Posts

At the time of writing, there is one week left in my freshman year at The Ohio State University studying Molecular Neuroscience. One thing that I learned in class that stuck with me is the history of life on Earth. We watched a video that put into perspective evolutionary life from the big bang to the present day. A positive from this year has been the number of experiences that put me out of my comfort zone. Most of these experiences have been interview situations. For example, I had to interview for a spot in my fraternity, I had to interview for multiple scholarships, I had to interview for my volunteer position, and I interviewed for an Anesthesia Technician position at Grant. The tech position interview was a 4-hour interview where I shadowed with a technician for three and a half hours and then I had a short interview after. Something I have learned about myself is that I am a lot more productive and happier when I follow a daily routine for a long period of time. When my routines slip or fail, I can go days or weeks where I can fall behind. So, especially for next year, I will put a huge emphasis on sticking to daily routines so that I can be as productive as possible. Another issue I found this year was that I was not productive enough to have free time. I think that I have changed as a person over this year just by the amount of information I have learned in my classes. Also, I have learned how to deal with failure and loss on multiple occasions throughout the year.

My favorite memory of the past year was when my fraternity met up in the oval and we tied blankets for the Ronald McDonald House Charities. It was a good time to meet some of the guys and girls in my fraternity and I ended up studying for a biology exam with some friends after blanket tying. Next year I am looking forward to volunteering at The James Cancer Hospital through the Mirrors Sophomore Honorary. I am not sure what my specific job will be yet but I know that we will fill out a survey so that we can be matched with a job that fits us. Another thing I am looking forward to next year is that I have a few more in-person courses. I like in-person courses better because I am a more hands-on learner and I think having more in-person classes will make my days more structured. Moreover, I have to do another interview for the Anesthesia Technician position before I find out if I get the position. So, if I end up getting the position I will be looking forward to working at Grant Medical Center in the operating rooms. Next semester I will be taking Organic Chemistry, Physics, Computational Neuroscience, and Drug Use in America. This will most likely be much more challenging than any other semester I’ve had so far but if I can stick to a schedule then I know I can make it through.

 

My first year of college at The Ohio State University is coming to a close and it went by really fast and I know that these last few weeks won’t be any slower. My favorite class this semester has been Neuro 3000: Molecular Neuroscience where I learned about brain imaging techniques among other things. For example, an MRI uses radio waves to excite electrons surrounding hydrogen atoms and then the machine records the energy that is emitted when the electron goes back to its ground state. The computer then uses the density of emitted waves to put together an image. Also, an fMRI records the brain’s oxygen usage through the blood and is able to depict a functional image of the brain’s activity where active areas are highlighted. There is another functional imaging technique called DTI, where a computer tracks water movement in the brain to show the diffusion of ions between neurons. Moreover, something that I have learned about myself is how important it is for me to maintain a regular workout schedule because I do not feel good all day if I do not work out, especially because the rest of my day consists of sitting in front of my computer. I am a very hands-on/physical person so I do not like sitting around all day but given the circumstances and the reality of our digital age, it is inevitable that I will spend a lot of time in front of the computer. So, it is very important that I have the discipline to make the time for exercise and also make the time to go outside more. One struggle I have had this month is not waking up as early as I would like and just feeling more tired overall even though I have been sleeping more. Finally, I was accepted to the Mirrors Sophomore Honorary so I will be volunteering at the James Cancer Hospital next year.

Qualifications: Bachelors Degree in anything (four years), Medical School – MD or DO (four years), Neurosurgery Residency (seven years), Completion of Board Certification

Desired Qualifications: experience with aneurysmal clipping cases, Skull base/tumor experience, and/or fellowship-trained preferred but not required.

Job To-Do List: 

1. Perform very well in undergrad academically (3.7+ GPA)
2. Get involved with medical research during undergrad (400 hours)
3. Exhibit leadership capabilities through student org/jobs (2-3 solid experiences)
4. Gain clinical experience while in undergrad (150-200 hours)
5. Gain many volunteer hours in undergrad (200-400 hours)
6. Shadow physicians in different specialties (50-100 hours)
7. Score competitively on the MCAT (510+)
8. Get into medical school and continue to perform academically
9. Continue research in medical school
10. Match into a neurosurgery residency program

Plan: 

The best thing I can do right now for my future and for my future patients is to be the best possible student I can be and excel in all my coursework. Without a solid GPA and MCAT score, the likelihood of my admission into medical school will drop tremendously, although still possible. In order to achieve these numbers of 3.7+ GPA and 510+ MCAT, I will need to be very disciplined in my studies and making sure I am always prepared for exams. As far as all the experience hours go, I have already made an excel spreadsheet where I log all my experience hours and have the totals calculated. I currently volunteer eight hours a week at RMHC Riverside Methodist Hospital and I pick up smaller volunteer activities when I can through the student organizations I am in. My goal is to get 200 hours before my sophomore year. Also, as the summer rolls around I have been applying for research and clinical experiences that will be about 40 hours a week combined in addition to the 8-12 hours of volunteering a week. In my sophomore year, I hope to have a lot of volunteer hours knocked out so that I can focus more on being a leader on campus. My goal is to be on the executive board for a student organization I am passionate about and to be a mentor for younger students. I also want to leverage some of my passions and be a leader in that space. Moreover, once I get a research and clinical position, I would like to get deeply involved with those experiences and keep them throughout my undergraduate career. So, the biggest thing on my plate right now is landing some of these positions so that I can get those involvement hours over a long period of time. I much prefer the quality of experiences over the number of experiences, so I am looking for a small number of extracurriculars that I can get the most out of.

