In this past week in ISM, I completed a few more tasks regarding some of the action items that came from my last meeting with Ellie and Aldo. For starters, I designed the “Save the Date” invitations that can be used for our February fundraiser. Even though we don’t know details yet, the process of sending out invites when we do have details finalized will be sped up now that we don’t have to design the invitation later. Additionally, I made calls to American Airlines about possible discounts/waivers for nonprofits traveling in a group and I sent out quote requests to eleven different venues for possible locations for the February fundraiser. Now that I have gotten some clear direction and I have some tangible tasks I can check off as I accomplish them, I feel a lot better about planning this trip because there is less speculation about what my job actually is. I sent out an update to the whole Salvando Corazones team about hotel and flight information as well as the T-shirt fundraiser that I launched so now everybody can be on the same page. Hopefully, the trip planning continues to go smoother than before so that when the time comes for departure for Lima, everything is sorted out and seamless.
0 Comments
These past few weeks in ISM has been extremely eventful. Earlier during this Winter Break, things weren’t looking too good in regards to the Peru medical mission. I was having communication issues with the lead surgeon and with the rest of the team, making it very difficult for me to get things done. On Wednesday, January 2nd, Ellie and I met in person to create the project plan and to see what our next steps should be. We realized that with all the communication issues and with the fact that I was not working at Baylor full time, maybe the project was not ideal for me. We decided to give it a few more days to see if we could salvage the situation. On Thursday, Ellie and I met with one of the perfusionists on the trip. We found out that communication issues have always been a big problem with this certain group of physicians and that things were never done in an organized fashion for this trip. Later that day, Ellie and I established a game plan for our meeting with Aldo so that we could get to the bottom of the problem and see if we can get some concrete action items to get accomplished before our next meeting. The meeting with Aldo went very well and a lot of underlying problems were uncovered during the course of our meeting. I got lots of tasks to start working on and our roles were clearly established. Before this meeting there was a lot of confusion with who was doing what so a lot of the fog was finally cleared away, making for a promising future.
This past week in ISM has been very exciting! I finished and submitted my original work on Friday and I got accepted into the University of Chicago today! For my original work, I did not do a complete, tangible project like I did last year. Instead, I am combining my final product and original work into one big project that I will be working on for the next few months. Since I have taken up the role as project manager for the Salvando Corazones Medical Mission, I will spend a lot of time planning and completing small individual tasks that will contribute to the big overall project which is the actual medical mission trip. In addition me actually going on the trip as part of my final product, I will be creating a big final assessment, a PowerPoint presentation, and a booklet that each team member going on the trip can take with them so they have easy access to an itinerary, critical phone numbers, common phrases, the weather report, and other documents needed on an international trip. Now that I have finished this big milestone in ISM, I will begin working toward my big final product and final presentation.
This past week in ISM, I have started working on addressing some action items regarding the Peru Mission Trip. Dr. Rafael sent me multiple documents that are needed for our trip to be approved so I filled all of them out and I have started with the Peruvian American Medical Society Grant that should give us some cushion so that volunteers aren’t having to cover the complete costs of their trip bills. Within the next couple of days, I hope to have set up the GoFundMe and the Facebook page for the trip to help raise money. In addition to the progression of my original work, I completed my Research Speech self-evaluation which was due this past Friday. When I watched my speech on video, I was able to pick out a lot of areas upon which I can improve. For instance, filler words and an excess use of the word “and” when I transition from bullet point to bullet point took away from the overall effectiveness of my speech. In the future, I will work on smoothing out the kinks of my speech and making it sounds better prepared by eliminating the filler words and adding in a more diverse vocabulary.
This past week in ISM has been absolutely amazing and super exciting! After a few cancellations, and time swaps, I finally got my chance to meet with Dr. Aldo Rafael, the lead surgeon who orchestrates the medical mission trip to Peru. Initially I was a little surprised by Dr. Rafael because I had never met him in person and he was the opposite of the image I made of him in my brain. He was extremely accommodating and super personable throughout our whole meeting, completely on-board with the idea of having me on the trip with them. The invitation was also extended to Ellie so we both have the opportunity to go on this trip of a lifetime! Throughout the entire meeting, I took lots and lots of notes, trying to keep up with the pace of the conversation. The way Dr. Aldo explained the workload that I would have to take up, I knew that this would be a great learning experience for me. There are a lot of things that I will need to do that I’m not entirely sure HOW to do yet, but I am positive that with Ellie’s mentoring, I will succeed. Along with coordinating the logistics of the trip, I will also be keeping track of documentations, funding applications, inventories, supplies orders, flight informations, etc. Even though the next few months will be very busy and will throw me completely out of my comfort zone, I am excited for the challenge and for whatever the future may hold.
