My Internship

Reflections

At the beginning of November, I submitted a poster to the Sigma Xi Virtual Conference. I collaborated with Jadon on creating the poster below and presenting it in a zoom that was submited to the conference. It gives insight on the research project we have been working on to get a training guide in place so individuals with ASD have a better inpatient stay. It was a great learning experience for me to be able to present a poster in a virtual platform and be able to attend the conference. It was interesting to me how the conference paired art with science and tried to make the seminars interactive by leaving time for Q and A at the end.

Through my time working on an ASD research study I learned there is not a clear path to completing research. Timelines shift and issues arrise that we didn't think would happen and take the amount of time it has. We are still in our recruitment phase for the study and when I started on this project I thought that part of the study would only last a couple of weeks. I have still been making calls to hospitals asking to hang up flyers for our study but it seems like the hospitals' priorities have shifted due to COVID-19. I did not realize it would take so long to talk to the right person about hanging flyers and even when I did talk to them, most hospitals have not been interested. We will soon be advertising on Facebook and I hope that goes smoother and takes less time.

Observing a virtual workplace, I have seen members of the Lab team keep open communication. My supervisor is honest when she is busy and might take longer than usual to get back to me. But for the most part, everyone is very responsive and helpful when I ask questions. I also learned it is important which way of communication is best for each other My supervisor has made it clear it is best to text her if I need a quick answer and that system has worked for us.

Expectations vs Reality

I am most surprised that the work I've been doing does not have a steady flow. We are changing week to week what we've been working on thoughout our ongoing research study. Some weeks I only read articles for literary review and other weeks we have participant interviews to complete over zoom. This experience has been different than I expected in the sense of being able to work remotely. I did not think this research would be able to make such an easy transition to an online environment. We've been doing just fine never being in person and I will continue work remotely the summer just the same.

Reflection

I learned to work independently and as a lab through my internship. I have gained experience designing and presenting posters for virtual conferences. I have also learned to ask for help or follow up which used to be hard for me starting out. This experience has allowed me to be creative, professional, and resourceful. The most challenging part of this internship for me was the unpredictability of the research study. There were weeks when we had no participant interviews and weeks when we were constantly recruiting through phone calls and facebook groups. The research process has taught me flexibility and patience.