Hi everyone! Another month has come and gone and 2018 as a whole is almost over. I can't believe that in two months I'll be writing my reflection on the past year. For now here what I did in October.
The How of Happiness
I started October off by attending an event on the Happiness Psychology. With all the stresses that we deal with in college it's so important to prioritize self-care and mental health. In this event we talked about the little things that we can do to increase our brains positive outlook on life. I started doing one of the tips which was to write down three good things that happen at the end of every night.
I'll make a separate blog posts with all the tips I've learned!
Gemstone Research
My team has been working hard on our research proposal. A big milestone is that we decided upon a aim for our project! We will be approaching allergy treatments by targeting small molecules in the cell signaling pathway. The project requires me to learn a lot! Our mentor even gave us his Immunology textbook to help us learn all the material. It's difficult but its worth it.
A look at the mast cell degranulation pathway that we are researching
Fall Fete
The Caribbean Student Association hosted their first big event "Fall Fete." It was a showcase of caribbean culture including food, performances, and ofcourse some dancing and partying. I had a great time, showcasing my culture always makes me feel so complete and I'm always happy to share our culture with others. I was so happy to see the St. Maarten flag being shown off as well.
CPR Training
This past month I learned a lot while being certified in CPR and First Aid. I wrote a separate blog on this please click here to read more.
Team Gemstone
I went way out of my comfort zone this past month by doing some climbing along with my Gemstone team. It was a really cool team building exercise because we were able to bond as a team as we cheered each other on. I wasn't sure if I would climb but seeing my team member to it gave me the courage to give it a try! It was scary but such an adrenaline rush! Have you ever been rock climbing before?
Go Kye Go!
George Washington Medical School Visit
This month I visited my very first medical school! George Washington Medical School is one institution that I had been considering so I was happy to have the opportunity to visit their medical campus. I was pleasantly surprised at how they encouraged team work amongst their medical students rather than a competitive atmosphere. My favorite part was seeing the anatomy rooms and the mock patient rooms where students would interact with sophisticated robots or professional actors to practice their skills! I love how the medical school was directly across from the hospital meaning that students had a lot of opportunities to learn even before clinical rotations.
One of the patients practice rooms. The whole room can be controlled, the doll can speak to you, you can draw blood from it, and it can even turn blue and have CPR be preformed!
The labor and delivery room was my favorite because I want to be an OB/GYN. In this room students can practice delivering babies!
Visiting the medical school made me feel even more sure in my path! I hope to make more visits in the future. Medical school is still a few years away but I'm happy to be getting a look now.
Homecoming
Marquiss and I celebrated yet another homecoming together. I had a great time spending this time with him. First we went to the homecoming carnival where we scored these awesome scarfs and watched the fireworks. The next day we headed to the game where Terps won!
Charles R Drew Pre-Health Society
As you know I am secretary of CRD Pre-Health Society and I have been loving it! I have a great E-board that are awesome to work with. This month we had an interactive emergency medicine demo where we learned CPR, First-Aid, and what it's like to be an EMT. If you're a pre-health student at UMD and not apart of CRD...what you doing?
I'll be hosting our upcoming meeting and I'm so excited to do it! We'll be talking about ethical dilemmas in medicine so we're sure to have some interesting conversations. CRD keeps me excited about my path to be a doctor.
The semester thus far
This semester has been challenging but I've been learning such interesting information! I have to put in several hours of hard work in each course but it pays off, I aced my last three exams in Biology, Organic Chemistry lab (shown above), and French! Being a stem major might be hard but I wouldn't trade, I love learning about cells and reactions and I enjoy being in the lab preforming experiments. I can't believe there is only one month left in this semester, I hope to keep working hard and ending on a strong note! My organic chemistry exam is coming up next....wish me good luck!
Gemstone events
I am really happy to have been working alongside the Gemstone staff on some diversity initiatives. As a black women at a PWI and an immigrant to the United States, I know how being a minority can affect you and so it's important to ensure that everyone feels welcomed and included. I'm really excited for all thats to come and for all the positive feedback I've been getting from peers in the program. My first event as Director of Strategic Outreach is a Student of Color Dinner! I hope that it will be a success and something that we can continue to have.
No social media!?!
At the end of this month I've decided to delete all my social medias and just take a break! It was a pretty sudden decision but it was the right one. I use my social media a lot, whether I'm sharing parts of my day, motivational quotes, or promoting some events on Campus. I post every single day. So it was nice to take some days and not post anything at all, but don't worry I'll be back! I know a lot of people appreciate my posts and so I'm always working on the balance between sharing and oversharing.
I encourage you all to take a break from time to time.
Wow! It's been a busy month. I like writing these monthly updates because it gives me a chance to reflect on the past weeks. I'm often very focused on the future but it's important to be proud of everything you're achieving on the way. I'm also always happy to update all of you.