My Internship

My internship site researches varieties of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). This study is part of ALLFTD which spreads across the United States to gather information about FTLD and can hopefully be used in the future to help patients. A lot of people suffer from dementia (dementia is an umbrella term for diseases like FTLD and Alzheimer's) and learning how to differentiate between the different types is our first step towards developing types of treatments. It's like you're doing a large puzzle, to make it easier you want to separate the pieces. That way you're breaking down a much larger and more complex problem into smaller components that are easier to tackle. 

Here is a link to the website containing more about their mission and data: https://www.allftd.org/mission 

An actor you probably know Bruce Willis suffers from aphasia (a type of frontotemporal dementia). https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/aphasia-causes-symptoms-treatment-bruce-willis-rcna22261 

The Workplace

Everyone here on the team is good at communication and flexibility. If there is a problem that needs to be solved or even just discussed, then there is no hesitation in seeking out each other. Whereas, I have a lot of hesitation for fear of bothering others, though I do end up asking questions. There are a lot of things that come up randomly in the office like surprise patients or missing information that needs to be dealt with. The people here show a lot of flexibility with things that arise, which is something I admire. 

When I started my internship, I thought it was going to be more structured. I know that I strive in environments that are very structured, so there was a need for adaptation. Throughout college, it has been hard for me to push myself because college is heavy on you to create a structure that allows you to succeed and this internship requires the same type of drive. When I started work here, it was hard for me to communicate my needs or wants like needing help with something, wanting to shadow Dr. Clark, needing more work to do, etc. 

I have learned more about communication with people of different education levels and backgrounds. Knowing everyone knows more about the study than I can be a little intimidating, but the key is to keep asking questions. It can be hard to hold a conversation about a topic you don't know a lot about, so our conversations about the study are usually just me asking a bunch of questions. My goals have certainly been changed by the different perspectives and experience of my coworkers. Until the end of my internship, I found myself not able to make conversations with coworkers. Due to my own social anxiety, and the intimidation of a new environment. I tend to freeze up and only focus on the work, which doesn't lead to many fun conversations or even sharing of ideas. I want to continue growing this adaptability skill, so I can be comfortable enough to make a good impression on people. 

This internship was more laid back. There would be times where everyone would straighten up a little and really focus, but most days it was more "Put your headphones in and do what you need to do." I would say that I strive under stricter management, but this internship has also shown me that it is important to be able to not have everything laid out in front of you. Sometimes I'd come into the office and there would be nothing for me to do, this spring semester I started to make projects for myself. Goals that I wanted to accomplish for the office and the tasks I had to do to get there. It allowed my leadership abilities to grow even if I was leading only a one man team. 

Internship Goals 

Communication was something I only did a little during my internship, but would like to have done more. It was just building that confidence to ask was difficult and something I need to work on. I did gain a friendly relationship with my supervisor that improved over time as I got comfortable!

Next, I plan to internship in a lab. This was a clinical study, so no fun wet lab work. The office setting did help me focus on getting work done. Every time I walked into the building, I could feel that work energy wash over me. I wonder if that will be the same or different in a lab like setting. 

I developed leadership skills when I had to start "leading" myself into project. I have better organization skills, now I know that breaking things into small visual tasks is very helpful (like a list). It helps me stay focused and on task, especially when I add in rewards like, "read this paragraph and you get a piece of chocolate".   

Project Summary

You’ve probably heard one of the many terms related to dementia, but the meaning of the term dementia is constantly shifting as more research evolves. That’s because dementia is a condition of the brain, or an umbrella term, and not a disease.

An umbrella term covers a broad category of similar topics, rather than a specific item. FTD, like Alzheimer’s, is a specific brain disease, while dementia is a term to describe this group of symptoms. It is roughly estimated that 50,000 to 60,000 people in the United States are affected by FTD, making up an estimated 10-20% of all dementia cases. For rare diseases like this to become topical, it often requires media input and celebrity showcasing; a case in point is how Bruce Willis was recently diagnosed with FTD. The goal of this project is to peer under the umbrella term of dementia, inform the audience on what exactly FTD is, and discuss the ALLFTD study. I hope you can walk away with a better understanding of FTD and the dementia umbrella.