This past week in ISM, we listened to more research speeches in class and I prepared for a meeting I was supposed to have today with Dr. Aldo Rafael at Baylor Heart and Vascular Hospital in Dallas. Dr. Rafael is the same surgeon who started the Peru medical mission trip and still leads it to this day. Essentially, Ellie and I were going to “pitch ourselves” to him in hopes of possibly actually going on the trip next year. Additionally, Ellie would like to make me the project manager of the whole trip, which would really allow me to immerse myself into the field of healthcare administration. Unfortunately, the meeting got moved to next week so I was not able to write about the progress of the situation in this blog but hopefully, things work out in our favor in the future and I get the opportunity to experience a completely life changing trip. In other ISM news, the research showcase preparations are about to begin as I will start planning my display board and handing out the invitations. Hopefully, my board from last year holds up so that I can just update it and not have to purchase a completely new one. In addition to Research Showcase preparations, the original work project deadline is coming up so I will reveal more information about that in the upcoming weeks.
This past week in ISM, I presented my research speech to the class. I covered the primary “interviews” that I had in the summer as well as some of the secondary research that I conducted throughout the school year. This speech went better than any of my past speeches have gone and I am very proud of the progress that I have made throughout the year with my public speaking. I wrote an introduction and an ending beforehand but everything else in between was what I like to call, rehearsed improv. I used very little filler words and the general pace of the speech was pretty good. What was very surprising during the 14 minutes that I spoke was that there were always people looking at me or looking at my PowerPoint. Last year, I could barely captivate the audience in the class but this year, now that I have added bits of my personality and humor into my presentation, it’s much less painful for people to listen to me. Coach Goff will release the video of me speaking soon so I will be able to review my presentation and really go through it with a fine tooth comb rather than with my biased memory :)
This past week in ISM, I was not able to schedule in time to see my mentor because of the busyness of the last six weeks. With an exam in every class, it was impossible to fit in time that wouldn’t take away from my preparedness for the final grade of the six weeks. However, I did begin preparing for my research speech that I will be presenting to my ISM class this upcoming week. Looking back at the progress I have made with public speaking, ISM has been an integral part in my growth. My communication skills have come a very long way from what they were at the start of my junior year. As I’m writing my speech and preparing my presentation, I’m taking into account all the tips and tricks I learned last year when it came to giving speeches so that I can be a good example for the ISM 1 students that have never given a speech like this before. One trick that I learned helps me is not writing a full speech out before hand and only leaving bullet points for myself on the screen as an outline. I have found that when I try to write out and memorize a good speech in advance, I trip myself up by trying to read straight off the paper and my speech isn’t as flow-y or personal as I hope.
This past week in ISM has been stressful but very exciting. This past weekend, I performed my last marching band competition as a part of the Frisco High School band and stood beside my friends as we did something we loved for the last time together. As the first round of college applications comes to a close, and as I am submitting all my essays and short answers, I have been able to reflect on my path in ISM. Not only did I have to describe my ISM experience in 50 words or fewer, I also had to show how ISM has better prepared me as both a person and a student. I am very thankful for having been granted the opportunity to expand my horizons and develop my interpersonal skills from the abomination that they were before my junior year. As I sum up my high school experience in a few hundred words, I am very proud to have been able to put ISM in my list of accomplishments. The class itself, and my wonderful mentor, Ellie Huff have absolutely transformed my life for the better and I could not be more grateful. Next up, I will be working on my original work and brainstorming with Ellie about the best way to approach this extensive project.
This past week in ISM has been pretty uneventful in regards to ISM but very stressful in regards to college apps, marching band, and school course work. I decided to not miss school to go down to my mentor’s office this past week because I have been missing a lot of school and I didn’t really have a gap in my schedule that I could miss without any real consequences. I did, however submit one of my many applications, so that is a small step that I have thankfully taken in this college application process. For the research assessment that I turned in on Friday, I did read an interesting article over the debate surrounding TAVR volume requirements. Even though medicine is a STEM field founded in concrete facts and proven theses, there is still lots of intellectual debate that surrounds the practice and how medical services are administered. Even in such a specified operation like TAVR, there are still many different opinions that go into the construction of all the guidelines surrounding the procedure. The article I annotated showed just how complex healthcare can be and how beautifully the administrative aspect of healthcare can work with the clinical aspect.
|
|