About Me

2021:

I work closely with all the students in my lab section to aid in their completion of lab work and troubleshoot their experiments. I greatly enjoyed this lab as a freshmen as it provided a great overview in different scientific skills that are constantly used in the lab setting such as microscopy. I enjoyed the teaching experience because every student thinks differently: some may pick up the skills right away while others need extra guidance. This challenged me as a communicator as I had to be able to describe complicated topics in various ways so it would "click" for them. Since I tend to favor technical explanations that can come across confusing, I had to use examples or analogies that related the technicalities to something more grounded in their understanding. This not only gave me a better understanding of the material, but also learn how to converse with individuals that think differently than me. I'm constantly motivated by work that allows me to help others individually as a mentor or in small groups as in this lab. From this experience, I gained the rewarding aspect teaching and seeing a student understand a concept after my explanation.

2020-2021:

As a Server, I entered orders, prepared and delivered food and beverage orders, and processed payments. I handled as many as 5 tables at once while maintaining high service quality. Working as a server allowed me to experience all aspects of customer service as you are constantly interacting with various clientele for numerous hours at a time. This experience allowed me to increase my interpersonal relations and as well as how to manage multiple tasks at one time without losing attention to detail. Even though the restaurant industry doesn't align with career aspirations, the values of this job coincide with my motivation for work that requires attention to accuracy and is high-pressured as that's where I function best.

2019-2020:

As a Server's Assistant, I delivered food orders to tables quickly and correctly in a 70+ seat restaurant as well as cleaning and resetting tables between each meal course. Working in a fine dining restaurant enabled me to learn proper restaurant etiquette and how to work both quickly and efficiently. Especially on busy nights, you have to limit mistakes while keeping the pace necessary to serve other clientele. From this experience, I learned how to work well under pressure in a fast paced environment. I was able to better my interpersonal skills with both guests and other service staff. This allowed me to practice communicating effectively to ensure a seamless flow in the restaurant to provide the best experience for the customer. I can apply this aspect of communication in collaborative projects in my field to convey ideas in a group atmosphere.

2020:

During the 2020 election, I volunteered as a phone banker with Planned Parenthood Votes for North Carolina. Since I'm from North Carolina, this was a way for me to stay connected to the political events that were occurring there. Every year, North Carolina acts a large swing state where the overall vote can go either way between a Democratic and Republican candidate. As a remote phone banker, I joined a Zoom call with other phone bankers and called names on our software to 1) See if they were intending to vote 2) Who they were planning to vote for and 3) Discuss the impacts their vote would have over access to reproductive health. I found this service experience very impactful as I felt I was making a small difference in the political scape in getting more people to vote and showing them the impact their vote holds. From this experience, I was able to learn how to convey the importance of an individuals vote in a short span. This can be applied in presentations where the extent of a project has to be boiled down to the most important information. https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/elections

2020-2021:

As a committee member, I continually raised funds and awareness for Riley Children's Hospital. Specifically, Family Relations keeps the families of Riley kids in constant communication of different events and how to get their kids involved before the actual dance marathon in the spring. Being on a committee allowed me to see how a large scale collaboration of multiple individuals functioned efficiently towards one centered goal. Especially in the intersection of every committee, it was enlightening to see the tier of higher leadership to committee members and then participants.

https://events.dancemarathon.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.event&eventID=4001

2021:

Acted as a peer mentor to two Honors College freshmen. My role was to help guide them through freshmen year and be a campus resource for opportunities on how to get more involved. Additionally, I act like a built in friend for them as they navigate being away from home for the first time and a sounding board for decisions they make throughout the semester. When I was in this program as a freshmen, I found it helpful to talk to someone who had already been through the same experiences. In this way, I wanted to do the same for my mentees to ease some of the stress that comes with attending college. Although a minor accomplishment, I'm very proud of getting one of my mentees to open up and talk in an open dialogue versus one word answers. During meetings, I had to phrase questions as open-ended, forcing him to expand upon "Yes" or "No" answers. Since this experience required regular meetings, I learned how to set meeting agendas while still allowing my mentee to lead to discuss any issues they may be currently facing. I also had to learn to adapt my knowledge of campus resources to the specific concern brought up by my mentees. For the Fall 2022 semester, I am excited to return again as a mentor for the incoming freshmen class.