References

Brain tour. Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2023, from https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/what-is-alzheimers/brain_tour

FTLD. ALLFTD. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2023, from https://www.allftd.org/ftld

Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (2023, April 1). Primary progressive aphasia. Mayo Clinic. Retrieved April 25, 2023, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/primary-progressive-aphasia/symptoms-causes/syc-20350499 

Murray, M. E., Kouri, N., Lin, W.-L., Jack, C. R., Dickson, D. W., & Vemuri, P. (2014, January 2). Clinicopathologic assessment and imaging of Tauopathies in neurodegenerative Dementias - Alzheimer's research & therapy. BioMed Central. Retrieved April 21, 2023, from https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/alzrt231/figures/4 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Understanding different types of dementia. National Institute on Aging. Retrieved April 21, 2023, from https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/infographics/understanding-different-types-dementia

Zapata-Restrepo, L., Rivas, J., Miranda, C., Miller, B. L., Ibanez, A., Allen, I. E., & Possin, K. (2021, October 22). The psychiatric misdiagnosis of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia in a Colombian sample. Frontiers. Retrieved April 25, 2023, from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2021.729381/full

Learning and Skills 

Starting out, I am excited to gain more work experience and meet people with the same passions as me. It is easy to forget why you are committing to years of schooling when you don't have a job that is showing you what you are working towards. Especially since you are developing all these skills in school, but aren't applying them and growing on them. During this internship, I want to work on communicating with colleagues. My teamwork skills are good, but I feel more like a follower who just listens and tries not to go against the group even if my idea is different. The communication skill I want to build on will go hand in hand with working on having more confidence in my ideas. This will help me in my academics as well as in my future career. Building connections and asking for help is important for individual success as well as the team's success. This semester, Fall 2022, I have been struggling because it is difficult for me to reach out for help. Luckily, I realize now that trying to work it out on my own is only setting me back, so I plan to use the campus resources, like CAPS and my professors/mentors, to succeed next semester. Future careers are always looking for people who have good teamwork and communication skills. Especially in the clinical lab science program, when touring their program I noticed the group was very tight knit and the courses are rigorous. In order to succeed in that program, I'll have to be able to reach out to the professors and other students. 

I have learned how important it is to ask for help. For example, no one wants to admit that you don't know how to work a copier, but I had never seen one until working in the office! Even though asking for help about things that might seem simple, like working a copier, makes me feel a little stupid, no one in the office has ever made me feel uncomfortable about asking for help. Now it's a lot easier for me and feels less embarrassing, and that habit of asking for help has now transferred over into my everyday life. For example, asking my doctor for help with the issues stated above. A couple of my favorite experiences so far have been shadowing and finishing organizing a folder. There's something very satisfying about finally closing a folder that is now organized though I usually end up opening the same folder a couple of weeks later to add something new. 

A skill that I already have is taking constructing criticism or failure and being able to learn from it. I also have good perseverance to get a task done and done correctly. To persevere, you have to integrate past knowledge and skills you have learned before. I want to use these skills in this internship to develop skills that will apply to me in the future. Another skill I am already starting off with is strong organizational skills. My mother can testify that all my life I have been a very organized person. I would often stop at the grocery store to fix the shelves because it is something I enjoy. This allows me to boil down tasks. Make them easier for myself, and others in the future. I made a google doc on who to email, what group they were from, and how to email them when reaching out for my supervisor. This made transferring the information over later way easier and made the task more manageable. 

December: I am still working on my communication skills. Communication has never been my strong suit, but I am more confident when I have questions since coming here. There's still a lot of hesitation to approach someone that I'd like to work on. I also want to work on small casual conversations that can help me make connections with those around me. To work on this skill, I am going to try to strike up or hold a conversation at least once a week. I can see that a lot of organizational skills are used in the office since they have a lot of participants, which means a lot of paperwork. Paperwork that needs to be entered into the computer, copied, and placed into charts in the correct order. I have good organizational skills from my schoolwork to apply. 

