MCGC Laboratory
I am often mistaken for a college student by other lab techs when I mentor. They’ll ask if I’ve learned certain things in my classes yet, and in reality I’ve only taken a high school level biology course. I take this as a good thing, though, because it shows that others see me as responsible and independent. These are traits that I have further developed throughout high school. I’ve always been fairly responsible, but as a freshman I always went with the flow of whatever the standard was. For example, I always followed the flow charts our school had for scheduling and signed up for the standard core classes. Now, as a senior, I’ve been branching off and taking classes that aren’t on the flow charts but that I think will be more beneficial for me in the future. As a result, I have classes in three different buildings throughout the day. I start my day in Hilliard City Schools’ College Jumpstart program, where I take dual enrollment college courses through Columbus State Community College. This way I can finish my high school requirements and at the same time get some of my basic courses out of the way for next year. Then I go to my home building for yearbook production, physics, and band. I end my day at the third building, where I take Career Mentorship to gain real experiences in my future career field. In addition to my class schedule, I must also balance mentoring twice a week with the high school’s women’s track and field schedule. As the team manager, I aim to attend every meet, and there are normally two each week. I have become much better at managing my schedule, making sure I get to classes on time and still have space for mentoring, track meets, and any homework or studying I need to do. I won’t lie, high school has been fairly stressful from time to time. However, as it comes to an end, I’m thankful that I’ve been able to grow from it and become better prepared for my future.
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Continuing with our learning from last week’s guest facilitator, Mr. Todd Alexander from Alexander Life Coaching, this week we discussed what Hero Archetypes are and how they relate to the real world. We talked about six hero archetypes: the innocent, the orphan, the wanderer, the warrior, the martyr, and the magician. As a hero moves through their story, the ideal ending point is the magician, in which they have reached their full potential and have the ability to inspire hope in others. Along the way, however, some heroes get stuck in other archetypes, such as the wanderer or the martyr. A wanderer is someone who has yet to discover who they are, so they often live a life of loneliness. A martyr is someone who accepts pain and remains in a position in which they are being hurt because they cannot distinguish between suffering and sacrifice that will foster personal growth. Having an understanding of each of these archetypes is important as it can help us identify where we are on our paths to becoming magicians, as well as provide us with options to escape any of the other archetypes if we become trapped. In addition, it can also help us to communicate with others, for if we can identify where they are on their path, we will be able to better connect with and understand them. Outside of the classroom, I have progressed from the blood bank area of the lab to urinalysis. So far, I’m not a huge fan of it, but I’ve only just started. Also, in addition to going to the lab twice a week, my mentor Melissa gave me a textbook on urinalysis that I can take home and read on the days I am home. I talked to her and the mentorship program coordinator about counting this as mentoring time, and they both agreed that it’s a great way for me to catch up on hours since I started a few weeks after most of the other students in my class. Overall, I have enjoyed learning about our hardware, software, and hero archetypes from Mr. Alexander. And while I don’t think urinalysis will be my favorite, it’s important to me that I gain a realistic perspective of this career field, and I can’t do that without spending time in every area of the job I can. In this post, I will once again be sharing about how much I love my mentor site. Two weeks ago was my spring break, so instead of only going to the lab two days I mentored Tuesday through Friday. I learned how they perform tests for blood typing, which is what made me interested in blood from the beginning. In my freshman year biology course, blood typing was my favorite unit. I even mapped out Punnett squares for a large portion of my family to try to figure out that my blood type was. This past year I got a blood typing kit for Christmas, and I know it sounds super nerdy but that was one of the best presents I’ve ever received. I typed myself that day, I’m A positive! After learning how to type blood, last week I learned how to crossmatch blood in order to determine whether or not patient blood and donor blood are compatible. This part is extremely important, because if patient blood and donor blood are not compatible, the donor blood can cause the patient’s blood to essentially clot inside their body, resulting in the patient’s death. On a brighter note, in class we had the opportunity to listen to Mr. Todd Alexander from Alexander Life Coaching. He spoke to us about our hardware, our software, and how they play out in our lives. Our hardware is our multiple intelligences, and our software is our Myers-Briggs personality type. The theory of multiple intelligences states that instead of only having one kind of “smart,” there are eight different areas of intelligence. My top intelligence is musical, which means I’m good at remembering songs and rhymes, I appreciate the elements of balance, order, rhythm, and harmony, and I try to incorporate those four elements into whatever I’m doing. The Myers-Briggs personality type breaks down patterns of behavior into four opposing preferences, each represented by a unique letter. My type is ISFJ, which I learned is also known as the “defender” or “nurturer” personality type. This means I am a friendly person, but also dedicated to protecting my family and friends (I described each letter in more depth on my About page). So, to sum up, I incorporate music into many areas of my life, and I always stand up for my loved ones. Also, I love studying blood, and I cannot stress enough how grateful I am for the opportunity to spend time working in a real lab. Just a quick post for this week since I haven’t mentored recently (my mentor is on vacation). This past Thursday, I was identified as a Student of the Month at my high school for “pressing pause and demonstrating compassion.” I was nominated by a classmate of mine as well as one of my teachers, and was one of around fifteen students in attendance of a breakfast to recognize us. At the breakfast, we listened to one of Darby’s business teachers, Mr. Evan Bell, speak about what it means to be compassionate. Additionally, he walked us through