My STEP project was a 200-hour internship at a small animal clinic in New Albany, OH. I worked on histology and cytology of ear swaps, fine needle aspirates, and skin cells. I also worked on patient history by bringing clients into the exam rooms.

My world views changed by gaining a better understanding of the human-animal bond and what it means in terms of medical care. It was very transforming to see how the roles of a veterinarian are limited by the owner’s wishes. There are people who view their pets as family, some who view their animals as protection, and some who keep pets as pest control. The degrees of which the animal is accepted in the family, is a large contributor of the type of medical care they received. The pets who are loved as family received top-notch care and money was never thought about twice. Others hadn’t seen a vet in over a year and would only come in when the animal needed attention to live. My views are now expanded on the importance of the way people view and value their animals and how it is critical to tailor vet care to the client just as much as the owner.

The Veterinarians I worked with were very influential in my STEP experience. They helped me open my views and learn the ins and outs of the profession. They brought to light the importance of the human animal bond and how it has many different forms.

The work I did with patient history gave me a good insight of how different people view vet care. The ones with considerable history who never miss an appointment are the most attached to the animal. The ones who couldn’t give a thorough history of the animal, usually had the most health concerns and couldn’t afford to give the animals the most effective care.

Finally, the work I did with cytology also helped me understand the roles animals have in our lives in an interesting way. Clients would come in to have a small, barely noticeable lump aspirated which is not a cheap test to run. Usually doctors will tell a patient when something needs checked out but in Vet medicine, more often people will bring in their dogs for the smallest things in fear something is gravely wrong. From this cycle of tests, I found many “lumps” that were completely fine and had no need to be checked.

This change matters to my future career as a Veterinarian by helping me gain interpersonal skills I will need in a clinical setting. I will be able to relate to clients more and be able to give a more personal experience that owners will cherish and remember. I also gained so much experience in terms of diagnostic parameters and signs of common health problems. Without STEP, my vet school application would be much less competitive, and I would never have met the amazing mentors that I did.

STEP Post-Project Reflection

1.My STEP Signature Project consisted of me working as a Marketing intern in Columbus during the summer. My STEP funds allowed me to live in Columbus where I was able to gain significant and meaningful experiences by working in a field, I am passionate about. My main job functions centered around event planning, email marketing and social media content creation.

2. My STEP project really helped me gain a more comprehensive understanding on my strengths and shed light onto the type of career I want after graduation. Before the summer, I had a vague knowledge that I wanted to do something related to marketing however, I had not had any “real world” exposure to working in a professional setting and didn’t have a deep understanding of any career paths. I had unknowingly limited what I thought I could do with my degree. By working at Envisage Wealth this summer, I learned about a field that I hadn’t really known anything about previously. My assumptions about the marketing field changed drastically as I learned how cross-functional and flexible the field is.

I was personally transformed through this project in that I developed numerous life long skills. Organization has always been something I struggled with. A main role of my job was to keep many different projects organized and on time. In addition to my job I was living in Columbus for the summer, in a different part of the country then the rest of my family and for the first time in my life, I was completely responsible for all of my living expenses. Initially, I was overwhelmed and discouraged because I didn’t think I chose the correct job field. As the summer went on though my organization skills evolved and I grew in my independence. My money management skills have grown and I am not as intimidated as I once was at the thought of graduating and starting an independent adult life.

3. At the end of my first month of interning I really saw my development of organizational skills grow the most. I was becoming increasingly stressed at work as we had many projects and events going on in a short amount of time. It got to the day of one of the events and I realized I had overlooked a detail in the planning related to the setup of the event. I spent the whole day problem solving and racing around town trying to make up for my oversight. I was able to get everything organized and settled before the event; much to my and my supervisor’s relief.

The stress of that day and surrounding the entire event really put in perspective for me how crucial it is to be organized and detail-oriented. Going forward from that day I made a conscious effort with all of my projects to cover all my bases and double check everything before it is final.

During the school year, I am fortunate enough that my parents cover the majority of my living expenses. It was discussed though that I would become completely financially independent for the duration of the summer. Me and my parents had a lengthy discussion about the importance of learning financial independence and how once I graduate, I will be responsible for so much more then I am now and it is important that I have experience with managing my finances.

