Week 5:
We’re Half way There

July 15, 2018

It’s midterm week! My time here at Children’s really is flying by, it seems like just yesterday my project was brand new and intimidating, but now it is finished. A breakdown of my week: I finished data collection, started a manuscript, and explored the campus.

After going through my charts three different times, we have finally decided data collection is done. On Tuesday’s I meet with my PI so next week we will confirm all the measurements are what we want and prepare to send our data off for statistical analysis. This is exciting because it now puts me in full blown writing mode. I am in charge of some big parts of this manuscript which means I have a lot of work ahead of me. We have 2500 words to get our project importance across to publishers and convince them what we did and found was worthwhile. Writing a manuscript is a daunting task but with the guidance of my PI, I am ready for the new challenge. The rest of my work week was pretty repetitive so, instead of going through that for a 5th time I figure I should reflect and talk about the other parts of my experience.

This week I learned that communication is key. My PI and I compared our measuring techniques and because we really hadn’t talked about it before then it led to me having to do data collection completely again. That meant two days needed to be dedicated to redoing my measurements. If I had compared at the beginning I could’ve avoided this set back. This is one of those live and learn moments.

I have also learned in the past 5 weeks that there’s something to learn everywhere you go. This week I went to neurology grand rounds and learned about Lewy Body Dementias. The lecture was so interesting and there are things like this happening every day, had I not gone and experienced this I might not have seen all the amazing things the medical campus has to offer. I also learn from my work colleagues all the time. Everyone at work has gotten to where they are through different paths. One engineer had this internship her senior summer and now works on research projects full time at Children’s. Most of the people I work with are taking gap years between applying for medical school, this has really opened my eyes about not having to rush straight in. There are so many things to experience to really find what you love in life and this internship and the help of my Cornell advisors has helped me to really see that taking some time to experience new things is not the worst thing in the world. The greatest thing I have learned thus far is that not every path is a straight one. Dr. Rhodes is an orthopedic surgeon at the hospital who started off as an engineer. He worked with prosthetics and even has his master’s in engineering. He had never really thought he would go to medical school but working in orthopedics he fell in love with it. His background in engineering now helps him as an orthopedic surgeon. Without his different experiences and choices, he wouldn’t be where he is today.

Everyday I learn more and more about myself and the path I want to take after Cornell. I could not think of a better experience to have going into my final year of undergrad. I only have 5 weeks left here at Children’s, but I may just have to be dragged out with how much I am loving it here. I am anxious to see what else I can experience in 5 weeks!