Informational Interview with Briana Martinez

Why did you select this individual to interview?

After graduating from Ohio State, I want to attend Physician Assistant School. In order to apply I need to have 1,000+ hours of direct patient care on my resume. Direct patient care involves hands-on care with patients. I joined Future Buckeyes Physician Assistants my freshman year and now I am the Secretary of the club. The president of the club, Briana Martinez, suggested that I apply to be a home health aid at the agency that she works at. Before applying, I interviewed Briana to see what the job would entail.

Describe the major responsibilities associated with their current role. 

Briana is a home health aid for a woman that is a quadriplegic. Her responsibilities include doing whatever it is that the woman needs done. She gets her out of bed and into her wheelchair, dresses her, feeds her, gives her medications, and performs any tasks around the house that are asked of her. She explained to me in detail how to get her back and forth from the bed and wheelchair and that the process takes approximately 1.5 hours. In addition to tasks at home, she takes her, using the wheelchair accessible van, to any appointments, grocery shopping, or the bank depending on what needs to be done that day. All in all, Briana makes sure that the woman is able to get done anything that a fully abled woman would be able to do.

Discuss how the person prepared you for this role, and if they provided you with any advice as what you might be able to do to prepare for a similar career.

Briana did research on home health aids before she started working. She interviewed with the woman that she would be working with and asked questions such as, “What type of tasks would I be performing?” She advised me that when I go in for the interview, I ask the same question. In addition, she told me that the agency has multiple clients, therefore, I should also ask them who I would be working with. When I start working, Briana told me not to be afraid to ask questions. There are so many things to learn on the job, and I would only learn then if I fully understood them. Her final advice to me was to appreciate the patients. She said that I would be doing a lot for them, but they would also do a lot for me if I let them.

Summarize any insights from the interview that might be helpful in your academic or career preparation.

All of the information that Briana provided me with was extremely helpful. I utilized her advice on the interview and landed the job. As far as her last piece of advice, I now live by that as I work. I learn so much from the woman that I work with and am so grateful for this job. She is one of the sweetest women that I know, and I could not ask for anyone better to work for.

Project Title: Health and Well-Being

Service Organization: The Service Engagement Program

Describe your involvement with this organization.

I applied for the Homelessness and Poverty focus group for the Service Engagement Program (SEP) in September 2015. I was accepted along with 6 other students into the focus group. The goal of each focus group is to utilize the weekly meetings to come up with a service project and spend a full year planning and fundraising for the project. In addition to the service project, at least two hours of service related to the group’s focus are required each month. Our plan is to fill 100 drawstring bags with socks, blankets, water bottles and toothbrushes and then distribute these bags throughout the homeless community in Columbus. We have been fundraising all year and hope to have the expenses covered by Fall 2016.

After the Fall 2015 semester, I applied to be on the executive board of the organization. I now serve as the Vice President of Operations. Because I now oversee all of the focus groups in the program including Poverty and Homelessness, Environment Awareness, Veterans and Military Families, Youth, and Health Wellness I broadened the focus of my time spent serving the community. I thought that Health and Well-being was a topic that encapsulates all of these focuses. For my service requirements, I have visited multiple nursing homes and spent time with residents who do not have visitors, helped a church prepare a garden to help feed its parish, danced for 12 hours to raise money for children with cancer, recruited blood drive donors to help save 3 lives by giving just one hour of their time, and attended numerous philanthropy events to support the health and well-being of many in the Columbus community.

Describe what you gained as a result of this experience. 

During my time in the Poverty and Homelessness focus group, we had a speaker from a homeless shelter join in on one of our meetings. He spoke to us about how to communicate with homeless people. He told us that they might not respond positively towards us right away, but if we remain persistent that we are only there to talk to them, they might start to warm up to us. He always shared with us what it is that they need most. Using his advice, we chose the items that we wanted to place in the bags that we would be passing out. In addition to serving others myself I learned how to encourage others to do the same. Since I now serve as the VP of Operations of SEP, I have learned how to lead and inspire others to give back to the community. The most effective way to encourage others to get involved in service is to serve right next to them. This is exactly what I did as the VP of Operations of the Service Engagement Program.

Describe positive changes to the community as a result of your service experience.

Because of my multitude of experiences serving the community, I believe that I have touched the lives of so many different people. Although others think that only a few short moment with someone makes a minimal difference in their life, I believe that even the smallest acts of kindness are worth the effort. I visited two different nursing homes this year. At each one, I asked if I could be paired with someone that did not get regular visits from family members. While helping replenish a garden for Summit on 16th Methodist church, I helped create a source of food for some members of the parish. I figured that if I could give these people one good day, hour, or even just a few minutes it would be worth it.

Describe a person with whom you interacted that made a strong impression on you, positive or negative.

One of the ladies that I visited at the nursing home, Barbara, was one of the most interesting ladies I have ever talked to. She was a flight attendant from Japan and flew back and forth from Japan and the United States. Because she had worked for long, she flew with a lot of the same people who were frequent flyers. Many of these frequent flyers were famous actors, actresses and movie producers. Barbara showed me her room with pictures of her at movie premieres with the famous people that became her friends. She went on to show me pictures of her husband, children, and grandchildren. She had Japanese art all over her walls and antiques of all sorts. I could see a twinkle in her eye as she explained the background story for each one. Although I did not understand and do not remember ALL that Barbara told me about her life, I was so happy to just be there allowing her to relive the amazing life that she was proud to have lived.

Complete the following sentence: “Because of this service experience, I am _____”

Because of this service experience, I am a more selfless servant to my community.