The first month of the new semester is coming to a close and I am looking forward to having a fresh start this semester with new opportunities. While I am still upset with the necessary but disappointing reality of online classes, I still think that this semester will offer some great lessons and experiences. For example, something interesting I’ve learned in class so far is how potassium and sodium are involved in propagating action potentials down the membrane of our neuron’s axons. The intracellular charge of our neurons is around -65mV and in order for our cell to have an action potential, it must first reach threshold potential which is around -40mV. The cell reaches this threshold potential via excitatory neurotransmitters (EPSPs) and once it is reached, the cell fires an action potential which is an all-or-nothing phenomenon. Voltage-gated sodium channels open and allow sodium to carry the action potential down the axon. It is fascinating how our brain uses charges and electricity to communicate. Moreover, I learned that I need to work on my self-discipline a lot this semester. I have been attempting to limit my screen time on my phone by deleting distracting apps like YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter and I have been getting up at 5 am to workout before my morning classes start. Also, just little things like making my bed, keeping my room tidy, and doing laundry on time are things I want to focus on this semester. I believe that if I can be more self-disciplined then I will be able to work harder for longer on school work. I have struggled with having to persist with online classes because I find them very unstimulating and hard to pay attention to. In addition to that, chemistry is always a challenge for me and I want to be able to stick with a good study schedule for that class in particular.

The Autumn 2020 semester is coming to a close and it has been a challenging but insightful experience. I think what helped me adapt to college life the most was joining the few clubs that I joined including Phi Delta Epsilon OH Zeta, Doctors Without Borders, and the ENR Scholars. Being able to hear from practicing physicians motivated me to work harder in my classes and gave me some valuable insight into the world of health professions. My favorite thing to do in all of my clubs is volunteer because it is a break from school and service is something I am passionate about. Moreover, I think the transition to college life went fairly smoothly all things considered because I have been anticipating being a college student for a long time now. What I enjoyed the most about this semester were all the things I learned in my general science courses because that knowledge is highly applicable right now with the coronavirus pandemic. Especially as the vaccine conversation is starting to happen it is important that the researchers and physicians can have clear and effective communication with the public to build trust. Mistrust in our healthcare system is a rising trend in the west due to many factors but it is important that people feel they can rely on the professionals. One thing I struggled with was being disciplined enough to study as much as I wanted to and I didn’t take any time to have fun this semester. Having fun was definitely more of a challenge this semester but I know that if I was more disciplined in my studies I would have time to have fun. I want to be able to get the most out of all my days instead of having them pass by and I feel like I’m wasting time. Something I achieved was getting accepted to PhiDE, which is an international medical fraternity at Ohio State. The interview process was fairly competitive so I was pleased that the recruitment team felt I deserved a spot. A goal of mine for next semester is to achieve all A’s in my classes and to get involved in research on campus. I am really curious about telomeres and I want to get involved in research that will explain how the enzyme telomerase can be inhibited in cancer patients. Also, I want to minor in economics because as an aspiring physician I think that it is really important to have an understanding of the economy since healthcare and economics are so tightly bound. Healthcare is one of the largest government expenditures in America. In fact, we outspend every other country by a wide margin and yet we do not enjoy the best patient outcomes. How we choose to allocate our limited resources can have a huge effect on the individuals in our nation. In my estimation, an ounce of effort towards prevention is far more effective than a pound of effort towards restoration. Also, I am interested in having my own private practice and a minor in econ will give me a good background for the fundamentals of running a business.

Month two of college is coming to a close and it offered its own set of challenges and lessons that I was grateful to experience. Something interesting I have learned in class is how our body turns vibrating air molecules into chemical signals that we perceive as sound. Bones in your ear called ossicles respond to this vibration by vibrating themselves, which moves the endolymph fluid in the cochlear duct. The movement of the endolymph fluid causes the basilar membrane in the cochlear duct to shift so that it can properly align hair cells along the membrane to be activated. On the membrane of the hair cells, there are ion channels that allow chemical information to communicate to the nervous system. These ion channels open once the hair cells are spread apart because the hair cells themselves are connected by spring structures that open the ion channels once stretched. The opening of the channels allows chemical information to be transduced into a signal that we perceive as sound. Moreover, something I learned about myself is that I need to adopt the growth mindset more in my daily life. This is basically the belief that nothing about you is set in stone or cant be changed. For example, if I do poorly on an exam it is easy to call myself stupid and assume that it wasn’t meant to be because my intelligence is too low. It is more productive to think that you have a lot to learn and through hard work you can learn the material and do well on the next exam. I adopted the former mindset in my chemistry class and I ended up scoring very well on the second exam, but it is important to not get complacent. This past month I have struggled with keeping my screentime on my phone down to a reasonable level (my goal is below two hours). I average around four hours daily which is a lot better than I used to do but I still feel like I am wasting colossal amounts of time on my phone. That’s at least 28 hours on my phone a week! Lastly, I want to end this reflection with something that I have achieved this past month. In these last 27 days, I was able to volunteer about six hours of my time, which isn’t much, but I am still proud of that because it is difficult to find volunteering opportunities right now. I hope that this number gets bigger in the following months.