One Last Semester: Spring 2022

I am looking forward to my last semester as an undergraduate student here at OSU, and I am excited to graduate with my Bachelor of Science in biology and psychology with minors in bioethics and African history. I plan to continue working as an teaching assistant for Chem 2550 this semester, being Organic Chemistry Lab II. I am still volunteering with Hospice of Central Ohio (HOCO), and I have had several memorable patients in the OSU Wexner Hospice Unit and as a patient companion. Through HOCO, I have had the opportunity to train other volunteers, and I have recently been given the responsibility of filing discharge papers for all hospice patients on HOCO’s OSU unit. I really enjoy my role as a hospice volunteer, and I plan to keep volunteering with this organization for as long as I can. Alongside volunteering, I am happy to say that I remain a part of a clinical psychology research lab at Nationwide Children’s hospital. Because I am a student in the lab, it is likely that my time as a research assistant will temporarily come to an end upon graduation until I begin medical school, where I hope to continue doing research. Graduation will also mark the end of my time as a member and president of The Bioethics Society, which has been my favorite extracurricular throughout college.

My current post-graduate plan is to be a full-time chemistry teaching assistant while continuing to volunteer in hospice. I have also considered taking some beginning American Sign Language classes through Columbus Speech and Hearing. I plan to complete my MCAT in May of this year so that I may apply to medical school for the upcoming application cycle to matriculate in 2023. I am nervous about the challenges that come with the application process, but I feel that my undergraduate experiences have helped me demonstrate both to myself and admissions committees that becoming a medical doctor is the right path for me.

Springing from Spring to Summer Semester

After yet another semester of online classes, I am very fortunate to have found many opportunities to engage with my community outside of the classroom. The most prominent of these has been volunteering with Hospice of Central Ohio, in which I volunteer at OSU’s University Hospital once a week, while being assigned patient companions. This has been a very eye-opening experience, and has further driven me to pursue medicine, although it can take an emotional toll. My first and latest patient whom I was a companion for has recently passed away, and this is just the beginning of learning to separate my own emotions toward patients from seeing this as part of my future profession.

I plan to stay in this position while taking courses this summer, and I have accepted an unpaid research position at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. This team studies psychological phenomena that impact patients and their families on the pediatric oncology unit at Children’s, and I am very excited to be a part of the work being done. I look forward to finally being involved in clinical research and having the opportunity to further hone skills that I have gained from past research in emotionality and pharmaceutical chemistry.

While these two accomplishments seem particularly relevant to my future career in the medical field, I have also declared what could be considered a second, unorthodox minor, in African history. African history and politics is a personal interest of mine that I have found through memoirs and documentaries, and I look forward to learning more about this subject in my coursework this summer and beyond.

Online courses and the lasting effects of the COVID pandemic have been limiting in a number of ways, from losing internships to feelings of burn-out, but I feel that I have found a number of ways to still enhance my college experience. This also includes starting a Bioethics Book Club for this summer semester, with our first book being Flowers for Algernon. I also have been able to keep myself afloat financially as a DoorDash and UberEats driver. While times have been tough, the growth and experiences from the past year are not something I would trade for a time of normalcy, and I look forward to what summer semester brings.

Medical Student Grand Rounds (1/19)

Today I had the pleasure of attending Medical Student Grand Rounds for a presentation titled “Beyond the Protocols: Meeting the Challenge of Teaching Ethics to Prepare Physicians to Care for Sexual Assault Survivors.” The presenters addressed how rape culture can be a systematic and education issue, and described the steps they believe should be taken to help physicians become better advocates for sexual assault survivors.

I learned that while 1/3 women experience sexual assault, only 6% of men have actually committed rape. Along with this, 1 in 6 men also experience sexual violence. These statistics help outline how prominent this issue is, and the presenters went further by describing how little is taught about helping such patients, along with less-than-optimal ethics education in general. While it is an extremely important topic for physicians, it has been found that many curriculums fail to include ethics because they find that teaching ethics may be ineffective, or even a waste of time. Some go so far as to say that it is unteachable. However, the presenters found that with the curriculum incorporated into medical student training here at OSU was able to make students and physicians more empathetic, while giving them a better understanding of their role in that patient’s experience and recovery. Many physicians fail to realize that their reaction to trauma survivors can make that trauma worse, or help lead them on a path to recovery and much-needed resources.

