Learning and Skills

Before my internship

Teamwork & Independence: Based on my past work experiences I feel confident in my ability to work productively with others in a clinic setting and I plan to expand that to a laboratory setting. Each individual brings a unique skill set to a job and working together creates a productive environment. With this being said it is also important to complete tasks individually. I'm confident in preparing, completing, and recording projects on my own and presenting them to a group for feedback that I can utilize in my next assignment.

Integration & Application: As a biology student I'm learning information that directly translates to a laboratory setting and my future field of veterinary medicine. I will use skills I've learned in laboratory like accurately recording information and using a microscope.

Learning from Failure & Perseverance: I hope to become less afraid of failing through this internship. While logically I know failure is an opportunity for learning, I don't want to let my team down. I can learn to grow by asking for help when I reach an obstacle and not falling behind my timeline or let it discourage me from continuing. This growth will require me to step outside my comfort zone.

First half of my internship

Integration & Application: I already feel confident that I'm learning skills that are valuable in my pursuit to becoming a veterinarian. Through watching my veterinarian supervisor, I have seen a new perspective of my future career. My perspective has expanded from thinking veterinarians work in clinics to veterinarians often work in universities and research hospitals.

Responsibility & Independence: Throughout the beginning of my internship, I have seen first-hand the importance of being responsible. In the workplace no one is constantly reminding me of the tasks that need completed we just share a common goal of completing a research project. I have spent time reading journals and developing an experimental design independently. There is no deadline, but I try to complete work efficiently so at out next meeting we can move forward. This shows my need for improvement in independence. I depend mainly on supervisor to tell me the task but perform it mostly independently. In the future I hope to plan and perform tasks independently.

Second half of my internship

Integration & Application: I am learning transferable skills like basic mouse handling techniques. I learned how to restrain a mouse and was able to collect a blood sample from the saphenous vein. I also watched a subcutaneous injection of saline solution. These will be useful skills for my project testing wait times between training sessions and my future as a veterinarian.

Learning from Failure & Perseverance: It took many attempts to properly restrain the mouse, but my supervisor was encouraging, and I completed the task by the end of the of our session.

Post internship

Teamwork & Independence: I have had the opportunity to grow in my teamwork skills this year. To be a good team member means being patient and understanding when members of the team have to take a step back and preparing independently to hit the ground running when they return. Work isn't someone's whole life, and sometimes life happens where you have to step away from work. I learned to respect this and had to be self motivated to work on my project.

Integration and Application: Through reflecting I have realized how important this skill is as an undergraduate intern. I have learned many different techniques, such as enzyme immunoassay for my project based on what sceintists have recorded in their journal article. This required a complex level of thinking where I comprehended what they did for their experiment and learned how to apply similar techniques to my project.

Relation to Coursework

My workplace has related to my general chemistry laboratories and my organic chemistry laboratory. In lab we used previous experiments to create our own lab procedure to solve a problem or achieve a certain result. I'm using these same problem solving skills at my internship when creating a research project to complete.