how Southwest Airlines conducts a group interview, in which a few candidates tell their most embarrassing stories and the interviewers watch the faces of the other candidates to see if they are relating to and sympathizing with the candidate speaking. Those who showed signs of compassion were selected to move on to the next round of the hiring process, and those who did not appear to connect with the speaker were sent home. Mr. Bell emphasized how more and more companies are hiring people based on their personality rather than their abilities. He told us, “companies hire for attitude, train for skill,” meaning that the skills required for a job can be taught, but emotions cannot. This just serves as a reminder for all of us that no matter where we work, or what path we take, we must continue to be compassionate, as that is something that will go further than simply being able to complete a task. Along with our personal mission statements, we have been talking about life planning in class, and forming our own life management plans. There were eight different areas to our life plans: personal development, wellness, interpersonal relationships, family, education, career, community and leadership involvement, and financial goals. It was difficult to set different goals in this many areas, as I had thought about the future before, but never in so many aspects at the same time. For example, I had thought about what type of job I had wanted and the finances that would be involved, but I never connected those to how they might affect my relationships with my family and friends. The most challenging goal for me to set was my personal development goal. Being the perfectionist that I am, I always see room for improvement, but it was hard to choose what I wanted to focus on the most. I could always work on my time management skills, or becoming more resilient when I stumble upon obstacles in my path. Eventually, I decided on wanting to travel to Italy, as my family is Italian and I have always wanted to learn more about different cultures outside of America. One goal that will be the most beneficial for me is my wellness goal, in which I made a plan to get 8 hours of sleep each night. Currently, on the rare occasion that I do get enough sleep, it is easier for me to focus, I am much more productive, and overall I have a more positive mindset throughout the day. Working towards this goal will also be helping me reach each of the other goals I have set for myself. All in all, creating a life plan for myself has helped me gain a better vision of what I want my future to look like, and when I can see my future, I find it that much easier to work to make it a reality. This week in class, we have been learning about personal mission statements, and working on our own. A personal mission statement is one sentence that is unique for each individual to help guide them when making decisions that impact their future. The first step to writing a personal mission statement was make a list of what is important to you. My top 5 things that I came up with are family, friends, health, safety, and happiness. The second step is to envision where you want to go. I answered this in a couple of different ways. One thing I wrote was that I wanted to take a trip to Italy, but I also included that I want to work in a hospital lab and live with my future family. The third step is to describe what the best version of yourself looks like. I want to love waking up in the morning, and never dread going to work each day. I want to worry less and lift up everyone around me. I want to take care of myself, specifically get enough sleep each night, and I hope to never have to worry about having enough money for the important things. The fourth step is identifying how you want others to see you. Some of the characteristics I listed were caring, passionate, responsible, and confident. The fifth step is to figure out what you want your legacy to be and how you want to impact others. For me, I want my impact to be encouraging everyone to be themselves and be their best self, no matter what others around them think. So, after all of that, the personal mission statement that I have come up with is this: “to be a superhero to everyone around me.” This is kind of a joke, because I am a huge Marvel fan, but there is real meaning to it. It’s not because I plan on falling into a vat of toxic waste and gaining unnatural abilities, but because a superhero is someone that others can depend on. They also encourage others to be the best version of themselves. They never hesitate to do the right thing, and they keep a positive mindset despite any obstacles that come their way. That’s the kind of person I want to be. My first official day mentoring, which was almost two weeks ago, consisted of me reading a binder that probably weighed as much as I do on safety in the lab. That was pretty boring, but at least it’s done and out of the way. On my second day, I got to sit in on an interview for someone applying to work in the lab. I found it beneficial for me to see what an interview for this kind of job would look like without having the pressure of being interviewed, as all I did was observe. Since then, I have been learning how to prepare and stain a peripheral blood smear for examination and to do a white blood cell (WBC) differential. I prepared the blood smear by creating a wedge smear, in which a drop of blood is placed on the surface of one slide and the edge of another slide is used to smear the blood drop. Next, I stained the blood smears three different ways. The first was a neat stain, or a manual stain, where I dipped the slides in three different solutions and rinsed them off before allowing them to dry. The second was by using a QuickSlide Plus II automated slide stainer, and the third was by using a Sysmex analyzer to stain the slides for me. When I finished preparing the blood smears, I did a manual differential on each of them, which essentially means using a microscope to find and classify one hundred white blood cells from the blood smear. I learned how to identify five types of cells found in a normal WBC differential, including neutrophils (segmented and bands), lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, and basophils. I also learned what a normal WBC differential would look like, as well as what would not be normal for a WBC differential. After doing differentials manually, I got to see how a CellaVision analyzer can be used to do a differential by taking pictures of each WBC that it finds and sorting them into categories based on what type of cell it thinks it is. The pictures are displayed on a computer monitor, so unlike a microscope, multiple people can be looking at the same cells at the same time. This was helpful for me as I could try to sort the cells myself and then receive feedback on how to better identify each type of WBC. I’ve only been in the lab for two weeks, but I’m really enjoying what I’m learning, and I’m eager