BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES AND HONORS PORTFOLIO

KEY EXPERIENCES

I have had many experiences that have shaped who I am today. Beginning with my High school experiences, one of my most influential experiences was volunteering at a community garden for two years. During this experience, I was required to get a job from the head of the garden, and then use the tools I had available and my wits to decide the best way to go around completing that job in a timely manner. This experience gave me a greater appreciation of the adaptability needed to complete an assignment successfully. The experience also taught me that, if I want to do something right, I cannot be afraid of "getting down and dirty" or doing grunt work. Further, this experience taught me to be responsible for my own job and how to work with others since I was occasionally assigned a job with someone that I did not know with us having to complete the job together.
Another key experience of mine from high school was when I tutored children, from middle schools, that were insufficient in their subjects. This taught me to have patience with people who do not understand something that I believe is simple and allowed me to take a different view on a subject that I had thought I had mastered, which showed me that there is always more to learn in life.  This experience hardened my desire to serve the community and showed me the joy of helping another person out.
The most influential key experience of mine at the end of high school and throughout my college career was when I shadowed a veterinarian, Dr. Henderson, at my home town vet clinic to see if I truly wanted to be a veterinarian. Though the experience, I learned that being a vet is much more than just dealing with animals (dealing with the owners, for example). I learned that being a vet takes knowledge and understanding in several different subjects other than medicine. For instance, a vet must have a firm grasp on self-learning when they come across a disease or disorder that they are unfamiliar with. Even in the field of medicine, they must be thoroughly versed in all of its sub-categories so that they can appropriately treat an animal. This experience has only increased my enthusiasm and motivation for becoming a vet since it would be a great honor and privilege to heal the animals and serve the people of the community.
Onto my college experiences, two key experience I have had was being a sophomore advisor and a microbiology teaching assistant. These jobs have given me a new appreciation on how to advise or teach a person. This strongly relates to my future goals since one job of a veterinarian is to suggest and advise someone on how they should treat their animal and teach them (in an effective manner) about how to care for their animal appropriately. being an advisor has shown me that, even if you give your best advice to someone, they may not take that advice and has helped me to learn how to handle certain situations that could manifest in my job, such as a disagreement on a decision made. Likewise, being a teaching assistant gave me a true appreciation on how different people need different academic approaches to come to the same understanding. A major experience that the advising job gave me was being a head of a murder mystery development team. Along with teaching, this experience has taught me that team work is a crucial part of working with others and that communication needs to be maintained to allow for a better flow of information. This wisdom can be used in my future job (and studies) since I will most likely have to work with other veterinarians and make sure to keep a strong flow of communication so there aren't any unnecessary surprises for any of the partners. The advising position has also given me a stronger connection to the community council, since I am a resident honors advisor, which allows me to gain the experience and knowledge of what goes into building a community, such as events to bring the residents closer. On the same note the teaching job has given me an appreciation on what exactly goes into preparing materials for a lab and revising the directions if needed. Both jobs have given me a new appreciation on how many careers and perspectives go into forming a community and how I can become more apart of said community. Most importantly, these positions have further cemented my desire to service people and the community, through advising them, helping them to see their options and providing them a deeper understanding of what they will need to know, which is one of the jobs I will do as a veterinarian.
The last key experience would be working as an Interpretive naturalist. This job has taught me how little the general public know about animals, even those that are their "favorite" (the sloth about 70% of the time), which strengthens my resolve and provides one more reason for becoming a veterinarian. Also, the experience of being ignored by someone as they do something that is not allowed has taught me to be more patient with people and to know when to become more energized in order to garner their attention. I have further sharpened my impromptu skills with this jobs since we aren't able to know everything so we must use our reasoning skills to develop a plausible explanation to any reasonable question.
These have been my key experiences thus far. They have really helped to shape the kind of person that I am today and I hope to have many more like them!