This interaction was the starting point for myself on becoming independent and more grown-up. Knowing I had to pay for my rent, utilities, food and gas limited myself in how I frivolously spent money. I spent time budgeting my money and set limits for myself with how much money I could spend eating out and doing other social activities that I normally wouldn’t really care about how much I spend at.

4.

College Liftoff, an event I was a part of planning on August 8th

All of the growth and skills I have developed this summer will be beneficial for me for the rest of my life. Without my STEP project I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to branch out of my comfort zone and evolve professionally and personally in such a limited amount of time. Sometimes with my school work it is hard for me to see the relevance of what I am learning but through working and living on my own the relevancy of what I was doing was so apparent. Organization, independence and money management are all things I have struggled with. I can confidently say I have developed in all three of these areas and because of that, I am more confidant that when I graduate in May, I will be more successful.

1. Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project. Write two or three sentences describing the main activities your STEP Signature Project entailed.

In summer 2019, I utilized my STEP fund to finance my Washington Academic Internship Program (WAIP), which was a John Glenn College program allowing me to intern and study in Washington D.C. I interned in a consulting company conducting policy analysis and administrative assistance. Through WAIP I was also able to visit government agencies, think tanks, and private corporations to better understand the operation of this amazing city.

2. 
   What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project? Write one or two paragraphs to describe the change or transformation that took place.

By participating in this project, I was able to better under the public sector which I have been studying as a Public Affairs major student. I understand how the federal legislative process is conducted, how the public sector works with the private sector, and how as ordinary people can be part of the democratic process in the United States.

Through the STEP project, I also realize how much the world is based on connection, trust, and personal credit. I was able to challenge myself to be more confident of myself, more proactive in terms of networking, and more active in learning new knowledge through my STEP signature project.

3. 
   What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you? Write three or four paragraphs describing the key aspects of your experiences completing your STEP Signature Project that led to this change/transformation.

During WAIP, I was able to 1) visit public agencies, 2) talk with D.C.-based alumni, and 3) participate in the federal legislative process. The WAIP cohort visited the Department of States, Department of Agricultural, Department of Interior, Federal Aviation Administration, and many other public agencies. I was able to talk to senior elected officials and public servants to understand their daily works, career experiences, and challenges they faced in their position.

The WAIP also connected us with a number of alumni who worked in Washington D.C. They worked in different sectors and industries and all brought with valuable insights. I was able to build connections as well as gain industrial knowledge through my discussion with them.

Finally, through my internship I was able to approach the public sector from a unique perspective. Working in a consulting firm in D.C. provided me a lot of opportunities to interact with people in both the private and public sectors. This job also enabled to help my supervisor with various duties, including writing testimony for him in front of federal agencies. Such experience was indeed challenging but valuable and transformable for me.

4. 
   Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life? Write one or two paragraphs discussing why this change or development matters and/or relates to your academic, personal, and/or professional goals and future plans.

WAIP is transformational as it pushed me to be always professional. During WAIP in D.C. I addressed business professional/casual every day and developed the habit of responding emails within 24 hours. Such attitude I was pushed to develop benefits me greatly both professionally and personally.

After WAIP, I am more confident and determined to work in the public sector. More importantly such experience pictures a clearer picture for me in the near future. I will carry this forward and keep exploring, but with a more confident and determined heart.

This summer I spent two days of the week working in the Dean’s Office of Case Western Medical School and the other half of the week in a pediatric pulmonology lab. My main tasks included being responsible for starting up an online database for the office and assisting with studies by performing experiments and carrying out protocols in the lab.

I gained a greater insight into my abilities as an individual in the professional field. Being a returning intern, I had a bit of familiarity with the work and was given tasks that required me to guide younger, first-time interns. This showed me a new way of approaching the work. While I was still learning new things and had much room for growth, I was also required to be a mentor and lead others in explaining studies as well as the database that I was responsible for. This changed the way that I saw myself because before I had always lacked confidence in myself as an individual in the work field. I felt as though I was never fully equipped to completely take on tasks on my own. Being in the position of having to guide others instilled in me the confidence and fostered a sense of maturity that, I believe, helped tremendously even in improving the quality of work that I executed. I learned not only the skills and knowledge required for the lab and the office, but I learned them to be able to explain them to others—which I believe is the best way to ensure a deeper understanding. Approaching the work from this way was transformative, as it was something that I had never had to do before.