to learn about the other areas of the lab and to have this kind of experience before I even graduate high school. Exciting news! This semester, I am mentoring in the lab at Mount Carmel’s new Grove City location with their Director of Laboratory Operations, Melissa Rumohr. The hospital is still under construction, so right now it is only open as an emergency department. The lab is brand new, and they are in the process of getting everything set up for when they start taking patients this spring. I have only mentored two days so far, and it is already very different from my experience last semester. When I was at the preschool, I was mostly interacting with the students, and I have worked with children before when volunteering. This semester, everyone I am working with is older than me, and I don’t already have experience being in a lab. Everything is new to me, and I often don’t understand what the people in the lab are talking about, but I hope that by the end of this semester I will at least have some idea of what they are saying. When I first met my mentor, she said that I might be able to run some tests of my own. They would be on fake samples, of course, but I am excited to be able to use some of the equipment in the lab. This is something I never would have been able to do if it hadn’t been for the Career Mentorship Program. Since the career field I am interested in is specific and unique, without this opportunity it would be hard for me to gain this kind of first hand experience that I am looking for in order to decide if this is really a path I want to follow. Overall, I am looking forward to everything about this new semester. Even though I enjoyed my time at the preschool, I am excited to be able to jump into something I am really interested in. Also, despite the fact that it took an entire semester to find this placement for me, which was a bit frustrating at times, I can now say that it was definitely worth the wait. Continuing on our Myers-Briggs personality type exploration, in class this week we dove deeper into our personality types and learned about the best ways to communicate with each preference. My type is ISFJ, meaning that I prefer to work “behind the scenes,” I focus on details and specifics, I value harmony, and I like having a plan that I can stick to. There are different ways to talk to people with each preference to ensure effective communication on both sides of the conversation. You may need to adjust how you talk to someone if they have a different personality type than you. If you’re talking to an extrovert, you’ll want to talk about lots of different things to keep them engaged. For an introvert, you may have to ask for their input in order for them to share their thoughts, but when they do talk it’s important that you listen to them. When talking to sensors, you need to be direct and explain everything step-by-step, whereas an intuitive type would want you to be more general and explain the big picture. A thinker needs you to be logical and organized, and feelers want you to recognize the legitimacy and importance of feelings. Finally, judgers like to get to the point and don’t want you to waste their time, whereas perceivers need time to process and prefer having options to choose from. Knowing how to communicate with different personality types is important as it helps us to better explain ideas and understand what others are saying. For example, when I was trying to describe a design idea I had for a page in the yearbook to another member of the yearbook staff, she was having difficulty understanding what I was saying. I was talking about details and specifics of my idea, and all she needed to hear was the big picture. If I had known how to better communicate with her, it wouldn’t have taken us as long to understand each other, and we could have gotten more accomplished in the time I spent trying to clarify my idea. Moving forward, I can use what I’ve learned about communication to be more effective when talking and listening to people with other personality types. I could use these skills to better communicate with my teachers or fellow students when working on group projects together. I could also use these skills when communicating with my mentor in order to learn as much as I can and get the most out of this experience. This week in class we took a test to find out what our Myers-Briggs personality type is. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a personality test that breaks down patterns of behavior into four opposing preferences, each represented by a unique letter. These preferences are: extraversion (E) or introversion (I), sensing (S) or intuition (N), thinking (T) or feeling (F), and judging (J) or perceiving (P). My Myers-Briggs personality is ISFJ. The first letter, either E or I, represents whether people prefer to live in the outer world (extravert) or in their own inner world (introvert). I am an introvert, meaning I think before I act, and I prefer to work “behind the scenes.” Introverts possess strong concentration skills, and would rather work on one thing at a time. The second letter, either S or N, represents how people remember things. If they focus on just the given information, then they possess the sensing preference, but if they add meaning, then they possess the intuitive preference. I am a sensor, so I focus on details and specifics. Sensors remember facts (without any interpretation), and work at a steady pace to accomplish tasks step-by-step. The third letter, either F or T, represents how people make decisions. If they make decisions based on logic, then they are thinkers, but if they consider the people and circumstance, then they are feelers. I am a feeler, so I make decisions based on my values. Harmony is important to feelers, and they are very diplomatic and tactful. The fourth letter, either J or P, represents the type of environment people like to live in. If they have a plan for everything, then they possess the judging preference, but if they like to keep their options open and go with the flow, then they possess the perceiving preference. I am a judger, so I find comfort in having a schedule and a to-do list. Judgers take their responsibilities seriously, they stick to their plans, and they finish what they start. Based on my personality type, I would be the most successful in a career where I could plan on having roughly the same routine each day, but I wouldn’t necessarily need face-to-face contact with clients or patients. I believe that working in a hospital lab would be a good environment for me, as I would have the same procedures to follow for each test, but the tests may vary from day to day. Also, I would be helping patients without having direct contact with them, so this would be an environment in which my personality type could really thrive. |
AuthorA high school senior exploring the field of medical laboratory science. Archives
April 2019
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