Continuing the mentorship aspect of ISM, I visited Dr. Dike’s office on Thursday and was able to reconnect with him after two weeks. As this year has progressed, Dr. Dike has truly become not just a mentor for neurology, but also for life in general. Before starting mentor visits, we always chat, and this time, the discussion entered the realm of college. When I shared my dilemma about having to choose between Rice University, my dream school, and the University of Texas at Austin, a more affordable school, Dr. Dike told me about his own experience as a student. He shared how higher education debt piles up quickly especially when one starts medical school, and in medical school, there are very little scholarships that are given out. Talking to Dr. Dike helped clear up a lot of my confusion, and it showed me that ultimately, it is medical school that matters in the long run for my career. As the mentor visit continued, I came across a patient who was having trouble with his memory. In order to check, Dr. Dike asked the patient a series of questions, including general questions about United States history and more technical questions about his profession. The patient showed signs of short-term memory loss because he was unable to remember the names of recent presidents such Barack Obama, but he was able to provide an in-depth explanation of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Seeing how Dr. Dike diagnosed the patient was quite interesting because I would have never thought that my knowledge of US History would come in handy as a neurologist. All my classes truly are important!
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Coming back from spring break, last week was quite chill in terms of ISM assignments, so I decided to spend the extra time working on upcoming due dates. To start off, I contacted Ms. Bowling, my middle school GT teacher, to see if I could come in and present my final presentation to her class in order to rehearse. We decided that I could come in on the morning of April 16th, and although that date seems quite far away, it is only two weeks away--that is, three weeks until I must have my final presentation completed. Although in hindsight this seems like something to worry about later, it is important to consider that a majority of my final product should be completed by that date so that I have substantial information to present.
The reason that I chose to present to Ms. Bowling’s classroom is because that is when I was first exposed to ISM; I remember sitting in the little desks as a student presented their work and talked about how he had been able to see surgeries multiple times throughout the year. That was the day I decided that I wanted to do ISM in high school. Now coming back four years later, it makes me happy that I may be able to inspire other kids to join ISM and find their true passions as well. In the next upcoming weeks, I hope to finalize my ISM invitations and update my website with all the new assessments and weekly reports. Spring break is over, and after coming back from a relaxing escape from reality, it is now clear that the deadline for final product is slowly approaching. Over spring break, however, I was able to use my extra time to meet with my mentor and this visit served two purposes: shadowing Dr. Dike and gaining more insight on my final product.
The previous weeks leading up to spring break had been spent on researching migraines and the different risk factors that are associated with them, so I started off the mentor visit by discussing with Dr. Dike all my different findings, including how gender and socioeconomic factors are also confounding variables. Upon sharing this research, Dr. Dike and I agreed that in order to make my results more accurate, I could conduct a prospective research study, in which data would be acquired from new patients. Originally, I had wanted to acquire data from as many different clinics as possible, but Dr. Dike suggested that I stick to only Affinity Neurocare because since it is mostly visited by affluent patients, the confounding variable of socioeconomic background could be largely eliminated. As we hashed out the details, we decided that whenever a new patient came in with a migraine within the next 30 days, his or her neck circumference and Mallampati score would be measured. Both of these measurements are indicators of obesity and by taking two different measurements, more accuracy could be established. Because of these changes that I have made to my final product, I will have to tweak my proposal. In addition, I look forward to visiting Dr. Dike’s clinic and taking these measurements; I will now be conducting a present-time research study! It’s unbelievable to think that spring break is just around the corner: the last long break until I graduate. When put that way, it seems surreal to think that senior year is almost over. Of course, this means that the final product deadline and final presentation night are just inching closer and closer.
In order to prepare for the month of May when I will be juggling with preparations for graduation, eight AP tests, final product, final presentation night, and senioritis, I have already started to check some of the more easier tasks off my list. Last week, I talked to Mr. Hernandez and asked if I could use his room for final presentation night. Getting the contract signed was relieving because I had secured a room in my desired location. Last year, I had used Ms. Harty’s room, and as much as I love the layout of her room, I realized that her room was quite hard to find. This year, I want to make my location easily accessible to my guests so I can have a large audience. In addition to final presentation night, I have also been diligently working on my final product by reading about different articles that talk about the risk factors of migraines. I plan on meeting with Dr. Dike this week so that I can officially begin working on the retrospective analysis. |