Goals
Goal #1: By engaging in this internship experience, I would like to work on establishing the skill of being able to educate and speak about the research and its complex experiments in a nonscientific way, which is understandable by all audiences.
How does this goal fit into your career journey or prepare you for the future?
This is a vital skill because I believe if an individual can explain the background and help the audience understand the why and the purpose of the research, then it shows that the speaker truly understands the mechanics behind what they are working on. Thus, this builds trust that the audience has in your work. Moreover, I want to become a physician, so being able to explain diseases and procedures in a simple way is going to be necessary, so the patient doesn’t get overwhelmed and feels safe. To further my advancement with this goal, I plan to continue my involvement and engage in new studies, so I will be able to advance my medical vocabulary and learn new tips on how to simplify the complex information in an article.
What tasks, responsibilities, projects, or activities will you do to meet this goal?
Know the background behind the research I am involved in.
Understand the why and how behind tasks I am assigned.
Present findings to the group for critical evaluation.
Goal #2: Overall, I would like to expand my lab technique skillset and enhance my independence and confidence in performing a variety of experiments along with learning how to analyze for mistakes by retracing my steps.
How does this goal fit into your career journey or prepare you for the future?
This will help diversify my lab and research knowledge, which is crucial for applying to medical school along with helping me stand out from the mass pool of applicants. Moreover, I’m not sure if I want to continue in research after medical school and get a PhD or practice as a physician, so this will help me build a foundation if I choose the research path because many of the lab experiments are versatile. After completing a year of research, my interest is building in this field and is encouraging me to look into potential MD/PhD programs offered in the Indianapolis area.
What tasks, responsibilities, projects, or activities will you do to meet this goal?
Learn imaging analysis.
Learn wet lab techniques.
Learn mechanical loading techniques and animal handling.
Goal #3: Throughout the year, I want to make sure I fully understand the reasoning and science behind each step in the study because it will help me piece the information together and gain the trust that is needed for enhancing independence. Moreover, I want to always make sure to utilize my resources to find answers to my questions and then reach out to my teammates and supervisor to confirm I’m on the right track.
How does this goal fit into your career journey or prepare you for the future?
This is important because every employer wants to hire individuals that don’t need constant reminders and explanations on how and why they need to perform a certain task. Learning how to troubleshoot and find solutions helps one gain a deeper understanding of the content and lays a foundation for trust. Sometimes a small mistake can severely impact the study, so being careful and backing up each step with an explanation will prevent the setbacks. By learning from my mistakes made throughout this year, I have been able to gain control on my emotions and prevent myself from breaking down so I can think of immediate actions I could take to resolve the issue.
What tasks, responsibilities, projects, or activities will you do to meet this goal?
Work on improving critical thinking skills.
Perform tasks within a given timeframe.
Be a reliable member of the team.
Currently, I plan on attending medical school right after I complete my undergraduate studies at IUPUI. I would like to become a physician in the fields of OB/GYN, cardiology, or pediatrics, but I'm keeping an open mindset when shadowing physicians in case I discover a new specialty that will touch my heart and resonate with me. The medical field is very important to me because the professionals in this field have saved many of my close family members, which has fed my passion and has inspired me to make the same positive impact in people's lives during troubling times. Moreover, both of my parent's wanted to become physicians growing up, but due to family circumstances they had to sacrifice their dreams, so I want to fulfill their dreams by becoming a physician. This year I'm trying to shadow multiple physicians, so I can determine what skills and thinking processes I can add to my skillset to better prepare myself for the variety of obstacles that can arise along with evaluating how similar my preferences are.
Moving forward, I plan on staying at my current internship site through a summer and academic program provided by the university. This is because I have truly enjoyed this learning experience and would like to build upon my potential and make positive contributions to the new studies that the team will be engaging in throughout the next year. Moreover, I plan to complete my senior capstone at this site as well because my mentors encouraged me to step outside of my comfort zone and progress towards achieving all of the goals I had drafted initially. The only new goal I would like to draft for this upcoming summer and academic year is improving my medical terminology and understanding how the human anatomy and physiology are affected by treatments, side effects, and medical conditions.
Learning
Some skills that I'm utilizing currently in the lab are teamwork, communication, integration and application, and problem-solving. I utilize teamwork by fulfilling the assigned roles in a timely manner, such as completing the tibial and the femoral practice measurements, so the individual that has the lowest deviation can measure the images of the samples of the new study. The individuals at the lab and I communicate frequently to discuss ways we can edit the experimental procedures to correct obstacles that are negatively influencing the results. I integrate my past knowledge of the anatomy of the knee when I measure certain structures within a scan and identify the presence of the ACL in tissue samples being sectioned for staining purposes. I use my problem-solving skills when I notice my measurements are deviating from the appropriate range, to identify continuous landmarks that will help me ensure that I'm taking the measurements on the correct slide.
I would like to work on my independence. In order to improve upon this skill, I need to make sure I can replicate an experiment and produce measurements using appropriate imaging software by conducting repetitive trials. This is vital because continuous practice will allow me to discover techniques and shortcuts. Through my experiences this year, I was able to advance to assisting with larger aspects of the study and gain feedback periodically so I can feel comfortable with taking risks and troubleshooting on my own. However, I would like to continue working on dedicating more hours throughout the week to my tasks so they can be completed at a quicker rate and I can gain more exposure to newer elements.
I am using my current skillset to analyze literature articles from past studies to gain background information. I also have been using my skillset to train myself on the experimental techniques on old samples, so I'm prepared when the new study begins, such as collagen staining.
This internship has helped me apply the content that I have learned in lectures practically to solve real life issues, which is a common transition that physicians should be able to perform in order to provide prognoses for health conditions and corresponding treatment methods.