Learn How to Thrive in a Professional Work Environment
Learning Goal #1: Learn How to Thrive in a Professional Work Environment
What tasks, responsibilities, projects, or activities will you do to meet this goal?
1. Arrive at the internship on time, dressed appropriately, with the drive to complete my tasks.
2. Complete my referral tasks promptly and try not to waste time on other things.
3. Be respectful to those around me and always ensure I get work done.
I think I am accomplishing this goal very well, I have gotten better at speaking, acting, and dressing professional. I am not underdoing it but I am also not overdoing it. I always arrive on time, try to get things done in a timely manner without being distracted, and have a drive to complete my tasks. Sometimes I can get distracted, but I am trying hard to stay focused and get my stuff done, and I think I am improving.
My final progress on this goal would be that I have gotten as good as I can get on this goal. I finish my tasks as fast as I can, immediatly start them, sometimes stay later, arrive on time. I feel this goal has been maintained and I will keep it in mind for future jobs, professional positions, and classes.
Learning Goal #2: Learn How Genealogy is taken professionally and how it is processed
What tasks, responsibilities, projects, or activities will you do to meet this goal?
1. Call patients and collect their family history.
2. Write family histories into a pedigree.
3. Observe that information and figure out how it can be used to help the patient with insurance and understand where their cancer genes could have come from.
I used to be very nervous baout calling patients, and especially collecting family histories because I felt it could easily be messed up, but I have learned that I can just jot down the notes of my mistakes and redo it, there will always be more paper, and no matter what, even a small amount of information helps. The clinic really helped me learn how it was applied and how going though can help patients understand risk factors and things to look for.
I feel as if I have learned these skills well. I have really learned a lot about genealogy, how it is used, and how it is processed in the workplace. I will try to remember this and use my knowledge for future work in genealogy.
Learning Goal #3: How to handle dealing with patients
What tasks, responsibilities, projects, or activities will you do to meet this goal?
1. Call patients to schedule them for the clinic and input their data into the system.
2. Sit in at the clinic when it is operational to observe how it operates.
3. Make sure they are informed of their appointment and that my supervisors are properly informed as well.
Sometimes patients can be a bit difficult, either because they do not understand the purpose of the referral or because there is too much hapening where they are and they cannot hear me. You just need to speak clearly, not too fast, and kindly, always be willing to hear them out, be willing to expain, and do not speak down to them. You can be kind and make the phone call better for everyone involved.
This was very important because I could not overstep but also be open, and I feel like this, as well as my role on campus as a mentor, has let me learn where my place it when dealing with patients, the attitude I should have, and what to say in specific scenarios. I will try to uphold what I have learned in all my future professional work.
My current career goals are in a sort of limbo state, as they have never truly been realized. I have always had academic goals, such as passing my classes, staying ahead, finding study groups, and performing above average on homework and exams. This mainly comes from a place of pride and wanting to set myself up for success later down the road. By making it easier for myself down the road, I open myself up to more oppurtunities for success and happiness. I want to attend graduate school and maybe even get my doctorate to not only improve my chances of gettinga high paying job but to incrase my knowledge of my chosen field as well. As for my career goals, I know I want to participate in a science field, mainly biology, geneitcs, and/or forensics. This is due to my enjoyment of science and lab work, and the fact that I do pretty well with that type of work. I also really believe they are fields where I can do some good for the world and for others. I also want a career that will make me happy, as I want to feel fulfilled late rin life to not only enjoy it better, but my job itself better. I am very sure of these career goals, although I also understand they can change with time as well. I am taking many different science courses to narrow down my options, and another thing I am doing to find out if these fields are right for me is this internship, which is teaching me a lot not only about what type of work I like to do, but what type of science I like to do as well.
My goals have definitly expanded upon being a part of this program. I want to look more into diferent career options that my skills and interests can take me, and I want to learn more about the many diffferent career options that can suit my interests. I still want to pursue genealogy/biology, but now I know there are many different paths I could end up on and I want to explore them all and reach out to more people in the future with questions. A good career checklist for me at the moment would be finishing my internship and passing my classes this semseter, while also reaching out to a research lab or another internship for other oppurtunities. Next semester I would hopefully pass all of my classes and join a research lab or internship, or that could even happen over the summer. I need to keep my classes up, join more science organizations, and stay in an internship/reserach oppurtunity not only till the end of next year, but until I graduate, and I need to keep seeking out oppurtunities to make sure I am getting the most out of my time here.
There will come a time after LHSI, where I will need to find other ways to improve my skills. I have a few ideas on what I can do after LHSI, starting in the summer, I hoe pto get a job on campus, and hopefully even join a research lab. If I needed funding and they couldn't give it to me, I could submit a proposal to the UROP programs to get funding for research that way. I will also stay up to date in all of my classes, try hard in my labs and reserach classes, and apply for all oppurtunities that come my way. I think my internship reall ymade me realize how much I prefer lab work to desk work, so I think inthe future I will want to work in a laboratory setting versus a desk space. I am fairly confident in my ability to determine what would be best for me, as I have gotten a lot better at it over the years due to experience at different positions. I know I prefer to work on smaller tasks, alone, in a quiet and set envrionment, and I like to know what I am doing, which will all go into my coreer related decisons when I must make them.