Year in Review

To help instill global awareness, I have decided to use my STEP funds towards a study abroad program in Copenhagen, Denmark this upcoming summer. I will be studying abroad for three weeks as I take a course in Neuropsychology of Social Behaviors. I also experience global awareness through the extra-curricular activities I have chosen to participate in. Currently, I am a volunteer at La Clinica Latina, a free clinic focused on helping the Spanish-speaking community in Columbus with any general/primary care issues they face. The clinic is run solely by medical students from Ohio State and volunteer physicians from the surrounding hospitals. At the clinic, I am a part of the intake team that is responsible for assuring that any paperwork or past medical history information is updated and in the system prior to the patient meeting with the doctor. I also input lab results for La Clinica and inform patients of their results as well as any further steps that need to be taken. When needed, I also translate appointments for the doctor and patient, minimizing the language barrier and creating a positive experience for the patient. I am also a mentor for the CRIS (Community Refugee and Immigration Services) Community Connectors program. I meet weekly with me mentee to help her reach established goals and help adjust to life in Columbus.  

 

As a Neuroscience major, I am a part of the Neuroscience Ambassador program which hopes to create community within the major by organizing events, such as bonfires, cookouts, and more, for current Neuroscience majors and also welcoming prospective students on campus by hosting information sessions and open houses. This helps in my development as a leader as I am looked up to by younger students who have questions regarding the university and the Neuroscience program. I am also a tutor for the Neuroscience Tutoring program which targets students currently enrolled in the core Neuroscience courses with additional weekly help. As a tutor, I provide students taking Behavioral Neuroscience and Cellular/Molecular Neuroscience with individualized or group help regarding class material and create study guides and practice questions.

 

I am an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Kristen Carpenter’s Women’s Behavioral Health Lab at Harding Hospital (Part of the Wexner Medical Center). The lab aims to provide patients who are experiencing illness, unique to women, special care regarding mood/anxiety disorders, sexual health, and more. As a research assistant, I help with the data input of our studies that deal with patients’ sexual lives during and following breast/gynecologic cancer treatment and how well patients cope following the initiation of chemotherapy for breast/gynecologic cancers. Data input involves having access to patient data and making sure to correctly enter it into the Teleform system. Currently, my time in the lab is mostly taken up by literature reviews for CICI, or chemotherapy induced cognitive impairment, the topic of my personal project in the lab. With the guidance of my head RA and PI, we plan on using cognitive data from breast/gynecologic cancer patients to determine if women undergoing adjuvant cancer treatment are more likely to experience CICI, also widely known as “chemobrain,” or any other comorbidity such as mood/anxiety disorders. We hope to find statistic significance within our data set, as current research findings from past journals show varying results.

 

My Honors contract demonstrates a commitment to the goal of Academic Enrichment by showing a diversity of courses, many of which are upper division-level. My planned curriculum relates very well to my future aspirations of being a physician as I plan to complete all the pre-medicine requirements. Additionally, my major classes are also geared towards this profession. My minor courses for Latin@ studies allow me to steer away from the sciences and further develop my other academic interests such as linguistics, history, and politics. I have also chosen my GE courses to help develop other areas of interest that are not related to the sciences. I think this is important to becoming a well-rounded educated citizen.