Third Year: 2024-2025

​       In my third year, I continued to grow, build confidence, and find who I am. I think as I gain more experience in my roles I can act more in a leadership role. For example, I have been volunteering, working as an MA, and working as a Biology Learning Assistant for 2 years so I take the initiative to help those new to the role. My goal is to make the transition easier for my peers and help them succeed. During the Summer of 2024, I started the AIRE program at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. This is a research position in the Asthma division. Initially I spent a lot of time training and learning about my study and clinical research in general. Then, I was able to take part in the study visits by preparing materials, taking skin tapes/swabs, administering questionnaires, entering data, shipping samples, etc. I have continued to do this research for a year, so I have not only learned many new skills but I have also learned more personal and professional skills. For example, I have learned how to effectively work in a team and delegate responsibilities, effectively assess the needs of the patient, and how to best fulfill those needs. I have learned the importance of ethics and communication in research and how important research is to developing and improving medicine. These experiences have shown me how passionate and curious I am about the medical feild so this further cemented my decision to persue medicine. I have continued to work on balancing these extracurriculars with my academics and other responsibilities. I have learned how to build a hierarchy where I need to prioritize some tasks and responsibilities over others. My first priority is always school, next is scholarship responsibilities, research, volunteering, and then work. I am grateful to be in a position of priviledge where I am able to afford to take a step back from work during the semester so I only work as a learning assistant 5-7 hours a week and I worked as a medical assistant once a month. I have continued to take difficult classes such as physics 1 and 2, biochemistry, and anatomy. I found physics to be very difficult for me and I did not perform as well as I would like which gave me an opportunity to practice acceptance and work to improve. I have worked on a balance between having high expectations for myself and not being to critical of myself. In my first 2 years I spent more time dwelling on my mistakes and being hard on myself, but now I have learned to give myself more race while still looking to improve. Over spring break, I went to Florida with my sister where I focused on purely resting, relaxing, and recouperating by taking a break from all of my responsibilities for the first time in my college career. I’m learning that prioritizing myself and my well-being is essential—not only for performing at my best, but also for sustaining long-term success. Next year I plan to see out additional experiences that will help me learn and grow. In terms of my goal to go to medical school, I want to continue my extra curricular activities next year as well as find more leadership roles and complete more clinical hours and shadowing.