Week 10:
The End has come

August 23, 2018

Week 10 is finally here. What a ride it’s been! It may have been my last week here at Children’s Colorado, but that did not mean it was easy.

On Monday I finally got the stats back for my project. Things went as expected none of our findings were statistically or clinically significant. While this might sound bad for our project, this is exactly what we wanted to see! This means the surgery can be done earlier and not cause deformities which is great news.

The biggest part of this week was the MRC research symposium. Each of my fellow interns and I had ten minutes to sum up our research to all of the orthopedic surgeons, included the head of the department. This was probably one of the most nerve-racking presentations I have ever given. For the days leading up to the symposium, all we could do was update our PowerPoints, interpret results, and practice practice practice. Cornell’s block plan has prepared me for getting ready for a big presentation in a short amount of time which helped calm my nerves a lot. The best part of the symposium was getting the pre-presentation jitters out with some Fruit Ninja on the Xbox. My shoulders might be sore, but it was definitely worth it. I finished out my work week watching a live kidney transplant on a 20-month-old kiddo. That was one of the coolest and most memorable experiences I had here at Children’s. This experience has just continuously reconfirmed my want to be a surgeon one day.

As I reflect on my summer, I am so thankful for all of the support I had these 10 weeks. Between the Cornell and Children’s community, I was continuously overwhelmed by the love and support I had. I made amazing networking connections and friends that I hope to keep. I will surely miss my PI Dr. De the most. He was everything I could’ve asked for in a supervisor. Between our weekly meetings and him always replying to my freak out emails/texts even when he was on vacation in Scotland he became my mentor and boss. This experience was amazing and having such a supportive PI to help me through it all was the icing on the cake. I am very thankful to have the opportunity to continue working with Dr. De throughout this school year as we work to write and publish the manuscript for our project.

My work week ended Thursday and was immediately followed by me packing and heading back to Cornell to help with fall sports preseason. I have one last year here at Cornell with a lot of options to think about for post-graduation, and I have to thank the Cornell Fellows program and Children’s Hospital Colorado for the experiences I had this summer. I hope my blog can help any future Fellow navigate throughout their experience. I am excited to share my experiences with my peers and get back to Cornell to finish out my undergraduate career. This summer was one I will never forget, and I am so thankful for the time I spent here!