I thoroughly enjoyed this presentation today, and feel that I learned a lot. I hope to continue attending these Grand Rounds, if only to pursue my interest in medical ethics and bioethics outside of the classroom.

New Experiences: Volunteering at a COVID Clinic and Volunteering with HOCO

After a semester of training with Hospice of Central Ohio (HOCO), I have officially become a volunteer at University Hospital in the hospice unit. With COVID still in our midst, there is little patient contact as of yet, but I have had the opportunity to meet a great number of both staff and visitors, while answering phones. Although I do not come into contact with patients often, the ones I have met have impacted me greatly. Just by listening to the nurses at the nurses station, I found myself learning a lot about both hospice care and every day nursing duties. For instance, today I learned about crepitus, or air bubbles under the skin, that can occur in patients after having a chest tube removed.

Along side this exciting opportunity, I have also started periodically volunteering in a rapid COVID test clinic at Walgreens in Chillicothe, OH. My duty here is to actually perform the test on the swabs given to me by other members of my team. This is an especially great opportunity because I am able to help with the pandemic while applying many lab techniques that I have used in both classes and previous research experience.

While it may seem dangerous to perform both activities at once, I take extreme precautions in both arenas of volunteering. This ranges from PPE, frequent hand-washing, checking my temperature often, and beyond. COVID has made it very difficult to find such opportunities, and has led to more delays than I can count in the opportunities that are available. I am very lucky to have found these opportunities, and hope to continue serving in both for the foreseeable future.

Approaching the End of the Autumn 2020 Semester

While my plans changed drastically for this semester, I feel that I was still very productive and able to make the most of my time. Online classes have brought new challenges, but I was able to go through training to become a hospice volunteer with Hospice of Central Ohio at the Wexner Medical Center, and conduct in-person research in the Child Emotions Lab where I work as an assistant. As president of the Bioethics Society, I was able to give presentations on genomic editing in humans, Icelandic abortion laws concerning fetal deformities, and the controversy surrounding early heart transplants in the United States. I have also had the opportunity to mentor some students considering STEM majors from the International Affairs Scholars program, while having a successful semester as an organic chemistry TA. I feel that I have gained many skills by teaching laboratory skills both online and in-person, and I have learned a lot from my students.

Unfortunately, it seems that my current research opportunities may be coming to an end. Finding new research opportunities in the midst of the pandemic has not been easy but I am applying to a variety of positions. Hospice volunteering has also been put on hold once again, but I am optimistic that I will be able to begin this position in the spring. While it seems that for the foreseeable future, I will continue working from home with my cat and laptop as my only coworkers, I am hopeful for opportunities that will eventually come my way.

Beginning of Junior Year in the Midst of COVID-19

Before Spring Break during the Spring 2020 semester, I was looking forward to a Summer of medicinal chemistry research in the Ohio State University College of Pharmacy, alongside volunteering at the Wexner Medical Center. I was also looking forward to a research internship with Nationwide Children’s Hospital in the emergency room for the 2020-2021 school year, and physician shadowing opportunities that I would have gained through receiving this internship. Needless to say, all of these opportunities have since been cancelled. I spent the Summer instead working at Kroger, as I typically did in the Summer, along with taking classes and conducting some online research for both labs where I work as a research assistant in the College of Pharmacy and the Human Sciences Department.

