Goals & Learning

Learning Goal #1: Understanding one of the most vital organs in the body which is the liver 

Relevance: My career journey will most likely consist of healthcare, most likely dental/oral health. Although the liver and oral health are not completely related, studying the liver would help me better expand my knowledge and connect with my patients. 

Action Plan: Reading articles and studies as a part of my work that studies the connection between oral health and liver, use my knowledge at dental clinics, and present findings to the lab and community

Progress: I was the most nervous for achieving this goal as I found it the most challenging to adapt to the liver terminology and mechanisms. Towards the end of the year, I understand the basics of liver fibrosis and the different proteins associated with it. I faced many challenges throughout the year understanding terminology and how everything was connected to each other. I will continue to achieve this goal by furthering my education in healthcare and using the knowledge I learned through LHSI. 

Learning Goal #2: To expand my skills in a lab setting 

Relevance: This goal will help me in professional schools whether that be dental or medical, because lab skills will be required for basic classes such as biology or chemistry. 

Action Plan: learning specific procedures such as IF and IHC, practicing how to interpret results, and manipulating certain conditions to study the function of a specific proteins

Progress: I have succeeded in this goal as I feel confident in my pipetting skills and following protocols for procedures. I had difficulty with this goal in the beginning of the year as understanding lab procedures has always been hard for me. With practice and repetition, I feel confident in doing lab procedures independently. 

Learning Goal #3: To build connections 

Relevance: This goal fits into my career journey, because making connections with the people around you is vital in bettering yourself and learning more. 

Action Plan: working with my supervisor and a graduate student to learn something about our project, present my final findings at the end of the year showcase, and showing up for my shifts and interacting with the other people around me. 

Progress: I have made progress towards this goal as I have bettered my communication skills and built strong connections with those around me. In the beginning, I felt intimidated asking for help but now I feel less hesitant in reaching out and asking for help

The skills on the survey that I am already using so far is communication and independence. Whenever I have a question about a specific procedure or treatment I ask my team member and supervisor to explain or guide me through it. 

Whenever something shows up and I cannot make it to work I inform my team mate and supervisor as soon as possible and set up a time to make up for those hours.

I am using my independence to get work done that is required for my team and I ask for help when it is needed. 

I would like to work on my goals skills more, I want to research my personal goals that I set up in the beginning of the year more. I will grow these skills by looking at my goals every two to three weeks and doing the things that I wrote down. 

Since fall, I've strengthened my communication and independence even further. I understand procedures more and feel capable of preforming them with little assistance and help. After LHSI, I would really like to work on my problem solving skills as facing challenges is an important skill in any career path. 

The internship has helped me gain a deeper understanding of Biology, since the IF and IHC treatment and procedures have a lot of terminology that overlaps with biology classes such as specific proteins, genes, and cells.