Reflection on Summer Internship

This past summer I had the opportunity to work as a research student at the Albert’s Lab which is part of the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. While at the lab I spent the majority of my time working with the

Concussion Center at the clinic. I had many new and exciting experiences there like using the state of the art CAREN system (seen in the photo), presenting my own research project, and leading a team of my piers. I consider this past summer to be one of the greatest learning experiences I have ever had. Between moving to a new city, having my first full time job and living on my own for the first time I grew as an adult. By far the most valuable experience I got out of this summer though, was the opportunity I had to lead a team of my piers. My supervisor took several weeks off in the middle of the summer, having great faith in me he simply told me that I was in charge of running the concussion evaluation events we ran almost every day. He left me a list of all our events and then left his phone and computer at home and went on vacation. I knew that the other interns who I would need to staff these events were not interested in them like I was, in fact they hated to go to them. I tried to emulate the managers I had in the past and first called a meeting of all the interns and we exchanged contact information and got down to creating a schedule for the next weeks. Through talking it over as a team we were able to get enough interns at each event and organize the equipment necessary to run them. The events all ran smoothly and without staff conflict thanks to my careful planning. If it were not for the trust and confidence that my own supervisor had in me I would never have had this opportunity to grow as a leader and I am so grateful for it.