Professional Goals

As with any experience, one of the goals is to reflect and modify career plans as needed. At this point, I am quite sure I want to work in the medical field, especially in the field of neuroscience. But I am still open to be captivated by any other branch of medicine. The internship has enabled me to observe and learn greatly from the field of neuropathology and neurology. Neuropathology is dynamic and ever evolving field in which small observations can inch us closer to unravelling the mystery of neurodegeneration. Although I like the research aspect of this career, I also miss clinical experiences. Ideally I want to be able to help people throughout their life and contribute to research at the same time. Neurosurgery still fascinates me, even more so because now I know some more neuroanatomy. I want to be able to use my skills directly to benefit the patient as opposed to mostly dealing with tissue postmortem. But overall, the more I begin to understand the basics of neuropathology, the more I fall in love with neuroscience, so I would like to choose a future career that enable me to stay connected with neurology, help patients in a more immediate manner, and stay involved in research.

To further explore my career choices, I will try to take as many neuroscience, research and biology classes as possible to gain more knowledge. I will also continue following recommendations from PREPs and my academic advisors to find opportunities to grow as a student and a scientist However, learning from the pandemic, I am trying to be a s flexible as possible with opportunities and approach them as they present themselves. Prior to the pandemic, I was a huge believer in planning every single detail of my academic year and summer months, now I am much more flexible and prefer t not lay any concrete plans lest they be derailed. So depending on what is offered and when, I will amend my career choices as necessary.

Overall my career and academic goals have not changed drastically, similar to any other student, I am beginning to discover my values as a professional. As I understand myself more, I can set more realistic goals and change them as needed. This semester, I plan on writing a paper at my internship site and learn professional scientific thinking and writing. Apart for the internship, I am also working on my leadership skills through my position as a Neuroscience club secretary and a teaching assistant for a neuroscience class. Since many other opportunities for pre meds such as shadowing and health based volunteering have been put on hold, I will continue my search for virtual opportunities. In setting these semester goals, the mid year workshop played a significant role. Prior to the workshop I was concerned with my lack of experience outside LHSI and understanding that my fellow interns are also in a similar situation helped me destress.

Expectations vs. Reality

As I walked into my first week of internship, I expected research to be slow paced and not as dynamic. For example, I came in with the idea that researchers in academia spend decades researching just one disease or one aspect of a topic. Almost a semester and a half into my internship, I can feel the dynamic, challenging and exciting nature of research. There never is just one research project happening. There are always multiple options and endless questions to ask and pursue. There is variety in research and even small observations can be significant in the grand scheme of things.

I was also surprised by the collaborative spirit of research. Dr. Ghetti and Dr. Newell have research collaborations with institutes nationwide and internationally. I used to believe that research was mainly the work of one lab group with some interaction with the rest of community, I have been pleasantly surprised by how much successful collaboration is required in a research project. Science is a truly a team effort!