My Goals

Internship Goals

My internship was research based, and in collaboration with my supervisor, we came up with goals that would benefit me in research in addition to gaining professional skills. We decided upon three main research goals that would allow me understand my experiments, conduct them and be able to present them by the end.

Internship Goal 1: Be able to formulate a hypothesis to understand regulation of diabetic vasculopathy

1. How to formulate a null hypothesis? Research and form one when performing an experiment

2. How to design and perform experiments to test the null hypothesis?

3. How to calculate the statistical significance when testing the hypothesis

In collaboration with Dr. Singh, my first goal when conducting research was to form a hypothesis. My hypothesis should consist of what I am expecting from my results when trying to understand regulation of diabetic vasculopathy. Over the past months, I was performing experiments, and it was essential to understand the purpose before performing one. Understanding the purpose is accomplished by asking why we are doing something and what we are expecting as the results. This was accomplish last semester when I was given authorization to perform experiments on my own.

Internship Goal 2: Learning and Applying: To learn and apply immunohistological analysis for diabetic vasculopathy

1. Learn the basic principle of IHC

2. Learn how to perform IHC

3. Learn how to acquire images of IHC experiments

In our research lab, our focus is on diabetic vasculopathy. In order to analyze anything related to diabetic vasculopathy, it is done by performing immunohistochemistry. Immunohistochemistry, IHC, aids in detecting specific antigens in cells or tissues by using specific antibodies. Over the time, I earned the principles and how to perform the technique. I also learned how to analyze the results by examining the acquired images.

Internship Goal 3: Communication: Learn how to present findings of my researh work to others?

1. Learning how to make a good presentation

2. How to present the findings of my research to a broader audience?

3. How to answer the questions that may arise during the interaction with other audience?

A significant part of research is making sure the results are communicated with proper communication. Over the semester, all the gel run results were saved in files for everyone to have access. Every result that was obtained was saved for everyone to be able to analyze data and their own set of results. For one specific experiment, DNA methylation, the samples were sent off for DNA sequencing. Once the results came back, the sequences were analyzed using primer reference sequences with markers. The analysis was done manually for a set of 6 primers for about 30 DNA sequences per batch. The results of DNA methylation was then summed up and embedded into a presentation to help present the results better for everyone in the lab. My experience has allowed me to understand experiments, perform them, analyze them, and then present them to others.

Career Goals

My career goal is to become a physician. I plan on attending medical school upon completing my bachelor's degree. I had always wanted to be in the medical field, but I wasn't sure what exactly. Over my time at IUPUI, I spent time to explore and find what I want to pursue. Over the course of my time at IUPUI , I have gained a lot of experience and skills form various places, and this allows me to feel confident that I can pursue my passion for medicine.

What I have done to feel confident in my career choice:

I first experienced the pharmacy side by becoming a pharmacy technician. It was fine, but I wanted to work more closely with patients, so I contemplated for the longest time between PA school and medical school. I started working as a medical scribe to experience things first hand. From working in the ER and watching physicians make decisions, I decided to pursue medicine and attend medical school.

I have debated for the longest time if medical school was. I remember being stressed before my finals my sophomore year because I couldn't make a decision between PA school and medical school. At the time, I was pre-PA, but after getting exposed to more medical settings, I changed to medical school. Even though I had a tough time debating between careers, I am so thankful that I did. My initial indecisiveness allowed me to ponder every possibility to compare PA to medical school, which essentially allowed me to pursue what I want.

For me career goal, I need to develop on my clinical experience. Working as a medical scribe and volunteering as a hospital volunteer helped me with my clinical experience. I even worked as a pharmacy technician that allowed me to come more familiarized with the pharmaceutical side of medicine practice. For the upcoming months, I plan to focus on keeping my grades and high and continuing on with volunteering with Hospice and the hospital.

Over this semester, I plan to study for the MCAT and take the MCAT by the end of June. I've signed up the MCAT prep course through IUPUI, and I will be utilizing it to study. I will start to apply and send my transcripts after finals are over this semester. Over this semester, I will be researching medical schools that I will be applying to. Over the next two semester, I will focus on keeping my grades high and complete a capstone.

Over the summer, I plan to stay at my site and continue researching till my time at IUPUI is over. I will be taking the MCAT in June, so I will be spending the first few weeks of summer to study for the MCAT. I will also be applying for medical schools in the summer.

While working for my research site, I was able to gain laboratory experience such as conducting experiments and analyzing results. These techniques are crucial to research and research is crucial to any medical career. Being a part of an internship site that focuses on research confirmed my goal of pursing medical school. My experience and skills make me feel confident about my decision to pursue medicine.

Page updated

Report abuse