Goals

Through the recruitment event activities, I was able to build on this skill. When talking to my Hispanic community in Spanish, I had to find creative ways to describe the donation procedure. I used a lot of visual representation and hand movements to describe the location and size of the incision. Additionally, I compared the core breast tissues collected to peas.

Additionally, through my day to day in the office, I use creative ways to help do tasks faster and simpler. This includes finding faster ways to organize and label paperwork. Additionally, when doing tube labelling, I also try to find the fastest ways to label them while keeping myself organized. 

To work on this skill, there are recruitment events where I am talking to potential donors to help inform them of what we do and the purpose of the Komen Tissue Bank. I am also communicating with peers and colleagues in the office day to day. Through emails, I am able to work more on my professional writing skill. 

During our collection events, I had the privilege of working as a Surgical Assistant and as a Lab processor. During my experience as a Surgical Assistant, I explained to the donors the process of how their donation would go and walked them through every step. I also spoke with the physicians about what the biopsy consisted of. On the other hand, working in the Lab Processor role, I worked on extracting the plasma and the buffy coat sample that contained platelets. During this role, I communicated constantly with my other lab mates since we each had a role that depended on each other. I would communicate with the person who had centrifuged the sample as well as with the person who was scanning the plasma I had collected. I also communicated with my Lab supervisor about what samples needed more centrifuging, the amount of plasma samples we had already extracted, and so on. 

During recruiting events, I often did tabling. My role consisted of giving a short synopsis of what the Komen Tissue Bank's mission was, what the procedure consisted of, and how those tissue collections were to be used. This allowed me to practice on communicating efficiently, effectively, and clearly. There were also tabling events where I communicated in Spanish. 

I will be working with the communications recruitment manager on the team on different projects, I will be able to work more on my verbal skills and how I present myself to others. Additionally, meeting with individual members of the Komen Tissue Bank and learning about their jobs allow me to better see how my way of thinking can contribute to the different parts of the team. 

I have talked to a person who works on the data analysis of the normal breast tissues that we collect in our events. This includes sorting by age, gender, and ethnicity. During our collection events, I also spoke to the different volunteers about their jobs. I have met different researchers, Doctors, nurses, and Surgical Assistants. This has allowed me to work on my networking skills and learn about different occupations and what they entail. 

I have also practiced my verbal skills by speaking on the phone. Upon starting my project of learning to read Mammograms, I first had to gather the information from each hospital to request them. This meant that I was to call each office to ask for the faxing number. Additionally, I was to send them the names of the patients and a cover letter explaining who we are and that the patients listed signed a consent form giving us access to the donor's Mammograms.