My career goal is to become an oncologist. I want to be involved in the race to find treatments for currently untreatable cancers and treat patients simultaneously. Oncology interests me because I find it fascinating how cancer develops, spreads, and the mechanisms that can be utilized to treat it. Treating patients humanizes cancer, which leads to the discovery of future treatments.
My goals for this internship and after are to:
Learn more lab skills and how to do research.
Learn how to communicate better in a professional setting.
Learn more about cancer.
By learning more about cancer, I will be able to come up with different ways to stop those cells from replicating or eradicating it completely. By learning and improving my communication skills, I will be able to work better in a team in the lab, present findings, attend interviews and talk with fellow doctors and patients better in the future. Learning more lab skills than what I know or am learning in class that are more specific to cancer cells will allow me to conduct my own research in the future. Learning the process of how to do research will be crucial knowledge when setting up and conducting my own research.
How I am going to be working towards my goals and continue to after this internship:
I can learn more lab skills and learn how to do research by:
Learning and knowing how to use equipment.
Understanding how to run experiments.
Learn how to troubleshoot problems.
I can learn how to communicate better in a professional setting by:
Asking for help when I need it.
Learning how to present results.
Coordinate with others in the lab so that the experiments go smoothly and are completed on time.
I can learn more about cancer by:
Working with collaborators.
Inquiring and testing different treatments on cancer cells.
Learning the treatment mechanisms.
Independence
Of all the skills, I am most confident working independently in the lab. I have learned and applied lab skills essential to growing cells and keeping the surroundings sterile so that cells won't die. Now, I can apply these skills to various experiments in future projects.
Communication
Open communication is the key to successful outcomes in professional settings, classes, and day-to-day activities. I am good at communicating in small groups for projects or assignments. In middle school and high school, I joined the science clubs because I liked learning more about science and discussing science topics with like-minded peers. I was part of a show choir to improve my self-confidence, performance skills, and interaction with the community. Professional communication is something I am more confident about now after I have joined this internship. I am able to ask questions without hesitation or being anxious. I was also able to improve my professional writing skills. I want to continue to grow in this skill, so I plan to be a teaching assistant for one of the biology classes to continue improving my communication skills in front of a large group.
Problem-Solving
Problem-solving is an essential skill for a scientist, whether solving mistakes in a lab or an unexpected technical issue. The first step is to calm down, inhale, and exhale. Then, reflect on what caused the problem and evaluate possible solutions.
I have experience in problem-solving in various projects for my courses, specifically in my Biomedical Innovations class. This class required me to problem-solve on many occasions, one being to diagnose what disease a patient had from the symptoms described in the patient files. This project was done in a group. My group came up with the wrong diagnosis many times before arriving at the correct one. We analyzed what went wrong in our thought processes for the wrong diagnosis and then corrected what was needed to reach the correct conclusion.
In this internship, I have run into a few problems. Once, I ran out of 5 mL pipettes to put into a handheld pipette to set up flasks with media for an experiment. I used a 10 mL pipette, the next available pipette that could hold 5 mL. This also saved me a lot of time because, instead of going back and forth from the media to the flask twelve times with the 5 mL, I only needed to go back and forth six times. I will continue to apply my problem-solving skills in my daily routine when applicable.
How the internship helped me in other classes:
This internship helped me gain a deeper understanding of my coursework. This internship has allowed me to learn skills like hand-pipetting before doing them in my lab classes. Now I think more logically and can visualize about each step in a procedure for an experiment in the lab before conducting them.