What My Plans Are As an Undergraduate With My Experiences/Opportunities

As my college career continues I plan to become more involved and expand my depth of knowledge, values, and goals! Before LHSI I was unaware to all the opportunities that campus had to offer and so I plan to take advantage of that during my future academic semesters here at IUPUI. While everything is still "up in the air" regarding my plans for future participation in opportunities, these are my goals that I believe can give me exposure, experience, and knowledge to succeed in my ultimate path to medical school!

Summer (2021)

Over the summer I am going to work as a Certified Nursing Assistant where I am able to bring forth my medical knowledge. As a CNA, my main job is to minimize discomfort and maintain patient dignity while I assist them with activities of daily living. My daily duties include answering call lights, assisting and observing behavioral or physical changes of patients, performing vital signs, changing briefs, feeding, dressing, and bathing patients. I also collected and recorded accurate patient records during my shift. Being a CNA however was much more than just taking care of my patients- it was creating a relationship with them and working as a team with my other staff members. I also am enrolled in an accelerated course at the Indiana School of Phlebotomy between June 5- June 27 where I will obtain my Phlebotomist license in order to collect and analyze blood samples and to get some exposure within a hospital setting. Unfortunately my plans to shadow clinical physicians has been delayed because of the risk of covid exposure, so in response to this I found an interesting site where you can shadow medical professionals online and get certifications, it is about a 7 week program, 1 hour a week responsibility! I plan to continue volunteering at Food Bank of Northwest Indiana which is about a 3 hour commitment weekly. I honestly love being able to interact among diverse groups of individuals with different stories and backgrounds, under the circumstances. I remember one night after loading a mans car with groceries in the winter he claimed, "oh my gosh I love lettuce I haven't had a salad in forever" that was the same night we handed out food to over 600 families in their vehicles and despite the fact I had couldn't feel my toes after being in the cold for hours, I wouldn't trade anything for that moment. Along with this since my research with Dr.Matory is not quite finished, we will possibly also be working with each other over the summer to prepare, present, and publish our progress in developing NAS protocols.

Junior Year (2021-2022)

My Junior year in the fall of 2021 and spring of 2022 I plan on working at the Bepko Learning Center as a BIO-K101 Academic Mentor where I can achieve educational goals and assist in students' development of academic skills by guiding them as a more experienced, high successful peer.

Summer (2022)

I am hopeful that beyond the MCAT and submitting applications to medical school that I will have room to become involved in a CRL Undergraduate Research Program!

Senior Year (2022-2023)

My senior year, I plan to apply to become apart of OTEAM which is an undergraduate student program dedicated to engaging new students as they attend orientation and begin class. I would love to also get in some more hours to shadow primary care physicians of different career paths of I was considering t0 understand the day to day lifestyle expectations- depending if covid regulations allow it.