Summer 2022
Translating Class to Experience
Classes:
ENGL 200: Reading Literary Forms
CSE 163: Intermediate Data Programming
GEOG 205: Our Global Environment: Physical and Human Dimensions
An Authentic Research Experience
Deem Lab
When I was told that I would be able to design my own personal experiment, I was ecstatic. My mind was running wild with possibilities, and it wasn’t long before I had a proposal that my PI was incredibly supportive of. However, I think this project was an example of a skill that I need to continue to develop: failure. Obviously not in the sense of failing more, but rather finding productive ways to address and accept it. My study in its general concept was simple: different cohorts of mice were given different temperature exposures, and then their food intake was recorded to determine how temperature affected food intake. Simple right? Not really – things quickly got out of hand. My card had access issues to the mice facilities, lack of schedule coordination led to the experiment being started at different times, mice escaped from their enclosures while food intake was recording, and sometimes the devices didn’t record enough food. Admittedly, much of the organizational difficulties I take responsibility for, but I think it was also an opportunity for me to learn how to adapt to challenges in the moment that I couldn’t have expected. I plan to restart this experiment in the fall using what we have learned from this error run!
Throughout my life, I have had many of my friends struggle with mental health issues. As such, I feel like I have tended to take on the role of someone who actively wants others to reach out to me in their moments of need. This experience and desire is what led me to apply to be a Crisis Counselor for Crisis Text Line, and I have had absolutely no regrets about this decision. Throughout this experience, I have encountered people from elementary school to elderly populations with situations ranging from homelessness, substance use, abuse, and even suicide. Although I have come across many difficult situations, I’ve found it tremendously impactful to me personally to be a resource to these people. Some texters just simply need someone to talk to in order to get through the night, others want to refer themselves to a professional but just can’t realistically access one. In addition to my personal growth, I think these broad ranges of issues have illustrated for me the broader societal issues that affect the mental wellbeing of people in America, which is something that I hope to continue exploring throughout college and my future career.
Crisis Counseling
Crisis Text Line
Applying Programming to Health
CSE 163
Computer science is something that I used to despise. This was partially because of bad past experiences with courses and just the general frustration of getting some bits of code to work. However, the strange thing is that over the course of the last couple years, it’s become something that I enjoy – so much so that I am taking this sequence (CSE 160-163) without it really counting towards anything in my degree. And I think that this class was a perfect example of explaining why that passion arose, more specifically in its applicability to my fields. Most of the classes I have enjoyed have been fields that are broad and connective rather than narrow. In this case, I spent the second half of this class working on a final project that analyzed the relationship between heart disease and air pollution and translated it into actionable policy recommendations using real world data. In this way, we incorporated fields from medicine, public health, and public policy from beginning to end, from data to policy. This was incredibly satisfying and empowering to know that with the relatively limited knowledge of coding I have, I was able to make such a comprehensive report.