Expectations vs. Reality

Going into this internship I was not completely sure of what to expect due to COVID-19. Under normal circumstances I would have had the opportunity to go into the hospital with Dr. Shin, see volunteers through the screening process, and go into the lab. Between the lack of new volunteers and COVID-19 policies, I was unable to do any of these things. Dr. Shin still ensured I had a worthwhile experience and emphasized other parts of the internship that I likely would have looked over had I focused on in-person related things.

Rather than seeing new volunteers and analyzing their data, I worked with previous volunteer data and was able to create new data tools to manage that data. I was able to give all my focus and attention onto the food data and analysis as opposed to focusing on multiple aspects of the internship at the same time, giving less attention to each part.

I also walked into this internship thinking my assigned project (managing and analyzing food diet data) would not take very long but it has actually taken several months. I did not understand the whole process and how time consuming and tedious some of the work is. I had to go through physical paper files of 70 volunteers to find out who provided an adequate food diary. Of those 70 volunteers, 15 of them provided complete food diaries that I was able to work with. With each volunteer I had to separate their data by day and by meal then break each individual meal into macronutrients. After separating and analyzing the data I entered it into various data tools in REDCap. Navigating REDCap took some time but after I got the hang of it, each volunteer's data was handled smoothly.

Referring back to my successes and challenges, time management has become more difficult as my classes became more time consuming and difficult. However, the data entry became easier as I found the right flow and order of how to enter it.