The first specific experience that I believe led to my transformation was when I was told that I would be the only one working on a completely new online database program. My supervisor notified me of an online training/orientation meeting that we would be having with the company who’s program we would be using. I was told that, while they would attend the meeting, I would be the first one who would be working on the program and would be later responsible for working out the nuts and bolts of it to later explain to the rest of the office. This immediately felt as though it would be a very large responsibility, as I was being trusted with the most important documents in the office, as well as being trusted in my technological competence to work with an entirely new and unfamiliar online program on my own. This was intimidating; however, I believe that this intimidation drove me to perform even better. The knowledge that this was entirely my responsibility placed a positive type of pressure on me that allowed me to succeed. I was attentive, detail-oriented and developed problem-solving skills along the way.

Another interaction that led to my transformation was the new student research assistant that I was working alongside in the lab. She was a freshman and it was her first year working in any lab setting. As someone who has had some experience in the lab, specifically the lab we were working in, I was expected by our PI to help assist her and get her acclimated to the lab. The relationship we built was transformative for me. I had never been on the mentor side of this kind of relationship. I was always the intern getting mentored. While there was a great deal that I also did not yet know, I was able to share my knowledge and familiarity of the lab with the younger student. Answering her questions, walking her through protocols and explaining how various apparatuses worked forced me to bring all of this knowledge to the forefront. When I was unsure of something, I had to learn to admit my shortcomings which I think is essential for personal growth. Our relationship also allowed us to be able to learn and grow together. For example, she had just taken General Chemistry and Biology, classes which I have not taken for a while. This type of foundational knowledge was still fresh in her head, so she was able to refresh my memory on essential information relevant to the lab that I may have forgotten, while I was able to explain some of the information that I have learned in my upper level classes. We developed a great relationship that I think was one of the highlights of my experience.

The last experience that greatly contributed to my transformation over the summer was the fact that I was split between the lab and the office. Because of the nature of the lab, many of the experiments “don’t take breaks”, so to speak. For that reason, the days that I was in the office, I was actually missing meetings and procedures, and often was not there for key discussions about studies. This put me at a disadvantage, however, it also required me to take personal initiative in order to catch up and put myself at the same place as the rest of my team. This was extremely transformative, as it put me in a completely new position. I had to ask more questions, do more personal research, and put in more of my own time in order to get to the level of understanding that everyone else was at. This taught me a lot about personal responsibility and accountability. I am proud of the growth I made and thankful that this project was able to be transformative in this way.

As seen through my experience, I learned so many valuable lessons through this project. These developments will be extremely useful to my future. These are lessons that are essential to succeeding in the professional field. I learned a lot about molding to the circumstances with which I was provided. While I may not encounter the same exact circumstances in future professional endeavors, I will be able to apply my knowledge and experiences of learning to adapt. This will be essential as I pursue medical school and beyond. Being a physician is a constant array of varying circumstances; one is constantly confronted with new cases and unknown, stressful situations. Having the ability to navigate these situations and adapt to new ways of thinking will be vital to succeeding. Things such as taking initiative, accountability, personal responsibility, mentorship and more are all the foundation to the latter.

For my STEP Signature Project, I completed a computer science internship with Battelle in Columbus, OH. The main component of my internship involved working with a team to help develop and maintain a Lead Poisoning tracking software contracted by the CDC.

The internship with Battelle gave me exposure to working on a real-world project with other software developers. I was able to see what my career might soon look like and I got hands-on exposure working on something that will be used all across the US. I feel that before completing this internship, I didn’t have a clear idea of what it might be like to work in the computer science field and now I have direct experience. I learned a lot about work expectations and about developing code with others and how that is all managed and I believe that I am now a better team member and coder because of it. I was also able to meet other Battelle interns and I believe that getting to know others that are in a similar field has helped me expand socially.