I also took this Summer to reflect on my academic goals. As of now, I am a double major in psychology and biology with a bioethics minor. I am also considering a history minor after taking a very interesting class on West African history. I have been selected to be a teaching assistant for organic chemistry lab after previously teaching general chemistry lab. I am also the current President of the Bioethics Society after being Vice President, and have completed the International Affairs Scholars Program, with one term as the Service Event Co-Chair. I have also applied to be a hospice care volunteer with Hospice Ohio, and I am excited to go through this volunteer process beginning in December. In terms of shadowing experience, I have been attempting to seek out shadowing opportunities, and I have had one success thus far by setting up a Zoom Call with Dr. Don Benson in the James Cancer Center

Like many pre-medicine students, I feel that the pandemic has set me behind in accomplishing my future goals. The clinical experience I hoped to gain in my junior year before applying to medical school is no longer available, but I hope to gain some experience through my new volunteer position. I have also been considering applying for medical school at the end of my senior year rather than my junior year. This would give me an extra year to gain experience before applying to medical school, and would give me the opportunity to pursue a one-year masters program during the year that I am applying. I am heavily considering an MA in bioethics here at the Ohio State University out of personal interest, and I do believe skills learned in this program will someday make me a better physician and researcher.

While this year has held many setbacks, I feel that I have gained some new perspective, and I’ve had the chance to pursue a variety of opportunities that I had not previously considered. I am lucky to only be lightly affected by this pandemic thus far, and while the future is more uncertain than before, I am excited to see what it brings.

International Perspectives on the Coronavirus Pandemic

Yesterday morning I had the opportunity to join a Zoom meeting with many people in my International Affairs Scholars group, alongside people from Germany, France, and China, to discuss how we have been differently impacted by how our individual governments have responded to the Coronavirus Pandemic. One of the first things I noticed was how unbothered they all were by the lockdown; they were happy to have more time to themselves, with their families, and time off work. This lead to a discussion about the difference in how Americans view “working hard” compared to these other countries, especially in that many Americans have been rioting, claiming violation of their constitutional rights, and pushing to get back to work as soon as possible, with many government officials agreeing with this.

In particular, a Texas resident says that their governor stated that, “there are more important things than living” in a recent speech. To go further on governmental statements, the couple from France said that their health minister claimed the Coronavirus not to be a threat, with a less than 1% chance of contracting it, and minds only changed when 20,000 people were dead. Further, US government officials are claimed to have gone to Shanghai to pay off people to send a plane containing PPE to the US, rather than its original location in France.

Many in the United States has been very afraid of sudden lockdown, seen particularly in buying mass amounts of supplies in case we are unable to go to grocery stores, and while this has yet to happen, France initiated a lockdown within 4 hours, only allowing people to leave for the essentials and being stopped by the police at checkpoints. China’s lockdown seemed to be different according to individual provinces, as it is in the United States, while Germany seems to have a similar lockdown state to us. Strict wording, but not entirely enforced.

It was interesting to hear from people in different parts of the United States and the world, especially in how we view each other’s responses. This led to a lot of healthy discussion, and I believe that we all left better informed. Unfortunately we have all been affected by the politics of public health, and here in the United States it seems that we are just as affected by the likes of the economy and profit-making.

Food Insecurity and Mental Health: An Unexplored Global Health Concern

For February’s Science Sunday, Dr. Barbara Piperata spoke on her research on how Nicaraguan mothers facing food insecurity, and how these struggles often negatively impact their mental health. Dr. Piperata is a biological anthropologist and associate professor here at the Ohio State University, and she recently helped develop the medical anthropology major, which I considered switching to some time ago. I’ve heard her speak once before, and both times she has been very impactful, both for her research, and the passion she radiates about a very pressing global issue.

With around 820 million people suffering from food insecurity around the world and unfortunately with it on the rise today, we must begin to ask ourselves why this is happening when we live in a world with more than enough food for everyone. Almost immediately Dr. Piperata says she noticed that there was more than enough food being sold, but 25% of the people in this part of the country could not afford it. This led them to make unhealthier choices by buying certain bulky foods with little nutritional value, working extremely long days, begging for money, and some families left to not eat at all.

The choices that these women had to make, not only to provide food and money for their families while also running a household, but having to sacrifice social status at times or even their self-esteem, has had a major impact on them. Some mothers who were interviewed spoke of how they were worried their children wanted someone else for a mother, or thought that their children were disappointed in them. There is a strong correlation with anxiety and depression with food insecurity and women, and while this strikes us morally, we must also consider how this affects productivity.

