Author: clark.2891

Year Two In Review

| clark.2891

I have discovered my niche on campus and fulfilled the holistic scope of the G.O.A.L.S through the following catalogue of campus activities and involvements!

Denman Undergraduate Research Forum 2018

One of the many advantages of the culture of research at The Ohio State University is the bounty of opportunities to present research in a professional, respected setting. Principally, the largest undergraduate research event of the year, and one the largest in the country is the Denman.

Throughout an all-day event, undergraduates engaged in any discipline of research present posters or speaking presentations to at least two judges as well as a number of peers, faculty, and staff. I presented a poster about the research that I conducted in the summer of 2017 about a clinical intervention to enhance surgical recovery for patients of adolescent scoliosis, which can you read deeply about in another post which I have attached a link to below.

For the first time, I faced the challenge of demonstrating my expertise on a topic that many individuals have dedicated their entire professional careers to studying. I felt at first intimidated to present to these judges, but quickly realized that they were equally as excited about new discoveries in their field as I was.

Learn more about my research here.

Link to research information: Denman-1gvqm34

Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee

The Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee serves to oversee and modify the Student Health Insurance plan that is offered to all Ohio State students each year. Monthly, a board of about 25 University employees from the College of Medicine, Office of Student Life, College of Pharmacy, President’s Office, School of Public Health, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Wilce Student Healthcare Center, and two undergraduate students maintain and edit the student health plan.

We review statistical performance documents from last year’s enrollment, financial standing, healthcare plans of comparable schools, meet with with insurance providers, and balance co-payment, premiums, and benefits plans to develop the most advantageous and economical health care to offer to our students.

In this role, I have had voting power and represent the undergraduate student interest in our discussions. Throughout the process, I have become intimately understanding of the basic ideologies of health care policy, the logistics of aspects like provider, quality assurance, pharmaceuticals, claim response, benefit usage, premiums, and co-payment options. I believe that this experience will aid me immensely in my future perspective as a health care professional and provide me a unique mindset as someone who has some insight into the logistical difficulties that go into quality care.

Enlighten Anti-Human Trafficking

Enlighten mobilizes college students to confront human trafficking in Central Ohio through community events, narrative-based awareness, and direct civic engagement. Enlighten strives for a global culture of compassion in which the realities of human trafficking are not only known but actively challenged and ultimately eradicated.

Our founders became inspired to fight human trafficking after hearing a survivor, Theresa Flores, share her story with us at a speaking engagement in the spring of 2017. Since, we have brainstormed ways to join this struggle for freedom and autonomy for all in the Columbus area. We have collaborated with local non-profits, performed direct engagement with the survivors themselves, spread awareness on campus, and our scope continues to grow.

We hosted a Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution (SOAP) event on campus, which labeled over 1,000 bars of soap with information about human trafficking to be distributed in hotels and motels in high-risk areas. We later took a group of interested students to the Ohio Statehouse on Human Trafficking Awareness Day in January to hear from keynote experts from the Columbus community.

In February, we attended the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio alongside the founder of SOAP and human trafficking survivor Theresa Flores. Annually, the “Arnold Classic” brings thousands of bodybuilding enthusiasts to our area, and with it, the instance of trafficking skyrockets. Our members visited over 30 hotels in one day to distribute materials about human trafficking and distributed information about missing young girls from the community who may have fallen prey to trafficking. Amazingly, one of the hotel clerks actually had recently recognized one of the girls, and the authorities were contacted. Theresa Flores later spoke to a large group of students back on campus, sharing her personal story and motivating us to be enthusiastic in our fight.

In collaboration with a local non-profit and survivors, we created 200 informational flyers outlining the potential signs of human trafficking and resources to find assistance, and we travelled downtown to the specific streets where trafficking was known to have occurred to hang them.

Most recently, we hosted a public screening of “I Am Jane Doe,” a documentary that chronicles the battle that several American mothers are waging on behalf of their middle-school daughters who were victims of sex trafficking on Backpage.

Organizationally, we have elected an executive board, recruited multiple individuals from a diverse skill set in the anti-trafficking community to our advisory board, filed as an official student organization, and restructured our focus. Instead of strictly focusing on an educational curriculum to prevent trafficking, we have three main areas of focus: outreach with local survivors, legal advocacy for survivors, and educational events for the campus and community.

In the coming years, we hope so expand our recruitment to more students and find novel ways to approach this issue from the student perspective with outreach, legal advocacy, and public awareness.