During the internship at Battelle, I had semi-weekly project meetings to help gauge where each team member was at and to get an idea of how the project is developing. During each meeting, each team member was asked to share their general progress on the project. These meetings helped me better develop my communication skills so that I might be able to convey an issue I was having with the project or better put in to words a solution I had come up with that week. Being able to better communicate what I was working on helped me work more effectively and I believe will help me be a stronger team member in future positions.

In order to keep track of issues and future improvements for the project, the team used a tool called JIRA. JIRA essentially allows a programmer to open and close problems that they find in a project, write descriptions of fixes, and just generally make clear what has and has not been done for the project. I believe that using JIRA and writing up fix descriptions has helped make me a better writer and communicator through written text. In order to fully convey what is wrong with the project or what has been done to fix an issue can be difficult and so having hands-on experience writing these descriptions has helped.

Throughout the internship at Battelle, there were several intern events where interns from all different departments would meet and socialize. Getting to know others from different backgrounds gave me a chance to make new friends and become a more social individual. Because many of the Battelle interns are of a similar age to me I was able to relate with many of them as they are in a similar situation of finishing up school and getting ready to look for jobs.

Learning to work better in a team and learning to become a more social individual are both hugely helpful when getting ready to enter the work force. I believe that because of the change I have undergone due to my time working at Battelle, I have become better equipped for finding a future job. I feel that companies will view me as a stronger candidate thanks to the skills and experience I garnered when working as an intern for Battelle.

For my STEP Signature Project, I completed an internship experience May through July of 2019 at Karpinski Engineering in the field of mechanical engineering for building design.  I got to get an inside look into my future career field, develop professional relationships, and utilize and enhance my practical engineering knowledge.

This internship really put the day-to-day work I put into my mechanical engineering degree into perspective and gave it renewed value in my eyes. It was eye-opening to see concepts I’ve learned about only in class get utilized in the real world and I feel a greater sense of purpose working toward my degree now. Before working for Karpinski, I felt unsure about whether mechanical engineering was the right fit for me, and I was uncertain what direction I wanted to take my career. Now, I feel much more at home in my studies at OSU because I am confident that I am in the right program that allows me to work in an industry that I love.  Because earning a professional engineering license is important in the architectural engineering field, I have set new goals for myself to start this process by taking the Fundaments of Engineering Exam next summer. Overall, I am so much more confident in myself professionally and academically after this internship because I feel more motivated and purposeful.

My experience working for Karpinski Engineering this summer has been extremely transformative and rewarding.  At Karpinski, my role was to support all of the engineers and project managers with design work, meeting project deadlines, and administrative tasks. I felt very valued at Karpinski because they treated me like a team member, coworker, and peer. The work that I did was actually a piece of the final products provided to our clients; the responsibility and trust that was placed in me at this company allowed me to grow immensely professionally and personally. I did not anticipate how much I would truly learn when it came to both technical knowledge on HVAC systems and skills in software design programs like AutoCAD and Revit. Now I feel confident that I have a great basis of knowledge and skills that are important in this industry.

Besides just the day-to-day production work that I mostly focused on in the office, I also had some special opportunities that put all the work into perspective and allowed me to see the impact of my job. I got the chance to participate in some meetings with clients where we reviewed our drawings and designs with them. I loved experiencing the interaction with the clients because it reminded me how the work we do directly impacts people and emphasized how important customer service is in this industry. Also, I had the opportunity to attend some site visits to record information on existing locations where we are doing renovation projects. I loved these visits because I got to see the “behind-the-scenes” of how a building operates. Through this work, I gained a greater appreciation for the sheer amount of work it takes to design, build, and run a building.

Though Karpinski Engineering is a relatively small company, I was still able to build many strong relationships with my coworkers, find incredible mentors, and do some networking outside of the company. The size of Karpinski particularly allowed me to foster relationships with people in elevated positions in the company and I was able to have a unique role as their only intern. Directly working with both younger, newer engineers and older, very experienced engineers gave me a variety of great insight into the industry. I also attended meetings with the Columbus ASHRAE chapter and the Central Ohio BIM User Group. These meetings were very valuable because I got to network with people outside of Karpinski and learn about relevant topics in the MEP industry that were different from my daily work.

