Week 11:
Completing Assignments and Attending Homecoming

August 11, 2019

This week was different than previous weeks. I spent three days in the PCCR in the microscopy room and in my office. I spent the last two days of the week in one of Palmer’s academic buildings, B.J. Palmer Hall. I served as a monitor for the continuing education seminars that Palmer College of Chiropractic organized for their homecoming event. In addition to being a monitor, I was able to sit in on some seminars and soak up some knowledge.

While in the PCCR microscopy room, I worked on quantifying the number of positively immunostained cells present in the tissue section images that I captured last week. I carried this out by using the computer program that works with the fluorescent microscope to capture our images. I outlined an area of interest on the image and then used the computer program to run an image analysis to quantify the number of positive cells. This microscopy skill was fun to learn, and I hope that I can work some form of immunostaining into my honors project, for kinesiology, so that I can continue to use this skill.

I also spent time in my office working on my week 10 blog post and my college application personal statement. With help from my clinical research mentor Dr. Robert Vining, and my primary mentor, Dr. Stephen Onifer, I got all my thoughts down on paper and submitted it to Palmer Admissions. After I submitted my personal statement, my admissions counselor contacted me to tell me that she loved reading my statement and that it was very well written. I would like to thank my mentors for challenging and helping me improve my writing skills.

In addition to completing my personal statement, I completed part two of my final internship assignment. I still would like to obtain feedback from my internship (or PCCR) mentors before I send it to my faculty sponsor. I also observed Dr. Zacariah Shannon help an R15 Research honors student carry out a statistical analysis of their data. During the session I was able to learn a little more about how to analyze data and use a stats program known as SPSS.

Palmer Homecoming is an annual event. Among many activities occurring during Palmer homecoming are continuing education classes for Doctors of Chiropractic. I spent the last two days of the week in one of Palmer’s academic buildings, B.J. Palmer Hall, as a monitor for the continuing education seminars. As a monitor, I helped show Doctors to their classes and stamped their education cards to confirm attendance for license-renewal credit.

I also had the chance to attend some classes. One session focused on The Effects of Gender Dimorphism in Chiropractic Practices: Utilizing Orthopedic, Neurological, and Imaging Examinations to Reduce Gender‐Based Healthcare Disparities. The session was led by Dr. Tracy Littrell. During the seminar, Dr. Littrell discussed gender bias in diagnosis, citing research that reported the tendency for male and female doctors to develop different diagnoses for male vs female patients with identical symptoms. The seminar was eye opening and I would like to do some research on this topic. The other seminar I was able to attend was entitled Movement Matters, by Dr. Greg Rose. Dr. Rose described his state-of-the-art sports performance practice known as the Titleist Performance Institute. He also talked about the major sports teams he was affiliated with through the performance institute, and how developing his communication, diagnosis, and treatment skills were important in achieving his goals. It was a fun seminar and it helped motivate me to strive for the best.

This weekend, my girlfriend, Shay Rule ’19 visited me. Over the weekend we relaxed, went out to eat, exercised, watched movies, and cooked breakfast together. We ate at two restaurants while she was here. The first, was breakfast at Quad City Coffee and Pancake House in Rock Island, IA. It was our second time eating there, and it was just as good as the first time, I highly recommend it if you are ever in the Quad Cities. The second, was dinner at Crust Stone Oven Pizza in Bettendorf, IA. The environment was nice, and so was the food. We were able to sit outside and catch the sunset, which was amazing. I also highly recommend Crust if you are ever in the Quad Cities.

When we weren’t eating out, we relaxed inside and watched movies and documentaries. One of the movies we watched was Pulp Fiction. The movie is a gangster film set in the 90’s with a crazy twist. If you have some free time, give it a watch. We also watched a documentary about the Volkswagen emissions scandal, called Dirty Money. Which if that doesn’t sound familiar, I highly recommend watching it. What Volkswagen did was ridiculous.

On the final day of her visit, we got up early and went for run. I ran my usual 15 miles and she ran 6. It was a great day for a run, the temperature was nice, but it rained vigorously the entire time. After the run, we came back to my house and cooked breakfast. We attempted and succeed in making chocolate chip pancakes. I did not know how easy and quick it was to make pancakes, but time does fly by when you are having fun.

My last weekend at my Airbnb was a blast, and I am sad that in a few days I will be leaving to go back to school. My hosts have been amazing people and good friends, and I hope that I can stay in touch with them for years to come.