My major is in Health Services Management with a minor in Chemistry and I am certified in Medical Interpreter Training
Teamwork
I have strong communication and listening skills. Additionally, I have experience working with a team that has varying amounts of expertise in order to achieve a set of goals. A facet of teamwork I excel in is identifying emotional responses and responding in a manner that maintains efficiency and promotes a healthy work-environment.
Volunteer Work
In my past year of college I have been fortunate to have several opportunities to grow as an individual. In my first two semesters, I regularly volunteered to serve food to those in the unfortunate circumstance of homelessness in the downtown Indianapolis area through a ministry of St. Johns church called Garden Doors. As a volunteer I had the opportunity to listen to the stories of people who woke up every day and didn't know where there next meal was coming from. I distinctly remember the upbeat smile of those who, despite the hard time that had fallen upon them, didn't trudge through the day but skipped. It was this resilience to smile in the midst of hardship that inspired me and placed the world in a new focus. I began to see the importance of making the most of each opportunity and seeing a glass half full rather than one half empty.
In research there is always need to see the upside. Experiments represent a less than ideal world. It is never perfect and the data gathered doesn't always show what we want it to. Many times experiments go wrong and there is a choice to see it as a failure and disregard it completely, or take a step back, reaccess and take it as an opportunity to learn.
Campus Work and Leadership
Recently in the Fall of 2022 I began mentoring as a biology recitation leader at IUPUI. This entails that I lead a group of that are in the Introductory Level Biology Course of IUPUI. Each week I prepare student activities with the goal that they gain familiarity with the content and understand how to use metacognitive strategies to improve their learning. As a mentor I have been able to see biology content with different eyes, as I see it though the perspective of understanding in order to teach. Each time I help students reach an answer, I find something new that I had missed when the roles were reversed. I seek to inspire creativity and innovation as a mentor by encouraging students to find out of the box ways to reach a deeper understanding of the content and become increasingly passionate for the field.
Research takes place in labs and studies and data mining but it also needs to be explained. Through being a mentor, I have grown in my ability to communicate concepts and thoughts clearly. I have also seen the importance of letting my passion and intrigue for science show since it unearths that excitement in others.