Supplemental Review Sessions, SRS, are an optional class students can take in addition to their math lecture for extra content review and practice. SRS is an 80 minute, 0 credit hour, pass/not proficient course that promotes active learning among students with the help of a student facilitator. Each week, I would prepare a presentation, as seen to the left, that included a short review of content and a learning activity that encouraged students to work with each other to solve the practice problems. 

While math has always come naturally to me, I enjoyed working with students at various stages in their learning and understanding of math and helping them get to a better understanding and ultimately succeed in their class. Throughout this experience, I have gained more confidence in my public speaking skills and had to think of new ways to explain topics to all of the students. I also enjoyed being a mentor to them by giving them study tips, tricks that worked for me when taking the math course, and being another outlet for them to ask questions. Taking this new leadership role has allowed me to think more creatively to cater to multiple different personalities and learning styles while also making an impact on the 40 students.

Intermediate Composition is a seminar focusing on understanding and analyzing communities, communication, and communication within communities which were the prompts of the three essays for this class. The first essay on communication prompted me to think about how a community I have been a part of has influenced my communication and was to be written as a personal narrative. This style of writing, using "I" and "me" and being casual in my word choice, was the complete opposite of how I've been taught and trained to write throughout high school that I struggled a lot with writing it and digging deep for a personal connection. Most papers I have written are lab reports and analyses on poems that have a specific format to follow and do not require any internal reflection. Having to unlearn my typical writing style to adapt a new voice and techniques for this course was challenging but ultimately rewarding as I am now a more versatile and stronger writer overall. 

The essay I decided to showcase was the third essay of the course which prompted me to choose a community and analyze their forms of communication. I chose the TikTok community of some of my favorite creators on the app and analyzed how the creator interacts with their follows through comments and mentionings in their videos and how followers interact with each other. This was my favorite essay to write because it required research and analysis which I am comfortable doing but also challenged me to continue writing with this new, relaxed and personal style. 

The Food Injustice & Health seminar focused on discussing the complex topics of food and health access disparities across the country, the ethical implications of the food market, and finding solutions to this broken system. This course challenged me to think not only about the health implications the food disparities create, but also to take the position of the leaders in the food market and their reasoning for decisions. This was challenging to justify their decisions to manufacture and market ultra-processed foods knowing they were taking advantage of low-income populations who cannot afford or do not have access to fresh foods. I would always default to “it’s unhealthy for people to consume ultra-processed foods, so why should we be manufacturing and selling them?” Dr. Varghai did an excellent job playing devil’s advocate and challenging me to think about people who do not have access to a refrigerator to store fresh foods or the time or skills required to cook with fresh foods. I have walked away from this class with a more comprehensive understanding of the various factors that are involved in the disparities we see everyday. This will continue to be a reflection I have as a physician who will try to improve the lives of my patients in more aspects than just their health. 

The sample I have chosen to display is the final project of the course, in which we were tasked to solving the obesity epidemic. We had unlimited funds and full control over anything and everything. This project was truly a culmination of all of the discussion we had throughout the semester from changing the medical system to eradicating food desserts to preventing obesity from occurring to begin with. When I first started brainstorming from this project, I just wanted to start fresh with a new society because massive change felt impossible (even though this whole project is fictional). Then, I started to consider what the most common barriers were to a healthy lifestyle: time and money. How do we make healthcare and fresh food more affordable? How do we make time in a day to exercise in a society dominated by the working-class? This project forced me to consider numerous aspects that make up a healthy lifestyle for adults and children,  finding solutions to access and affordability. 

As an SRS coordinator, not only was I facilitating my own SRS (as detailed in my first showcase experience), but I was also mentoring new SRS leaders through their first semesters of facilitation. During weekly small group meetings, my proteges would share their successes, but more importantly their challenges in the classroom. Together, we would create potential solutions to improve active learning and student engagement in sessions, crafting them to match each personal facilitation style and session characteristics. Additionally, we would further develop facilitation skills learned during training, such as questioning skills and metacognition, to continue to challenge ourselves for the benefit of our students. I also observed my proteges in their session, witnessing all of their facilitation skills in action, providing constructive feedback on their strengths as an SRS leader and opportunities for growth for the remainder of the semester. These observations challenged me to balance both positive and constructive feedback. It’s difficult to have a productive conversation on how to grow as a facilitator when you feel bombarded with mistakes you made. It’s also difficult to continue to grow as a facilitator when you only hear everything you are doing correctly. 

As a coordinator, I am also responsible for creating a weekly newsletter for our program that spotlights all of the incredible work our facilitators are doing which is the showcase displayed.. Our entire program is never in the same place together, so there is a disconnect that can easily let successes go unnoticed. This project has allowed me to see first hand the power that recognition has on a person’s confidence and self-esteem. It shows people that their efforts are being seen and they deserve to be recognized. I recently had a protege tell me that they were recognized in a spotlight email during their first semester as an SRS leader (over a year ago from this conversation), and they still have the email pinned, so they can always see it to brighten up their day. This comment just made all of the time recognizing people and creating the newsletters worth it; whether people are feeling a minute of joy once when they read it or a second of joy every time they open their email, the recognition is needed and earned.