This past week in ISM was much less eventful than the weeks prior and the weeks to come. My mentor is currently away on a work trip to Egypt, which meant that a mentor visit this week would not have been possible. Furthermore, the shortened week meant that the limited time at school was spent inside the ISM classroom.
Personally, I make it a goal for myself to go on a mentor visit twice a week. This provides me with enough time to make progress on my final product and ensure I am still on schedule. As a result, most of the assignments due in ISM are primarily done as homework. The positive aspect of this past week is that my time in class allowed me to finish assignments earlier. For example, I spent a majority of an entire class period watching my original work speech and filling out my evaluation. Watching myself present is always uncomfortable, but I can see all of the improvements I have been making. Last year, at this very time, it was difficult for me to even complete a speech. Midway through my presentation I would feel the nerves setting in and my professional presence would go downhill. However, through the preparation methods I have discovered, I am able to remember everything I need to say and do so with consistency throughout my speech. One issue that I have been dealing with for the past couple of weeks is exactly how I am going to turn in my final product. By the final product due date my mentor and I will have our abstract complete. Therefore, my submission will definitely include our completed abstract. However, I am not even allowed to take home the material I work on at Dr. Meintjes’s office due to confidentiality laws. The only way I could turn these papers in, along with the abstract, is to remove all of the patient information. Although I could easily do this, over the next couple of weeks I hope to come up with a more creative way of presenting all of the work I have been working on with Dr. Meintjes. I am sure that my mentor and I will think of a way very soon and I plan on discussing this topic next week as well. Until then, my plans are to simply finish the aspect of my final product I am currently working on, which is data analysis.
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This past week in ISM brought forth a reality check, for I can now see myself finishing the data portion of my final product and starting my abstract. Also, the original work speeches were planned for the end of the week, which startled my nerves early on. I have always been vocal about my fear of public speaking, but now that original work speeches are over, I can say confidently that those fears are beginning to subside.
My final product has been progressing in steps. Once I finish one area of data entry, I move onto another area. This past mentor visit introduced the last data entry step in my mentor and I’s large excel sheet. Once this is completed next week, Dr. Meintjes and I will move on to data analysis and then onto the actual abstract. Since the beginning of my mentorship I have had concerns of falling short of my mentor’s expectations, especially when it comes to our advanced research. However, now that I have progressed in my research and have been understanding the different tasks given to me by Dr. Meintjes, I am beginning to feel much more confident in my abilities. This has been a great feeling, for I am now much more excited about going to my mentor’s office, while before my excitement was heavily mixed with nerves. My mentor, Dr. Meintjes, traveled to Egypt for business at the end of the week. Therefore, I did not focus on attending a second visit at the end of the week, but instead focused on preparing for my original work speech. Speeches are, fortunately, becoming less and less nerve wracking for me. This is largely because I have discovered the most effective techniques for preparing. I have heard the phrase “winging it” more times than I can remember from students. However, the idea behind this phrase is that over practicing may be the downfall of many students, which is something I agree with. So, instead of writing a script of what I plan on saying, I go through my slides and “wing it” many times until I know the basics of what I plan on elaborating on. The ease that has come with doing things in ISM that I initially found nerve wracking is extremely exciting for me. This means I am sticking with the smart goals I created at the beginning of the year and truly making the most of my senior year. To think that I could have given up at the end of last year and opted for the easy way out during my senior year is an eye opener, but it is a lesson I will keep with me for the rest of my life. This past week was an extremely exciting one when it comes to the two mentor visits I attended. Dr. Meintjes and I finally began taking the next step in our final product, which is making the entire process feel much more real. Furthermore, I not only spent time looking at the required patient records for my research, but I also got to experience life in the andrology lab and what embryologists do on a daily basis.
