My internship goals were to:
1) Be a more helpful and collaborative team member
I wanted to do this by communicating with my supervisors and working with them to complete the tasks that I am required to do. We scheduled weekly meetings that allowed us to be updated on the work of our internship and complete further tasks.
2) Be more confident in presenting and with communication skills pertaining to different topics
I wanted to do this through gaining more knowledge from my internship site, and and being more comfortable explaining this to others. I was given much guidance from my supervisors Dr. Enane and Ms. Toromo with this. In addition to that, I also worked on background research that allowed for me to study my topic more in depth, which I believed helped me to gain more confidence in explaining this and the research as well.
3) Learn more skills that I would hopefully be able to use in the future
I wanted to do this by being exposed to the different fields of study that my research contains, and how it is related to a variety of different fields. The skills that I gained from my internship are integral to gain in any field to know as well, and so I hope to be able to use that knowledge and the other skills I learned from my research in the future as well.
Although I am still exploring what I would like to choose as a career, my current career goals are to hopefully attend medical school and complete projects similar to what I am completing projects on now. I do know that I would like to be directly involved in the distribution of the highest quality, most efficient, most equitable, and most affordable care. I feel like I'm choosing this more based on what I'm passionate about as I really do hope to solidify what I would like to end up choosing.
I feel confident in choosing this kind of a career option as I'm really interested and passionate about wanting to study and implement ways to improve quality of life for all, and my internship and education are ways that I can learn more about this. I hope to be able to gain more experience to get more of a general idea on what to do and expect as well.
A way that I can explore more pathways this year is getting more experience to different fields and maybe being exposed to different kinds of fields. I hope to be able to learn more about the specific options as well.
I think that this internship has impacted my career plans by further solidifying what I would like to do as a career. My supervisor Dr. Enane works as a physician and also a researcher, and so being able to witness the combination of that was fascinating to me. During the beginning of working at my internship site, I was heavily considering pursuing only research, particularly in topics related to the field I’m studying. However, upon research and consideration I did find more contentment in also being able to have a direct involvement in the care and treatment process, too. It was also important for me to understand that there are many factors of equal importance that also play a role in providing the best care possible. Providing the best care possible is simply not possible without considering all the many other aspects that affect life. This is why I hope to continue exploring, and I hope to make a decision that aligns with my aspiration to serve.