Clinton Global Initiative University 2017

In October of 2017, I was fortunate enough to attend the Clinton Global Initiative University conference in Boston at Northeastern University. CGIU offers the opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students alike with measurable, sustainable, and impactful “Commitments to Action” that will genuinely confront a social issue in their communities.

I applied with our Eminence service project, Enlighten, and spent 3 days hearing the experience and advice of world class humanitarians, public servants, entrepreneurs, non-profits, and social issue advocates on the importance of civil engagement and the methods to maximize organizational capacity. We then returned back to Columbus and implemented some of the key ideas into our mission as a student organization. Speakers ranged from former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeline Albright to public health pioneer Dr. Paul Farmer and olympic athlete Ibtijah Muhammad. I personally was so inspired by the words of Dr. Farmer that after reading his biography and account of his work in public health abroad Mountains Beyond Mountains, I significantly altered my career path to a public health focus, and even picked up a minor!

I am so excited to return to CGI this upcoming fall at Chicago University with Enlighten as returning attendees and continue to expand our scope and provide mentorship to younger organizations.

Pelotonia Project 2018

Pelotonia is a Columbus based nonprofit that aims to fund innovative cancer research, create healthier communities, and achieve a shared vision of a cancer-free world. In just 9 years, they have raised over 157 million dollars for cancer research at the James Cancer Center at The Ohio State University.

This year, Pelotonia partnered with one of my campus organizations, Buckeye Leadership Fellows, to serve as our semesterly challenge partner. In our challenge, we were tasked with developing novel fundraising strategies for Team Buckeye, the section of Pelotonia participants that are affiliated with the University in some way, whether that be student riders, faculty riders, or volunteers. Over the course of 3 months, I worked in a team of 5 to research the operations of Pelotonia, collaborated with current “Team Captains,” interviewed employees, studied the workings of non-profit business plans, and debated fundraising strategies.

As a result, we produced a presentation (attached below) of easily implementable, tangible suggestions for the organization to increase their scope into the undergraduate student population, novel fundraising methods, and user compatibility. My comprehension of project management, client interactions, collaboration, fundraising, and formal presentation skills all expanded tenfold as a result of this experience, and I am so grateful to BLF for making this mutually beneficial relationship possible.

View our Pelotonia presentation: Pelotonia Presentation-249pdj2

Buckeye Leadership Fellows

Buckeye Leadership Fellows builds unique, transformative experiences for undergraduate students in order to achieve competitive skills, engage with their local and distal communities, and remains deeply connected to the University. Starting in sophomore year, a diverse, interdisciplinary cohort of 25 students are selected for this 2 year intensive program. Each week, we are exposed to an influential speaker, lecturing on some of the critical strategies to achieve success and leadership in an authentic, collaborative, purposeful way.

Additionally, we have a “challenge project” each of the 4 semesters of the program. Challenges consist of team consulting efforts for a local non-profit, a distant corporate partners, and finally a personal capstone that describes a legacy left on Ohio State in an endeavor related to professional and personal interests.

In my first challenge this past spring semester, a team of 5 of us consulted for Pelotonia, a non-profit based out of Columbus to fund cancer research. Buckeye Leadership Fellows is a special program in the way that it affords practical opportunities for students to have agency in real industry, treats students as capable resources, and allows for experiences that no other program at Ohio State equally does.

Ohio Staters, Incorporated

Ohio Staters, Incorporated is a group that prides itself on preserving the welfare and tradiitions of The Ohio State University. We are a group of thinkers, believers, and doers that develop an execute service projects in our community for the improvement of the Ohio State experience for all. Composed of a limited number of students, faculty, and staff members, we truly are “50 serving 50,000.”

Started in 1933, OSI is the oldest student organization at Ohio State, and has a rich tradition in almost every corner of its history. For example, OSI is credited with the development of Brutus, maintains the Orton Bell Tower, and is responsible for other campus landmarks like Buckeye Grove. Some of our projects in 2018 have included Every Buckeye Counts, a day of awareness for our student population with intellectual disabilities, What Is Idiom, a program for our international students to better understand English slang as well as commonly used OSU jargon, Reflections on Mirror Lake, a project to retell the historical relevance of the Mirror Lake area prior to its renovations via permanent signage, and Script Ohio, a monument dedicated to the tradition of the “Best Damn Band in the Land.”

