Summer 2017: Many Many Experiences

Summers have always been a busy time of the year for me. It’s that one time during the year in your undergraduate career that you can focus exactly on what type of experience you want to get and evaluate for yourself if it is something you would be interested in pursuing in the future. Being that I am about to enter my fourth and final year of undergrad, I decided to stay local and get as much experience as I could in the various things that I am interested in. Looking back, now that I have just wrapped up the last of my internships/externships/volunteer work for the summer, I think I might have gone overboard. It is worth saying for whomever may read this or just for future self reflection, don’t do so many things during the summer. I actually felt that because there was so much context switching between my internships, I wasn’t fully able to focus on one exclusively and do all that I wanted to do in the project. That being said, I had so many great experiences this summer and I don’t regret doing all that I did – even though I was mentally exhausted every day and every weekend for about two and a half months.

Let’s get into it.

This summer I challenged myself to work in a startup called ‘Aging 2.0‘ to get the whole start up experience helping to build their temporary CRM database. I wanted to get first hand experience of what a start up is like and I personally was interested in the space of gerontology, so it seemed like a good fit. I actually found I gained more experience in product management than I thought I would while working on this project. Many times, I was the person doing the researching on how the product should be built and consulting with the CEO on what exact features we wanted the product to take on. While building the product was my main task, I found I actually enjoyed the work that enabled me to do more than just sit behind a desk all day. I actually really enjoy communicating with others and being in the space of ideation as well as creation.

On the days that I didn’t work on Aging 2.0 work, I was involved with my other internship at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub in conjunction with the Bustamante Lab at Stanford. I was doing machine learning techniques on veterinarian data in an effort to begin tying diagnostic records to standardized medical codes. So far this doesn’t exist in the veterinary field and it would drastically help in efficiency of writing up records as well as enable massive data sharing for all veterinarians, which could then help foster more efficient research and lead to great results! It’s a very exciting project to me and I am considering working on it during the school year as well.

On the days that I didn’t work on veterinary data science, I was practicing actual veterinary medicine at the Oakland Animal Shelter. And finally, on the weekends, I would be shadowing Dr. Ullman, a veterinary surgeon, at SAGE Centers for Veterinary Specialty & Emergency Care in Redwood City. These last two experiences are because, if you’ve read anything else on my website you already know, I am and have always been interested in veterinary medicine. This was my summer to really get hands on experience with it and see if it is something I can realistically see myself doing. And [drum roll] after this summer, I definitely can see myself doing this as a career. It is a bit complicated in terms of actually getting there, but I believe there will be a time in my life where I am going to vet school and pursing my dream of being a doctor in veterinary medicine. In the mean time though, I still want to explore other options I may have at the end of my senior year and not rush into anything.