My experience working for Karpinski Engineering this summer steered me towards a career path I’m excited for, motivated my studies, and gave me confidence in myself professionally and academically. These changes are extremely valuable to my life because I think they will all allow me to be more successful in my academic and professional career from here on out. I feel very motivated to work even harder towards my degree in mechanical engineering now that I know it will be valued in the industry I want to pursue. I am able to focus on and create more specific goals that are oriented towards my future career. Additionally, this internship has relieved so much stress related to finding a company that I would love to work for. Because of the relationships I built at Karpinski and positive performance reviews, I will be returning to work there again next summer.  My internship experience was much more personally, professionally, and academically transformative than I anticipated and will continue to be rewarding next year when I work at Karpinski Engineering again.

The main activities surrounding my STEP Project internship as a Patient Accounting Intern would include various administrative duties. One of the largest portions of my daily task was to scan and index billing correspondents from insurance companies to the Wexner Medical Center. When I would complete this, I would often assist my student supervisor in processing returned mail, update addresses, and sort mail. 

I believe that my outlook transformed in many ways, and my assumptions of the medical field changed. I grew to appreciate the background work that takes place to complete a patient interaction with the hospital. Often before, I viewed the system to be streamlined and an all online process that would complete my own interaction to ultimately get timely responses in regards to my medical insurance coverages. I learned that there is much more to this assumption, in fact there are a lot of hoops to jump to prove to insurance companies that a medical procedure, overnight stays etc. are necessary for the health and wellbeing of a patient. In the past I know my parents would get frustrated with the untimeliness of processed visits, so now I understand that the background workers are working hard to assure the correct information is being billed and covered, all of which is in the patient’s best interest to avoid billing mistakes. I often saw problems facing patients when I would index billing correspondents for patients being treated for mental rehabilitation in several overnight stays and they would be declined coverage for lack of notation proving otherwise. This showed me the flaws in the way insurance companies come to conclusions to decline coverage, I now view it as if the doctor deemed it necessary and a danger to the patient to be discharged without proper professional observation, it should be covered. 

Much of my knowledge to come to this conclusion of critically analyzing the decisions of insurance companies would be from all of my onboarding training I went through. Much of this consisted of ensuring my ethical standards are compliant with HIPAA. HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, in which I am bound to keep all patient information private and to not disclose anything as such. With this training, I learned of ensuring the best care of the patient to all health standards, in both their mental and physical well being while maintaining complete confidentiality. 

I also grew to appreciate the importance of colleague comradery in the workplace. In my previous jobs I was surrounded by an older generation not doing any of my job functions, so I did not have much common ground with them. In the weeks working at the Wexner Medical Center, I gained some lifelong friendships with the other students. We went on numerous after work dinners to places like Cazuelas Grill and Condados. Seeing them outside of the workplace got me excited to see their personalities outside of a professional setting; we were able to joke around in the office and seeing them in a more casual light brought us closer together. I feel that after these interactions we all began to enjoy tasks more and appreciate each other’s work. 

Something that we all worked on together was to create a Student Intern Handbook, per request from our supervisor. This handbook was comprised of every duty expected of the interns, and a very detailed explanation of carrying out these duties. Because all the interns (total of 4) had their own task we took the time to create a step by step guide of our job to leave for each other and the next round of interns. All of us knew and could perform the daily tasks, as this was the first round of task training we completed, but we each had a ‘specialization’ task to do. I feel that this was a well organized way to complete our work; after seeing that this is the common way of carrying out work, I know understand the complexities that go into the background office work of a big healthcare facility. If someone at the office was not there it was evident that things would get behind until they came back, so having this perspective gave me a sense of empathy for persons in these careers. 

This transformational experience is one that I will always cherish. From the remarkable friendships to the professional networking relationships, my time at the Wexner Medical Center was crucial to the development of my professional career. Had I not been exposed to a business environment as such, I would be behind my peers that have had this internship experience. After this summer, I learned many insights to the world of completing an interaction in the healthcare field, and being mindful of it. This has been a fulfilling STEP experience, and I am grateful for the memories and knowledge I have gained from participating in it.