Embedded Files
Career Goals
Career Goals
My career goal is to attend medical school and specialize in Pediatrics with a focus on Developmental Medicine. I want to work in Developmental Medicine because of my person experience with it, which has given me a drive and passion to pursue a career learning more about neurodevelopmental disorders. I am driven to pursue a career in medicine because I am fascinated by the human body and how medicines effect our development. Although I still have a lot of specifics to figure out about my future career, my time with LHSI has provided me with clarity about my future and what I want to achieve. At the beginning of my internship, I was on the fence about going to medical school or getting my PhD, what specialties I wanted to work in, and what really brought me joy and sparked by interests. I now have an end goal that I am confident about and a pathway to get there.
When I applied to LHSI in the spring of 2024, my goal was to decipher if my true calling was to work in clinical research or another field. As stated above, LHSI opened my eyes to the world of medicine, and I realized that I would thrive in clinical environment over working in research full time. However, I also learned that I do enjoy clinical research and want to purse that in some form while also working in clinical medicine.
After LHSI, I plan to continue to seek internship opportunities and gain more hands-on experience in a clinical setting to help prepare me for my future career.
Internship Goals
Internship Goals
Goal #1: I want to get a clearer picture of what I want to do for a career.
This goal prepares me for the future because I will gain a better understanding of myself and the word environment that I want to build my career in.
What tasks, responsibilities, projects, or activities can I do to meet this goal?
1. Shadowing opportunities
2. Gain experience in research
3. Work with a team of people with varies jobs from various backgrounds.
Progress:
Over the past year I have gotten a very clear picture of what I want to do career wise as stated in my career goals page. I have shadowed at Riley Hospital for Children, worked with Dr. McNally's team on many different research projects for ASD, and gotten to meet with doctors who work in research and clinical work to help lead me in the right direction.
Goal #2: I want to learn better time management skills and find a balance between my work, social, and academic life.
As someone who wants to go into the medical fields, proper time management will play a huge roll in my career because of how much time school and work will take up in my life.
What tasks, responsibilities, projects, or activities can I do to meet this goal?
1. Balancing my LHSI and school responsibilities
2. Being remote part of the time and having to choose when to work on my projects.
3. Working my 20hrs every two weeks while still balancing my other job
Progress:
Although I still struggle with time management and it's a skill I'm still building on, being a part of LHSI has taught me the importance of planning ahead and setting reasonable time management goals each week. I have improved this past semester balancing my academic responsibilities and my internship. I have done my best to manage my other job, social activities, and other commitments while working remotely as well.
Goal #3: Improve my communication skills.
Communication is crucial in any career. It is important to be able to communicate with your collages and supervisors to ensure you are doing your job to the best of your abilities.
What tasks, responsibilities, projects, or activities can I do to meet this goal?
1. Contacting my supervisor when I am not able to complete a task or make it to the office.
2. Working with others and communicating my thoughts in a professional manner.
3. Letting my supervisors know when I have a personal situation that will interfere with my work.
Progress:
Communicating effectively is something that is still hard for me, but I have seen improvements in my communication skills over the course of my LHSI experience. This past semester I've learned to bring up issues directly with my supervisor, respond within a timely manner, and communicate clearly with my peers.
Learning
Learning
During my internship so far, I feel most confident in the following skills:
Problem-Solving and Perseverance: In the past when I was faced with an overwhelming challenge, I would often admit defeat, give up, or procrastinate. Since beginning my internship, I have gained the courage to face challenges head on. When I was working on my first data report for my internship site, I was overwhelmed by the process of recording the data and unsure if I was doing it correctly. Instead of letting my worries of failure get the best of me, I reached out for help. My uncertainties were clarified, and I am now confident in my ability to complete the data reports correctly and efficiently.
Constructive Criticism and Feedback: Over the course of this semester, I have learned to use criticism and feedback to improve my skills. After each data report I submit, my supervisor gives me feedback on what I did well and what needs to be fixed. I use these critiques to update the data and consider what I did wrong or what I could’ve done better. Then, I make sure to implement what I learned from my precious reports to do better on future reports.
Confronts Challenges and Failure: I am currently facing a personal challenge that greatly affects my mental health. Because of this I have encountered challenges in my academics and internship experience that I didn’t expect too. From not completing my tasks on time, to failing an exam or too, I have experienced failure in a way that I never have before. However, this failure has driven me to do better in the future and learn from the mistakes I have made this semester. I believe that the personal challenges I have faced this semester will make me a better student and intern in the future.
I would like to improve the following skills:
Communication: Communication has always been a weakness of mine. I find responding to emails and messages daunting, and it is something that often holds me back. Although this is still a huge struggle of mine, I have done my best to communicate to my advisor the challenges I am currently facing and try to respond to emails and messages in a timely manner. Small improvements and better than no improvements.
Adaptivity: I would like to improve more on my ability to not only learn from the past, but to act in the future. I am good at pointing out my past mistakes, but I often struggle to use the lessons I have learned from those mistakes. For example, I know that when I struggle to communicate, I tend to upset people, but it is hard for me to make significant improvements even though I know how to do so.
Working at the Early Autism Evaluation Hub has given me a deeper drive and motivation to continue working towards the goal of helping those with neurodevelopmental disorders. While I am still early on in my course work as a Neuroscience major, whenever given the opportunity to connect my course work to autism, I do so by using skills and information that I have learned during my time as an LHSI intern.
Page updated
Report abuse