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Career Goals
Career Goals
My short term goal is to get into dental school after applying this upcoming Summer. My long term goal is to graduate from dental school as a general dentist and start my lifelong dream career. I am pursing these goals because I have always been drawn to science and healthcare. As I've gotten older I have realized that I do not have an extremely strong desire to work in a hospital setting, but instead a private practice. I value highly the work-life balance accompanied with being a dentist because I have other relationships and passions I wish to pursue throughout my life. Dentistry is a profession that offers continual opportunities for learning and challenging yourself, which I value. I want to grow my skill-set as a professional every single day throughout my entire career.
During my time this year I have gained priceless experiences while job-shadowing as well as dove into the "behind the scene" research that contributes to the dental field via my LHSI internship. My experience with LHSI has opened my eyes to the many different facets of dentistry. Even though I am extremely grateful for the research exposure I've gained, this experience has made me come to the realization that I would not want to do dental research for the rest of my career and I really do yearn to work in a clinical setting with patients who I can build strong relationships with. Before LHSI I never realized how much I crave to work in a dental environment that is very collaborate and not 100% independent. I deeply enjoy filling my day with investing in the lives of others. This experience has made me very confident in making future career-decisions and has confirmed my passion for pursuing a career as a general dentist working in a private practice.
The goals I started with coming into LHSI have not changed too much. Overall, I wanted to discover how my own specific personality and skillset could positively impact a research team. I feel that I have confidently completed this goal and found myself becoming an integral part of the lab team. I contribute useful quantitative data for my other lab members to use. During this upcoming summer I plan to apply to dental school and work in a dental office once again, giving me more priceless clinical experience that I can talk about in my dental school interview. This upcoming Fall semester when I come back to campus I will be preparing for dental school interviews, lead organizations, and take a graduate-level course on bone biology which will lay a very strong educational foundation for me before entering dental school! All of these activities I am going to invest my time into during the summer and fall will help me get into dental school to continue my journey to becoming a general dentist.
Internship Goals
Internship Goals
Learning Goal #1:
Become more confident in voicing my own needs within the work place and not saying "yes" to every request. (Becoming less of a "people pleaser.")
Relevance:
Being able to efficiently communicate proper boundaries associated with your personal time is extremely important to my future career as a dentist. One day, I will be my own boss, and instead of letting the constant input from my staff around me affect my actions, I need to be able to establish clear and concise boundaries for the betterment of my dental practice. I know that being able to prioritize tasks effectively and not cluttering up my time with trying to please every single person I know, I will be able to become a successful leader and role model.
Plan of Action:
I have made my schedule and availability clear from day 1 of working at my lab. If I have any personal or academic time commitments that do not involve the lab, I reach out and make sure it is communicated about. If I am asked to come into lab during a time where I have other commitments, I will politely decline and describe why I am not available.
Progress:
While working at my internship site I have had to use the skill of voicing my own personal needs quite a bit. As my schedule and time commitments have grown and changed throughout the past two semester, I have had to communicate my personal availability often. Now that my schedule has became pretty consistent and I feel very comfortable communicating with the people I work alongside, I am happy to report that I have learned how to strengthen this skill!
Learning Goal #2:
Gain mentorship opportunities where I can build strong connections with others within the lab.
Relevance:
Mentorship is extremely important within the dental world. After dental school, there is no required residency program (within Indiana). This means that once you have graduated dental school as a certified General Dentist, it is imperative that you join alliances with an experienced dentist who has strong leadership skills. By gaining mentorship through my lab now, I will be better acquainted with knowing how to take constructive criticism from a mentor and how to use the resource of mentorship to the best of my ability.
Plan of Action:
I will seek out other lab members and ask them questions about the lab's overall mission and the significance of their mission. I will make my request for in-person mentorship known and be willing to learn more about different projects going on in the lab as much as possible.
Progress:
I have really excelled at this learning goal while working in my lab the past two semesters. I have gotten very close to all of the PhD and dental students and they have really invested in me and offered mentorship to me as I navigate trying to get into dental school!
Learning Goal #3:
Be able to gain more connections with professionals who are associated with the dental community at IUI and build relationships with them.
Relevance:
Building relationships with people at IUI that are just as passionate about the dental field as I am is going to be a huge motivator for me to achieve my long term career goals during my time as an undergraduate student. The dental field is all about the deep connections you make with others along the way. I have shadowed and worked for dentists who still feel a close connection with dental professionals who they met during their time as an undergraduate and throughout their dental school journey!
Action Plan:
I will be adamant about attending research and volunteering events that are associated with the dental community at IUI. I will also put time and effort into building meaningful relationships with my fellow lab mates, who are all very passionate about the dental field.
Progress:
Currently I work alongside so many people who are deeply involved in the dental community at IUI and it has been so beneficial. I am also looking forward to networking with students and staff from the IU School of Dentistry when I present my research poster at the IU School of Dentistry's Research Day 2025!
Learning
Learning
Some skills on the survey that I am using so far is communication, integration and application, and constructive criticism and feedback. I have practiced communication by reaching out to my lab supervisor about specific time conflicts and commitments I have. I have used integration and application by taking explained information and tasks and applying them during my own time in lab. I have practiced constructive criticism and feedback by fixing qualitative mistakes I've made in the past and implementing new and improved procedures.
One skill that I have became more confident in during this spring semester is the skill of communication via presenting my research findings. In the fall I was very nervous to present my research findings to my lab members and desribe very specific scientific concepts that I did not fully understand. Now, after having consistent weekly lab meetings where I have had to present my research, I feel much more confident in my ability to communicate scientific contents, even if I do not understand every little facet about them.
Some skills that I will continue to work on include independence and my specific internship goals. To grow my independence I will continue to work on my current lab skills so I can complete more complex tasks independently further down the road. I will grow in my personal internship goals by sticking to my "Plan of Action" I have established.
One skill from the survey that I would like to continue to work on is recieving contructive critisim. At times I struggle to take constructive critism positvely and not tear myswld down. I put a lot of time and effort into anything that I do so when someone does not like my work or wants to change it, I can sometimes take it personally. To grow in this skill I will continue to put myself in places where I am likely to make mistakes or fail, this teaches me to "roll with the punches" and take negative feedback in a very graceful way.
This internship has really helped me gain a further understanding of my current course work and major by pointing out the real-life applications of numerous different lab techniques I have explored during my time as an undergraduate. It has been very rewarding to learn a concept within a class and then a week later hear about that same concept being used within my lab in real time. I informed my internship mentors that I was learning about concepts in class that they practice everyday and they were suprised! I think this gave them a great perspective on my level of knowledge that I came into LHSI with. The internship has also inspired me to put more effort into building relationships with professors and staff that I meet during my time at IUI.
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