Week 2:
Children’s Hospital Colorado

June 23, 2014

This week consisted of reading the last research articles. After, some brief instructions from my research assistants it was time to design the project. Unfortunately, I am the only intern that has to do this, I do not know if it is a good thing or bag thing. My data collecting will be delayed until I finish this, but also I can contribute much more towards my project. I was quite nervous because we had a meeting with Dr. Stoneback to analyze the outline I made of the possible variables we want to review. As I turned in the outline, I hesitated, but I need to learn to stand behind my work and not be so worried. Oddly, there is no wrong way to do things while designing a project, especially in this early stage, only room for improvement. Erin told me to make it detailed as possible, we can always add and remove things, and it will help Dr. Stoneback think of other ideas that he never thought of, which could be beneficial to the project.

I am surprised at the amount of independence I gained at the Children’s, and its only week two. It is a weird feeling, whenever I did experiments in Cornell there are a lot of supervision. However, here they tell me what to do, and pretty much let me figure things out on my own. Maybe they feel that I have a good grasp on the material since I spent a week reading other retrospective studies, or maybe they are teaching me to be creative, and take responsibility.

In addition, I was able to meet all the other interns and research assistants both in the orthopedic and gait analysis department. Not surprisingly, I was the youngest, everyone besides Bridget and I are graduated, in medical school, or working there full-time in hopes to attend medical school soon. I am very grateful to be surrounded by these individuals. One research assistant is even leaving this month to attend Georgetown for medical school next semester. They are not that much older than me, but it makes me wonder what I will be doing once I am their age. I feel that working at the Children’s for a couple of years as a research assistant would be something that I would consider. I am unsure if I want to go to optometry school or graduate school right after undergrad, but the Children’s has so many resources, and would prepare me  for additional schooling.

This weekend I went to the Denver Zoo with some Cornell students. My favorite animals at the park, were the polar bears, penguins, and leopard cubs. We also explored Colorado Springs, and strolled along the Garden of the Gods, to see the different red rock formations, I really liked the Kissing Camels. That day we also drove up the summit of Pike’s Peak. The drive up to 14,000 feet, was quite scary. Once we got to the top though the view was beautiful, and definitely worth it. It was cold up there, and we did not have the proper attire, so we left once we got our pictures. It was still a fun day.