I was a part of the biological scholar’s program at OSU for my first 2 years and as a requirement, we had to develop GOALS for ourselves. This is a revised GOAL for after I have graduated from OSU and also a reflection on the GOALS I previously set.
Global Awareness:
Back in 2018, my global awareness goal is to join an Asian American club to get more in touch with my roots. Reflecting upon the goal, I did not join an Asian American club but I did find myself surrounded by a diverse group of friends from various ethnic backgrounds. The exposure into their cultures helped me to embrace similarities and differences in our experiences and upbringings.
My new goal for myself post-graduation in global awareness is to now focus on communities with different socioeconomic levels and how healthcare and experiences differs amongst the communities. I want to be able to acknowledge the disparities and actively work to address them in my path to become a provider.
Original Inquiry:
An original inquiry is something of interest that I seek out for myself, my previous goal is to join a research lab. I did in fact achieve this goal as I worked as a student research assistant in Dr. Lynne Gauthier’s neuro-recovery lab working on the computerized therapy for upper extremities in stroke patients. You can read a little more about this in my Career’s tab. I did learn a lot from the opportunity and used it to build my foundation of what I wanted my contribution to healthcare to be.
Something I would like to pursue now would be to seek out opportunities that will allow me to provide direct assistance to the community.
Academic Enrichment:
When I first started college, the only goal I had down for academic enrichment was to take a 5000 level course at OSU. In hindsight, this was really arrogant of myself. I did end up taking a 5000 level course, but now I don’t think the level of the course is a good measure on academic enrichment or success. There are various courses I have taken at OSU that I personally viewed as more helpful to me such as embryology, anatomy, physiology, and histology and none of those were 5000 level courses. Education in healthcare is not about the level of education but rather building foundation from simple classes into bigger concepts. I wished I had been more focused on building the foundations for myself.
Right now, I am preparing to take the MCAT for medical school. If I had focused more on creating myself the foundation in undergrad, I would not need to reteach myself concepts that were previously taught to myself. For my current goal for academic enrichment will be to learn and retain the information taught to me and place smaller emphasis on worrying about the grades I would get for my courses. I am also enrolled in a nursing program that is helping me learn most commonly used medications and learn skills needed when interacting with patients.
Leadership Development:
I wanted a leadership position in the medical innovation club back when I first developed these goals. But, I ended up leaving the medical innovation club due to difference in philosophy between me and the leadership at that time. Personally, I think healthcare innovations should be accessible to everyone in the community and not a selective few. I know economic constraints are present in society but the aim should be to provide everyone in the community the tools necessary for their health. I instead joined the Fencing club at OSU and was secretary for 4 years while being the social media manager for a year.
Leadership after graduation was a little more difficult, I have started precepting new hires at work but as of now my leadership goals will be to continuing leading review session for my classes.
Service Engagement:
Volunteering in the hospitals was the only goal I had for service engagement and I did do that before and after COVID-19. However, I also helped volunteered for an organization called Remote Area Medical (RAM). They set up clinic in rural or low socioeconomic communities and provide dental, vision, and medical help through healthcare volunteers. I participated in the Columbus location.
My new goal ties into my participation in RAM, I want to be able to make more clinics this year near or in Ohio to help rural and disadvantaged communities get the necessary help they need to improve their health.