One service experience that stood out to me this year would have to be BuckeyeThon. This 24 hour dance marathon raises money for Nationwide Children’s, namely their hematology and oncology clinics and research. This gave me the opportunity to raise money for a hospital that I have a personal connection to, with physicians there responsible for the treatment of my cleft lip and palate. During the dance marathon, I had the opportunity to meet some of the kids Nationwide selected to come and tell us a little about their battles with cancer. This was all very eye-opening and I was able to see the resiliency of little kids who had been diagnosed with cancer, but still have a smile on their face and just want to be like any other kid their age. My participation in the dance marathon also made me realize just how lucky I am to have my health.
Month: May 2020
Career Plans as of End of First Year
Having come to Ohio State intending on pursuing a career in medicine, I have since switched career paths to hopefully attend dental school following my completion of undergrad. This decision to switch was one that was not made lightly and I spent many hours researching both. I decided on dental school due to the fact that I knew I wanted to one day help people with craniofacial defects such as cleft lips and palates, much like what I went through when I was younger. I feel as though my experiences of having all of these procedures done on me would help me to better relate to my patients and guide both them and their parents through the best course of treatment. I am unsure of which specialty of dentistry I would like to pursue at this point in time, but the ones that stand out to me the most are oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics, and pediatric dentistry. All of these specialties are ones that I have dealt with over the years working to repair my cleft lip and palate. I intend to meet with my oral surgeon at Ohio State sometime in the near future in order to discuss careers and also meet with my orthodontists and general dentist to see how they got to where they are today.
2019-2020 Year in Review
As I am writing this year in review, I have been done with exams for about weeks and have had time to rest prior to beginning a second session summer course. My first year at Ohio State taught me so much. I not only learned a lot in the classes I was taking, but I was also able to learn a lot about myself and how to best succeed. I have become involved on campus, becoming the wrestling director for Block O for next season. I have also used my time on campus to meet many great people who share many common interests. In addition, I have become more aware of different career fields and as a result, have switched to the pre-dentistry track. I look forward to next year and am excited to see what the future holds.