Stevens Admissions: Julia

Young Professionals (to be)

This weekend one of my best friends from Stevens came down to DC to visit. She accepted a job offer in the area and I cannot hide how excited I am to introduce her to DC. I was able to show her some of the Georgetown/Dupont Circle neighborhoods, thus, her visit was as much educational as it was recreational.

Luckily, our law school friend at GW was able to show her around while I was in class on Friday. I was tempted to bring them into anatomy lab to show them our dissections, but figured that they could enjoy their time better, elsewhere. They visited Georgetown Cupcakes and saw the Cherry Blossoms at the Jefferson Memorial. Here's one of the pictures they took of the Washington Monument:

We had dinner in Dupont and it was so great to see my friends from NJ and my friends from medical school get along so well. It felt like we were 'young professionals', swapping stories about our weekly escapades (I guess I'm not a 'professional' yet, but I am a very professional student). 

Pain in the Neck

We've only completed 2 days of the Head and Neck module, and I feel as though Spring Break was weeks ago. We were warned that this was going to be our most demanding module, and now I completely understand why.

Example: In our dissection manual, yesterday's lab was supposed to have been an 8 hour lab. When asked if we were going to have more than the 4 hours allotted to do the lab, our anatomy professor said, "No. It's an 8 hour lab, but you'll do it in 4."

I am extremely excited by this challenge and I can only imagine the amount of knowledge I'm going to hold by the time the exam comes around. In two days we now know the embryological origins of the components of the head and neck, the facial muscles, the cranial nerves, the arterial and venous systems, the lymphatics, and bones of the skull. 

Today we had the second Grand Rounds session of the academic year, and tomorrow we start our "Selectives". Before Spring Break, we were given a list of 20 classes that are being offered as a Spring 2012 Selective. I got my second choice: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. There were a bunch of interesting classes to choose from, such as Medical Spanish, Public Health Policy, Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine, Philosophy of Medicine, Medical Narratives etc. I am however, glad I got one of my top choices, over the Lactation course. 

Free Rita's and Free Hugs

My friends and I decided to meet up in Hoboken on Tuesday, which happened to be the same day that Rita's was giving away free Italian Ices. I can't tell if they were more excited to see me, or to get free frozen treats. 

Anyway, it was a beautiful day in Hoboken and it was nice to see familiar sights:

I went to Hoboken with the intention of having dinner with my Chem Bio best friends, but it was nice to see so many friendly faces walking on Washington Street. We even ran into one of our Lab TAs, who taught us throughout our careers and put up with our 8AM lab shenanigans. She watched us "transform" over the years, (although we still act the same way we did when we were sophomores), and has become a good friend. It was great catching up with everyone; I hadn't seen two of my friends since graduation. We all seem to have found our niches, but were still able to pick up where we left off. Ducks Fly Together.

Spring Break 2012

I am excited to be on Spring Break, but I am even more excited to be live-blogging my bus ride back to NJ. Just kidding.

On Friday we had our exams and that night one of my friends came to visit for the weekend. I don't know how many people are familiar with the New Jersey Governor's School program, but I met this friend back in 2006 when we were at the school in the Sciences. We met up at Teaism with some friends from the program who are currently working at the NIH. I'm always impressed by what the other alumni are doing.

We then went to the Museum of Natural History (mostly for the IMAX theater). It was fantastic.

Do it for the Kids

St. Baldrick's was on Friday, and the event had a huge turnout. There was live music, a silent auction, a bake sale/clothing sale, a bone marrow donation match sign-up, and three chairs set-up for shaving. Tons of people ended up shaving their heads. I can't wait to see the see the full-effect in the lecture hall tomorrow. My friend Derek raised more than $600 for Children's Cancer Research!

He of course, then had to get his head shaved:

And after:

(he made sure to bring a hat and his gingerbread man-head to keep his head warm)

March Celebrations

There are a lot of things to celebrate this week.

With our presentation on Wednesday, we finished our current doctoring class. As I mentioned in my last post, we were asked to present on international healthcare systems. The group who presented on France brought in croissants and Perrier. Similarly, my group presented on Italy and handed out Japanese candies. It feels pretty great to end a class that we started in October.

Yesterday we submitted our research papers! I heard stories of groups editing their papers line by line together and staying in the library until 3AM. I luckily was placed in a group that wasn't interested in debating whether or not to include oxford commas in our paper. This weekend we will be receiving another group's paper, and will have to review it and give them a grade. 

Last night my academic family went out to celebrate one of our birthdays. We went to a Tapas Bar near Logan Circle, which I've been told is an up-and-coming area of DC. 

We had an excellent time at Estadio, then went to get gelato afterwards. The area reminded me of Brooklyn (sigh, NY). But I'm excited to explore the area more in the future.

Another Shade of Green

Happy Hoboken St. Patty's Day everyone! I envy those who get to observe the celebrations of the day. There are few days of the year that are better for people-watching.

Anyway, I'm currently working on two projects for school: a research paper and a presentation.

1.) Research Papers have never been my favorite, and I have been reminded of this by my assignment. We have been assigned to groups and asked to write a research paper worthy of publication in 8 days. Our professor is not kidding around, which I can demonstrate in a direct quote: "I want this to be the best 3-4 pages you've ever written." Our group chose to write about hydatidiform moles (benign tumors caused by abnormal fertilization) and my 3-4 page contribution contains more than I've ever wanted to know about hydatidiform moles.

2.) For our doctoring course we were asked to do a 20 minute presentation on an international system of health care. My partner and I chose Italy, which was ranked #2 in the world by the World Health Organization in terms of health care. The other pairs of students in our family will be presenting on Great Britain, Norway, France, and Canada. I'm trying to negotiate turning the presentation day into a potluck lunch.

While it's nice to change subjects, I do still have to stay on top of lecture material and anatomy so farewell!

Hoya Clinic

This week has been a super busy week! I am very excited to have had my first experience at the Hoya Clinic. The Hoya Clinic is a Georgetown medical student-run clinic in DC, which was recently featured in the Washington Post. Every Tuesday and Wednesday evening, 6 medical students and a couple of Georgetown doctors and nurses go down to the clinic. More than 90% of our class is involved with the Hoya Clinic, which truly demonstrates the school's dedication to service.

It was surreal calling a patient's name in the waiting room, walking him/her back to the exam room and taking a history and vitals. The patients were so willing to trust and so grateful for anything we could do for them. I was able to learn a lot from some of the older medical students and the attending physicians. I was paired with a 4th year medical student, who was more than willing to teach me how to take a history and present. During our down-time, one of the attendings pretended to be a patient with certain symptoms so we could practice differential diagnosis. I can't wait for my next experience at the clinic.