After attending events that talk about how certain groups of people are suffering, I am always struck with new passions of my own, while also being left with questions, and even wondering how long these topics and people stay in the minds of others. I am left particularly wondering how mothers have adapted to deal with food insecurity involving their children. We know that children often don’t understand a given situation, and can have a hard time handling the outcomes of these situations, particularly young children. Many outside factors are influencing the mental health of these women, but I wonder if internal factors, such as children crying for food, affect these women in an equal or even greater way.

Presenting at the Undergraduate Research Festival

On Monday, November 18th, I had the opportunity to present research from the Emotion Lab in the Department of Human Sciences where I have been working as a research assistant this semester. With only around 100 hours of research under my belt, this was a larger project than I imagined, but diving completely into the work allowed me to expand many of my skills very quickly.

As a research assistant, I use WPSSI technology to perform IQ tests with three-year-old children, and I am currently training to interact with mothers using the SCID questionnaire, alongside working with ECGs and other modes of data collection. I really enjoy being an assistant in this lab, and hope to keep this position for the next few years. Although I mostly deal with in-person screenings to determine participant eligibility for a study on autobiographical memory, my research for the festival was survey-based.

Mothers fill out a variety of surveys after being deemed eligible for our study, and I used the database containing this information to compare maternal depressive symptoms, race, education level, and child gender to two indicators of effortful control according to the Child Behavior Questionnaire-Short Form filled out by the mother, being low-intensity pleasure and inhibitory control. Interestingly, all variables were collectively related to both indicators, but only child sex was significantly related to inhibitory control, while only maternal depressive symptoms, race, and education level were significant in their relation to low-intensity pleasure.

Through this project I was able to perform a literature review, write my own abstract, run multiple regression analyses, and create a poster and presentation. Effortful control is a child’s ability to inhibit or activate behaviors depending on their environment, and has been known to majorly impact academic success, and social and emotional wellbeing later in life. Becoming aware of variables that effect effortful control could be important in how the education system could be adapted to serve the individual rather than the collective whole, and serves as a reminder that background does matter, even at such a young age.

A large part of why I want to be a physician is to work in advocacy for those who are often underrepresented, and in my eyes children are the group most afflicted by this societal issue, including in research and in healthcare. This research might seem unrelated to a biology major, but being able to work with children reinforces this belief and many of my future goals.

Global Water Institute Presentation

The effects of the global water crisis can be seen all over the world, whether due to lack of access to clean water or even just access to water in general. I was unaware that there was an institute at OSU to address this issue, and it was surprising to find that it was part of the College of Engineering. The Global Water Institute focuses on water infrastructure in Subsaharan Africa, particularly in Tanzania.

As one of the poorest regions in the world, Subsaharan Africa is in great need of infrastructure as both population growth and climate change are influencing their every day lives. Most people in Tanzania lack access to clean water, and many more lack access to water at all for a multitude of reasons. The interesting thing about the Global Water Institute is that they have contracts with particular people, and use outside parties to avoid embezzlement concerning any monetary affairs in these communities, while making sustainable changes that can be utilized, fixed, and run by the communities. I have a deep appreciation for any institute that attempts to address underlying problems in a community rather than fixing only surface problems. This institute seems to address these underlying issues, whether they be inefficient farming techniques, oppression of women, lack of sanitation, etc., while also accomplishing what they set out to do using mostly native workers.

As I continue my time at Ohio State, I realize more and more that I want to be part of a global community, and I’m always interested in learning more about issues that impact relatively “voiceless” communities such as small villages in Tanzania that lack resources to address particular problems within their own community. Whether it be learning about commonalities or differences between cultures, or potentially participating in infectious disease and global epidemiology research or studies in the future, I feel that I have been heavily impacted by being part of a college community that encourages diversity and seeing the world through so many different lenses, and I want to see that impact turn into something sustainable in my own life.