From my work, I gained skills in data management, construction of formal models, and effective report writing.5. I am a research assistant to a U-M faculty member studying factors predicting the success of military occupations. By conducting assessments of conflicts via archival records and coding variables for quantitative analysis, I have acquired skills in data collection, literature review, and building quantitative datasets from qualitative information.6. Being part of Student Government, I enjoy working in a dynamic team setting with my peers. I have honed my strategy development skills to draft complex legislation in large group settings, where I thrive in an environment of healthy debate and diversity of thought.