Last week I spent much of my time printing out patient records that detailed the results of Preimplantation Genetic Screening. This process allows the physician to see whether the embryos are normal or abnormal. The piece of information that Dr. Meintjes and I still needed was whether the embryos for each patient were day five or day six. This knowledge will allow for a pattern to become visible, which is crucial for our overall research and final abstract. Therefore, I spent my two mentor visits this week on the computer and going through more patient records on the office’s official database. Charts for each patient revealed which patient embryos were day six and day five. Now that I have completed this step of the research, Dr. Meintjes and I will move on to our excel sheet and focus on transferring this information and looking at different rates and patterns as well. This step is one I am especially excited about, for once completed, I will be able to move on to the writing process and start developing the abstract for the American Society of Reproductive Medicine. However, my mentor visits this week were not limited to time on the computer. In fact, as I was working in the andrology lab, I was introduced to an embryologist that was more than willing to show me how different things worked within the lab. He was conducting a sperm analysis and walked me through every step. I learned about the different factors that go into analyzing sperm and how there isn’t only one definite piece of information that categorizes the sperm as abnormal. The entire process, from looking at the sperm under the microscope to staining it, reignited the excitement I feel for reproductive medicine. I find it astounding that this is one of the many steps that go into the creation of a child for a struggling family. The complex technology is truly incredible and I cannot wait to use it myself in the future. This next week will be primarily focused on moving forward in my research with Dr. Meintjes. However, I will be taking a step back to my original work this week as well, for ISM students will be giving their original work speeches to groups within the class. The progress I have made this week has only gotten me more excited to move forward. Fortunately, I am able to attend mentor visits twice a week to stay on track with the new product proposal calendar I created. This last week in ISM 2 was largely focused on moving forward from my original work and moving towards my final product. Fortunately, I was able to have a mentor visit this past week as well in order to officially start my final product and further discuss my goals for the year with my mentor, Dr. Meintjes.
With my original work turned in, the last portion of this assignment that I needed to complete was the original work assessment. This assessment was basically a recap as to what exactly went into the production of each student’s original work. I made it a point to not reiterate everything I wrote in my actual academic paper, but instead focus on the procedural aspect of my product and the higher-level thinking I utilized throughout. In all seriousness, my original work was much more than conducting some online research and then writing my own paper over it. Each piece of research that I conducted covered a different geographical area. Also, my own survey portion brought in another aspect to consider as well. Therefore, my actual original work was a complicated task of comparing all of the information I had gathered and generate general trends that applied to all aspects of my research. Such a task was not easy and was actually quite overwhelming as well. I am extremely ecstatic that my mentor and I have begun our final product. Our research project, which is aiming to actually improve the productivity of my mentor’s office, is a challenging task unlike anything I have done before. I do have some concerns when it comes to completing this research, such as whether or not I will be able to live up to Dr. Meintjes’ standards. However, I am fortunate enough to have my mentor who plans to assist me throughout the whole process and make my abstract into something incredible. The upcoming weeks will largely consist of me working on my final product. Therefore, I need to find as much time as possible to go into Dr. Meintjes’s office and work on one of his computers. That is going to be the biggest factor in finishing the abstract by our May 1st deadline, which I plan on doing by being consistent every single week. I view this last week as the conclusion to a dense narrative, but only the first narrative in a two part series. Weeks of preparations and work towards being research showcase ready and completing my original work had finally come to an end. You would think that all of the days leading up to this week would have been the most stressful. However, the week still had its fair share of highs and lows.
The research showcase was one of my favorite parts of ISM last year, for I got the opportunity to speak with individuals one on one rather than in a large group, presentational setting. This year, the night went off mostly without any problems, except for the two letters that fell off of my board. Also, my mentor was able to stop by for a little bit and we were able to talk more in-depth about our final product. Overall, the night presented the perfect opportunity for me to express my passion for the field of Reproductive Endocrinology to everyone that stopped by. I had a wide variety of visitors, ranging from strangers to teachers and even to a man who was married to a reproductive endocrinologist. It gave me great comfort to learn that his wife loves her job and that she experiences a balance between her work and home life, which is something I am looking for in my future career. While I was preparing my board and portfolio for the Research Showcase, I was simultaneously finishing up my original work. I am quite proud of my original work this year because it provides a balance between online research and the data I acquired myself. Fortunately, the data and results from my survey largely corresponded and supported my online research. Also, it provided other insights, such as how millenials were more inclined to answer such personal questions. Not only did I spruce up a plain research assessment by adding much more information and conducting my own survey, but I formatted my original work into a legitimate academic journal. Seeing the academic journal format made me quite excited for my upcoming final product, which I am currently working on with my mentor, Dr. Marius Meintjes. We are working towards having our abstract completed by May in order to submit everything by the deadline. Hopefully in the next few months I will be able to write an official academic journal paper and be able to have it published. This last week has left me feeling very accomplished. Also, now that I know what I am doing for my final product I feel a large weight of uncertainty lifted off of my shoulders. The last couple of months in ISM 2 will go by just as fast as the first semester. Although I am excited to finish my final product and graduate, it is going to be quite bittersweet leaving the ISM program I have grown so accustomed to. |
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