Original Inquiry: This summer I will be conducting clinical research at Akron Children’s Hospital. It is a 10 week internship program called Summer Pediatric Research Scholars. This will enrich me academically as I will be getting more involved with the medical field and I think help me really realize how truly I want to be a doctor which is what all my academics are leading me towards. Also as a Health Sciences major we discuss a lot of clinical issues whether it be from the management perspective or medical perspective I believe this experience will be beneficial to the information I have already learned from my major and will continue learning over the next two years. I also have the opportunity to shadow doctors, go to conferences, and sit in on the grand rounds through the hospital which will be a great learning experience for me as I can ask them my questions and inquire into their work. Through this internship I will be assigned a mentor who will help me come up with my own research project which will be my original inquiry and I will get to conduct research on it with the assistant of the medical professional mentor. I will get to ask questions, look at clinical data, and conduct my own original research project idea and at the end of the program I will report my findings in front of staff at Akron Children’s Hospital.

Academic Enrichment: I️ interviewed Aaron D’Amore who is a 3rd year Biology major on the pre-med track. Aaron discussed his research and how he is preparing for the MCAT which he is planning to take this summer. He discussed how research is important and how it doesn’t really matter what type of research you get you just need to find research that you’re interested in. The current lab he works in does research on rattle snakes and he said he got the position through talking to his professors. He currently has a job lined up in D.C. with the National Institute of Health in a lab for his gap year between medical school and Ohio State. With his MCAT preparation he has taken 8 full MCAT’s for the last 8 Saturdays and he discussed how stressful  it has been but how worthwhile it will be. He gave some advice with some good classes to take that have helped prepare hime for the MCAT and for medical school and discussed the MCAT prep classes he took this semester.

S: To achieve my 20 hours of service this year I️ volunteered at Akron Children’s Hospital to get the bulk of my hours. I️ also received volunteer hours from Med-life through various volunteering at the meetings for different organizations in the Columbus community. Lastly, I️ also received a few hours for volunteering from the RedCross Blood Drives around campus. I️ think by doing a few different types of volunteering this year I️ was able to see a lot of variety while being able to get involved in the Columbus community while staying involved with my community at home.