March: I've grown more in my independence and problem-solving. It's a lot of independent work like filing, entering data, or organizing charts. When doing these tasks, I often run into problems. Usually is data or a paper that is missing, which needs to be addressed. Throughout the time I've been here, I have learned to solve smaller problems independently and recognize those that I can't solve. I'd still like to work on developing this skill further since there are times where I run out of things to do and everyone is busy. I never want to overstep and start work, but it isn't helpful to sit around and wait for someone to be available to tell me what to do either. I know there are smaller tasks I could be doing, so gaining more confidence in my independence is something to work on. 


How has this internship fit in with what you are learning in class? How could your internship help you gain a deeper understanding of your coursework?  

The part of my internship that has fit into my coursework the most is genetics. My internship is centered on the information collected about FTD and genetics plays a huge role in tracing why it develops. There are multiple genetic markers that a person could have that link to different FTD syndromes. More about this in my poster above!

My professional writing course helped me out a lot too. Surprisingly, I didn't see the connecting until I hit send on my tenth email. My supervisor had me contact a lot of local groups and other people in the office for different information. My professional writing course taught me how to write a business professional email very early on in the semester, so I am pretty sure that is the reason I got responses back. On my last research project in that course, we had to reach out to a local nonprofit and offer to help them with a problem they were having. We were doing research into how to solve it. Teamwork skills from my internship definitely helped that project succeed. I had to work with people from different majors and different years, which was a struggle sometimes. I used a lot of the leadership skills from my internship, to help guide the group (we were all a little scared to start out with). I discovered that I enjoy more shared leadership, like I had in the work environment.


Successes and Challenges 

Fall Successes

I did my first round of shadowing Dr. Clark in the clinic and then got to discuss the appointment with him afterward. It was a success for me because I was able to hold an insightful conversation with Dr. Clark and ask questions. My supervisor set up this opportunity, but I'd like to learn more and ask to shadow again. On the paperwork side of things, a lot of my job is organizing, reviewing, and setting up charts. While doing this I often find inconsistencies or missing sections. Although the charts are checked plenty of times, there can always be something small that slips through and it is satisfying to catch them.  

Spring Successes

We have set up a whole new file cabinet with the files I have to work on. This cabinet was mainly organized by myself and my supervisor. I have also taken the initiative to organize smaller parts of the process. For example, each binder needs the papers inserted in a certain order so they are easier to find. Before this process was done by looking back at another binder, but this led to some inconsistencies. I created a quick and easy paper with a list of the correct order. This required quite a lot of communication between my supervisor and I, which is something I was proud to initiate. I have created work for myself and even helped my supervisor set up for the next intern! My plan for my last few weeks is to help my supervisor streamline the process of organizing the files. Also, I want to set up some new appointment binders printed out and ready for new patients this summer (that process is a lot of small tedious things). That way my supervisor doesn't have to do everything herself again before the next intern starts!

Fall Challenges

 The more challenging parts of my experience have been finding work and creating a working structure. There are so many things to do, but nothing I can do myself since it has to be assigned to me. It's a lot less structured. For example, there are times when I come into the office, but everyone is so busy that there is no time to tell me what to do. Next semester, I will work with my supervisor to discover things I can do on my own. That way when everyone is busy, I can grab charts that I know still need to be organized and do that. I have also had trouble keeping myself to a regular work schedule since the office is so lax. This challenge is based more on my troubles outside of the workplace, so for the spring semester, I am going to connect with a therapist to help me with motivation for work and school. 

Spring Challenges

I struggled less in the workplace this spring. I found my footing and was more comfortable in the office, but outside of the workplace still had challenges. I am still struggling to motivate myself into doing tasks like studying, homework, or sometimes eating. I did visit with my doctor, there are a couple reasons why my energy might be low all the time for me to look into this summer. For now, I have started on regularly taking medication and meeting with my doctor to make sure I stick to it. This helps with the parts I can't control, now building the healthy habits (like finishing a project early) is still something I have to learn.