Ohio Staters has been one of the most formative involvement during my time at Ohio State, providing me with an intimate family of selfless students and staff that dedicate time and effort each and every day to consider their fellow student before themselves, that would drop their personal matters in a moments notice to provide assistance, that create a home for one another wherever we are. Staters provides me the opportunity to participate in projects of corporate size, handle finances, practice project management, speak publicly to powerful individuals, and interweave myself into the fabric of Ohio State in a permanent way.

Pelotonia Project 2018

| clark.2891

Pelotonia is a Columbus based nonprofit that aims to fund innovative cancer research, create healthier communities, and achieve a shared vision of a cancer-free world. In just 9 years, they have raised over 157 million dollars for cancer research at the James Cancer Center at The Ohio State University.

This year, Pelotonia partnered with one of my campus organizations, Buckeye Leadership Fellows, to serve as our semesterly challenge partner. In our challenge, we were tasked with developing novel fundraising strategies for Team Buckeye, the section of Pelotonia participants that are affiliated with the University in some way, whether that be student riders, faculty riders, or volunteers. Over the course of 3 months, I worked in a team of 5 to research the operations of Pelotonia, collaborated with current “Team Captains,” interviewed employees, studied the workings of non-profit business plans, and debated fundraising strategies.

As a result, we produced a presentation (attached below) of easily implementable, tangible suggestions for the organization to increase their scope into the undergraduate student population, novel fundraising methods, and user compatibility. My comprehension of project management, client interactions, collaboration, fundraising, and formal presentation skills all expanded tenfold as a result of this experience, and I am so grateful to BLF for making this mutually beneficial relationship possible.

View our Pelotonia presentation: Pelotonia Presentation-249pdj2

Read more about BLF here.

Hospital Volunteer at Dayton Children’s

| clark.2891

My experience as a clinical hospital volunteer at Dayton Children’s Hospital in the summer of 2017 critically influenced my career trajectory. For the duration of the summer, I trained to assist doctors, nurses, and patients in the Surgery Department as well as the Emergency Department.

In the Surgery Department, I reported to the recovery area for patients undergoing an outpatient procedure before they were released to the care of their parents. In this role, I often prepped the rooms for a new patients, wheeled the unconscious patients in their beds into a recovery room, checked in when the doctors were not present, transported the patients out of the hospital to their cars via wheelchair after discharge, and then cleaned their room and any toys they may have used during their stay.

While assisting in the Emergency Department, my roles were largely the same though less defined. I would often spend my time sterilizing toys for the rooms and in the waiting room, directed patients to their rooms and from the emergency room to other departments or the pharmacy, and observed the interactions of doctors or nurses with the patients. Different from the surgical duties, I frequently entertained the kids and their parents alike while they waited for the doctors’ attention, which we all know can be a testy task in a crowded emergency room. Because of the high turnover of ill individuals in this facility, I felt that even my work to sterilize equipment was well received and necessary for optimal patient care.

When I am home during the school year and over the various breaks, I spend a few hours at the hospital to remind myself of the unseen work that contributes critically to the operation of healthcare.

Denman Undergraduate Research Forum 2018

| clark.2891

One of the many advantages of the culture of research at The Ohio State University is the bounty of opportunities to present research in a professional, respected setting. Principally, the largest undergraduate research event of the year, and one the largest in the country is the Denman.

Throughout an all-day event, undergraduates engaged in any discipline of research present posters or speaking presentations to at least two judges as well as a number of peers, faculty, and staff. I presented a poster about the research that I conducted in the summer of 2017 about a clinical intervention to enhance surgical recovery for patients of adolescent scoliosis, which can you read deeply about in another post which I have attached a link to below.

For the first time, I faced the challenge of demonstrating my expertise on a topic that many individuals have dedicated their entire professional careers to studying. I felt at first intimidated to present to these judges, but quickly realized that they were equally as excited about new discoveries in their field as I was.

Learn more about my research here.

Link to research information: Denman-1gvqm34

Research Assistant at Dayton Children’s Hospital

| clark.2891

Research Poster-r2gcgj

In the summer of 2017, I engaged with the Orthopedic Center in Dayton Children’s Hospital to participate in a clinical research project. Our study focused on enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) methods for patients undergoing a posterior spinal fusion for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). AIS is the most common type of spinal deformity for pediatrics in the world, thus constant innovations in its treatment and diagnosis is required.

We retroactively compared a novel analgesic pain management regiment against the traditional pain pathway. Our primary outcome of measurement was the length of stay in the hospital, and secondarily we monitored post operative complications and opiate consumption. Traditionally, an intra-operative injection of morphine was given with a variable regiment of pain medications. In our novel pathway, the intra-operative injection was eliminated, and all patients were given the exact same medications for congruent time frames after surgery: IV opioids, muscle relaxants, anti-nausea and bowel stimulating regiment, non-opiate analgesics, anti-inflammatory, and oral opioids.

