Looking back at my junior year of college, it is striking not only how much my environment has changed, but also how my goals and aspirations have changed and adapted as well.
I began this year with the entirely new experience of being employed by UC as a Supplemental Instruction Leader (SIL). You can find more details about this experience on this page, but essentially, I worked with students in a specific course by assisting them in class and leading review sessions, for which I created by own content to help them learn both material and study skills for the course. Admittedly, my first few weeks were kind of rough. It was hard to be confident standing in front of a room with dozens of other students, trying to help each of them master material I had only learned a year ago.
However, this uncomfortable role eventually became second nature to me. I gained skills I didn’t know I was lacking until I had acquired them. I learned that confidence to lead my sessions didn’t come from feeling superior to my students, but rather trusting in the knowledge that I did have and being honest about the things that I didn’t know. I learned a great deal about professional communication (going between my students, and the professor, as well as my coworkers and supervisors) and how to work with peers from many backgrounds and abilities. Most of all, I learned that I loved teaching, especially in this subject that I was so interested in! I had always known that teaching was something that I might be interested in (with several years of tutoring under my belt), but this experience really showed me that as much as I enjoy gaining an education and learning new things, I am even more happy to share that passion with others. This has definitely made me consider how I can integrate teaching into my future career and I have made goals to continue to explore this is in my final year at UC, hopefully by being SIL again in the fall, in addition to exploring private tutoring.
Furthermore, I also continued to work in research as Cincinnati Children’s Hospital (no surprise if you’ve read about my previous honors experiences!) I continued working on my paternal allergen exposure project in the Lewkowich Lab, which had many exciting developments. We considerably expanded the project over the summer during SURF (more details here), which was an awesome chance for me to develop laboratory skills in addition to organization and innovation. For the second year in a row, I was able to present my work in a 15 minute oral presentation and poster session at the Autumn Immunology Conference in Chicago. Even more exciting, I received an “AAI Undergraduate Award” for the abstract I submitted (see the photo below).
We had plans to continue expanding this project in the spring and summer, but unfortunately the Covid-19 lockdown changed that. Many of my experiments (months in the making) had to be abandoned as our lab closed down. This was disappointing but I know we’ll be back on track as soon as we’re able. In the meantime, I have decided that research is what I want to pursue in my future and I have made goals to submit applications to several doctorate programs in the fall. I am so excited to see what my final year at UC brings me!
I began this year with the entirely new experience of being employed by UC as a Supplemental Instruction Leader (SIL). You can find more details about this experience on this page, but essentially, I worked with students in a specific course by assisting them in class and leading review sessions, for which I created by own content to help them learn both material and study skills for the course. Admittedly, my first few weeks were kind of rough. It was hard to be confident standing in front of a room with dozens of other students, trying to help each of them master material I had only learned a year ago.
However, this uncomfortable role eventually became second nature to me. I gained skills I didn’t know I was lacking until I had acquired them. I learned that confidence to lead my sessions didn’t come from feeling superior to my students, but rather trusting in the knowledge that I did have and being honest about the things that I didn’t know. I learned a great deal about professional communication (going between my students, and the professor, as well as my coworkers and supervisors) and how to work with peers from many backgrounds and abilities. Most of all, I learned that I loved teaching, especially in this subject that I was so interested in! I had always known that teaching was something that I might be interested in (with several years of tutoring under my belt), but this experience really showed me that as much as I enjoy gaining an education and learning new things, I am even more happy to share that passion with others. This has definitely made me consider how I can integrate teaching into my future career and I have made goals to continue to explore this is in my final year at UC, hopefully by being SIL again in the fall, in addition to exploring private tutoring.
Furthermore, I also continued to work in research as Cincinnati Children’s Hospital (no surprise if you’ve read about my previous honors experiences!) I continued working on my paternal allergen exposure project in the Lewkowich Lab, which had many exciting developments. We considerably expanded the project over the summer during SURF (more details here), which was an awesome chance for me to develop laboratory skills in addition to organization and innovation. For the second year in a row, I was able to present my work in a 15 minute oral presentation and poster session at the Autumn Immunology Conference in Chicago. Even more exciting, I received an “AAI Undergraduate Award” for the abstract I submitted (see the photo below).
We had plans to continue expanding this project in the spring and summer, but unfortunately the Covid-19 lockdown changed that. Many of my experiments (months in the making) had to be abandoned as our lab closed down. This was disappointing but I know we’ll be back on track as soon as we’re able. In the meantime, I have decided that research is what I want to pursue in my future and I have made goals to submit applications to several doctorate programs in the fall. I am so excited to see what my final year at UC brings me!