Typically patients spend 5-6 days of recovery in the hospital, until their mobility has improved, diet remains consistent, self reported pain scores have improved, and serious infections and complications are ruled out. We compared 22 cases of the traditional pain pathway and 15 of the accelerated pathway, and found that those patients in the novel cohort spent 3.3 days in the hospital on average while the traditional patients spent 5.0, a statistically significant reduction in LOS by 1.7 days. Additionally, there was less variation in the length of stay for APP compared to the TPP (0.6 days compared to 1.9 days). There was no statistical difference in self-reported pain scores between the two groups.  Between groups, there was no significant difference seen in absolute opioid consumption during hospitalization. When accounting for effect sizes, we found evidence that the 2nd and 3rd day after surgery, opioid consumption was indeed decreasing on these days alone, though not overall during the hospital stay.

Preliminary results of our ongoing study indicate that the APP implementation results in a decreased LOS without significant difference in in-patient opioid usage or sacrifice to patient comfort. Length of stay indicates postoperative satisfaction, as patients achieved mobility and controlled pain more rapidly to be able to be sent home. Additionally, this study has worked to decrease opioid consumption in surgical patients. Although there was no decrease in usage while the patients were in hospital, getting them out of the hospital sooner relieves them of that extra two days of opioid consumption and through pain control programs more quickly. Lastly, our patient satisfaction was increased by decreasing their hospital costs and returning them to their home environment sooner. With the opioid epidemic having a major influence in the prescription pain drug market, we believe that interventions like ours may help control the dissemination of these narcotics.

At the present, about 10 more cases have been added to the APP group. Next summer, the study will add an additional drug to be administered just after closure, which in preliminary literature has been shown to further reduce LOS, opioid consumption, and cost.

Attached is the link to our research poster.

Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee

| clark.2891

The Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee serves to oversee and modify the Student Health Insurance plan that is offered to all Ohio State students each year. Monthly, a board of about 25 University employees from the College of Medicine, Office of Student Life, College of Pharmacy, President’s Office, School of Public Health, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Wilce Student Healthcare Center, and two undergraduate students maintain and edit the student health plan.

We review statistical performance documents from last year’s enrollment, financial standing, healthcare plans of comparable schools, meet with with insurance providers, and balance co-payment, premiums, and benefits plans to develop the most advantageous and economical health care to offer to our students.

In this role, I have had voting power and represent the undergraduate student interest in our discussions. Throughout the process, I have become intimately understanding of the basic ideologies of health care policy, the logistics of aspects like provider, quality assurance, pharmaceuticals, claim response, benefit usage, premiums, and co-payment options. I believe that this experience will aid me immensely in my future perspective as a health care professional and provide me a unique mindset as someone who has some insight into the logistical difficulties that go into quality care.

Buckeye Leadership Fellows

| clark.2891

Buckeye Leadership Fellows builds unique, transformative experiences for undergraduate students in order to achieve competitive skills, engage with their local and distal communities, and remains deeply connected to the University. Starting in sophomore year, a diverse, interdisciplinary cohort of 25 students are selected for this 2 year intensive program. Each week, we are exposed to an influential speaker, lecturing on some of the critical strategies to achieve success and leadership in an authentic, collaborative, purposeful way.

Additionally, we have a “challenge project” each of the 4 semesters of the program. Challenges consist of team consulting efforts for a local non-profit, a distant corporate partners, and finally a personal capstone that describes a legacy left on Ohio State in an endeavor related to professional and personal interests.

In my first challenge this past spring semester, a team of 5 of us consulted for Pelotonia, a non-profit based out of Columbus to fund cancer research. Buckeye Leadership Fellows is a special program in the way that it affords practical opportunities for students to have agency in real industry, treats students as capable resources, and allows for experiences that no other program at Ohio State equally does.

Ohio Staters, Incorporated

| clark.2891

Ohio Staters, Incorporated is a group that prides itself on preserving the welfare and tradiitions of The Ohio State University. We are a group of thinkers, believers, and doers that develop an execute service projects in our community for the improvement of the Ohio State experience for all. Composed of a limited number of students, faculty, and staff members, we truly are “50 serving 50,000.”

Started in 1933, OSI is the oldest student organization at Ohio State, and has a rich tradition in almost every corner of its history. For example, OSI is credited with the development of Brutus, maintains the Orton Bell Tower, and is responsible for other campus landmarks like Buckeye Grove. Some of our projects in 2018 have included Every Buckeye Counts, a day of awareness for our student population with intellectual disabilities, What Is Idiom, a program for our international students to better understand English slang as well as commonly used OSU jargon, Reflections on Mirror Lake, a project to retell the historical relevance of the Mirror Lake area prior to its renovations via permanent signage, and Script Ohio, a monument dedicated to the tradition of the “Best Damn Band in the Land.”

Ohio Staters has been one of the most formative involvement during my time at Ohio State, providing me with an intimate family of selfless students and staff that dedicate time and effort each and every day to consider their fellow student before themselves, that would drop their personal matters in a moments notice to provide assistance, that create a home for one another wherever we are. Staters provides me the opportunity to participate in projects of corporate size, handle finances, practice project management, speak publicly to powerful individuals, and interweave myself into the fabric of Ohio State in a permanent way.

Enlighten Anti-Human Trafficking

| clark.2891

Enlighten mobilizes college students to confront human trafficking in Central Ohio through community events, narrative-based awareness, and direct civic engagement. Enlighten strives for a global culture of compassion in which the realities of human trafficking are not only known but actively challenged and ultimately eradicated.

Our founders became inspired to fight human trafficking after hearing a survivor, Theresa Flores, share her story with us at a speaking engagement in the spring of 2017. Since, we have brainstormed ways to join this struggle for freedom and autonomy for all in the Columbus area. We have collaborated with local non-profits, performed direct engagement with the survivors themselves, spread awareness on campus, and our scope continues to grow.

We hosted a Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution (SOAP) event on campus, which labeled over 1,000 bars of soap with information about human trafficking to be distributed in hotels and motels in high-risk areas. We later took a group of interested students to the Ohio Statehouse on Human Trafficking Awareness Day in January to hear from keynote experts from the Columbus community.

In February, we attended the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio alongside the founder of SOAP and human trafficking survivor Theresa Flores. Annually, the “Arnold Classic” brings thousands of bodybuilding enthusiasts to our area, and with it, the instance of trafficking skyrockets. Our members visited over 30 hotels in one day to distribute materials about human trafficking and distributed information about missing young girls from the community who may have fallen prey to trafficking. Amazingly, one of the hotel clerks actually had recently recognized one of the girls, and the authorities were contacted. Theresa Flores later spoke to a large group of students back on campus, sharing her personal story and motivating us to be enthusiastic in our fight.

In collaboration with a local non-profit and survivors, we created 200 informational flyers outlining the potential signs of human trafficking and resources to find assistance, and we travelled downtown to the specific streets where trafficking was known to have occurred to hang them.

Most recently, we hosted a public screening of “I Am Jane Doe,” a documentary that chronicles the battle that several American mothers are waging on behalf of their middle-school daughters who were victims of sex trafficking on Backpage.

Organizationally, we have elected an executive board, recruited multiple individuals from a diverse skill set in the anti-trafficking community to our advisory board, filed as an official student organization, and restructured our focus. Instead of strictly focusing on an educational curriculum to prevent trafficking, we have three main areas of focus: outreach with local survivors, legal advocacy for survivors, and educational events for the campus and community.

In the coming years, we hope so expand our recruitment to more students and find novel ways to approach this issue from the student perspective with outreach, legal advocacy, and public awareness.

 

Clinton Global Initiative University 2017

| clark.2891

In October of 2017, I was fortunate enough to attend the Clinton Global Initiative University conference in Boston at Northeastern University. CGIU offers the opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students alike with measurable, sustainable, and impactful “Commitments to Action” that will genuinely confront a social issue in their communities.

I applied with our Eminence service project, Enlighten, and spent 3 days hearing the experience and advice of world class humanitarians, public servants, entrepreneurs, non-profits, and social issue advocates on the importance of civil engagement and the methods to maximize organizational capacity. We then returned back to Columbus and implemented some of the key ideas into our mission as a student organization. Speakers ranged from former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeline Albright to public health pioneer Dr. Paul Farmer and olympic athlete Ibtijah Muhammad. I personally was so inspired by the words of Dr. Farmer that after reading his biography and account of his work in public health abroad Mountains Beyond Mountains, I significantly altered my career path to a public health focus, and even picked up a minor!

I am so excited to return to CGI this upcoming fall at Chicago University with Enlighten as returning attendees and continue to expand our scope and provide mentorship to younger organizations.