Today was a super fun day in the marketing world! The coolest parts of the day was when I got to sit-in and watch a Webinar conference that promoted a new SAS product. However, at the start of my day my host (Scott) told me a few things about the marketing philosophy at SAS. He explained the infinity sign and how the marketing department uses it as its guide. As a costumer you first feel the need to have something, then you research that particular product you are interested in, then you decide and buy. This left section of the loop is one part of the management team that searches for new costumers. The right side looks to retain costumers by making sure the experience of adopting, using and recommending the product is efficient and smooth. The funniest part was when Scott used the boyfriend metaphor to fit this model!
Today was a change in location. For most of the day I was in the editing suite. Mrs. Holt-Noel allowed for me to use Premier Pro, which is an editing software to go through her interviews with a mushroom forager in Asheville, NC. These interviews are going to be used in another segment of. It was very interesting, because when editing the interviews, you have to pay attention to the change in scene, and camera angle to keep everything consistent. Also, there were many times that the same information was given in a different way, so Mrs. Holt-Noel explained to me how to pick the best clip. The most challenging aspect, was working the keyboard. This is due to the many different components and colors on the keyboard. This experience led me to meeting Mr. Peter, but everyone calls him the “editing expert”, and he worked with me on precisely clipping the clips. To me the editing suite is very similar to the computers and editing software the students of Cary Academy use in the film studio.
What a great start to my work experience program at SAS! I arrived with ease around 8:45 and proceeded to navigate my way through building C after checking in and getting our visitor badges. George and I figured out that we will be together throughout this whole program. We met with Patty Hager from the sales and presales department of SAS. Since it was our first day and I had limited knowledge on SAS and what they do, Ms. Hager was kind to explain in detail what SAS is to George and I. We had this discussion in the beautiful C building café dining room. Patty then explained briefly how sales and presales work and then George and I told her a bit about ourselves and what we hoped to get from this program. After our talk, we went upstairs to meet Kristen Eggenberger who we would be shadowing for the rest of the day. I was initially surprised that Kristen was so young. We learned that she had recently graduated from the SAS Sales Academy, a program for young adults internationally who just graduated from college. Later in the day we would sit in on a lecture with the Sales Academy students. George and I both expressed our interest in International Business so we were very much exposed to the wide culture of SAS. While listening and talking with students we heard many accents and met people from around the world. We continued on to meet with Kristen’s mentor and boss and asked them questions about their career paths and what it was like to work in sales and presales. Kristen was kind enough to take us on a tour of the SAS campus before lunch, so we were able to better understand SAS before the day was almost over. After lunch, George and I sat in on a team meeting with Kristen and her boss/colleagues. We got to see the team’s goals and how close everyone was to reaching their yearly quota. George and I expressed our gratitude to Kristen and we wished each other luck! I am so excited to see what HR has in store for us tomorrow.
The beginning of today made me feel just a bit nervous. First, I was running late this morning and, as I sprinted up the front steps of the pharmaceutical science building, I nearly physically ran into the man I am shadowing this week. After profuse apologies, I also learned that he lives on the western side of Cary, which was quite a surprise. Second, Dr. Rob decided to leave me to my own devices, alone, for approximately an hour, in order to perform another protein quantification assay on my own. With scant knowledge from observing Porsha yesterday, anyone could see why I was a bit anxious. I had to mix the reagent, as well as the buffer solution, from memory, which actually did turn out well.
After diluting all 18 wells in a way that I thought was correct, I left the tray in the incubator for thirty minutes, and then for the scary part- took it to be read.
The assays are read by a rather noisy, somewhat aged machine in the biotech lab next door that requires a considerable amount of data entry before actually turning the machine on. It was the moment of truth- had I done this even remotely correct? Turns out, the answer was mostly no. After the first three wells on each row, my numbers started to get a little… off. Considerably off, if I don’t want to sugar coat it. I had help getting the machine to start from Dr. Rob’s assistant researcher named PJ, who proceeded to laugh a bit and tell me that it took her a few times to get her numbers right too, which did make me feel a little more sure.
The results of my less-than-successful protein quantification assay.
After that, Dr. Rob had me attend a quick biosafety class, where I learned about the various biohazard levels employed in biology labs, and also a few mildly frightening stories from NCCU’s safety manager. He talked about how in labs past, he would receive after-hours calls from mildly frantic firefighters attending to a researcher who had stayed a little too long and stuck himself with a needle used to administer a blood- borne pathogen, and how in order to just work in a level 2 laboratory (out of 4, with each level drastically increasing in risk), he needed to be administered reams of vaccinations. Thankfully I don’t want to work anywhere in disease research!
Today I met with an engineer at Forthright named Bryan to check in on the progress I’ve made in my research and give me some guidance by helping with focusing the research and organizing it all. He helped me break the project down into multiple chunks and identify core questions that needed to be answered for each portion of the research. These sections were patents on related technology, studies done by specific professors, market research, and how effective an existing product would work with the one I’m researching about. Bryan also showed me a picture that outlined the product development process and where this work belonged on it. I saw how many steps go into creating a new product and the phases that I’m doing now – the feasibility part of phase 1 and concept development from phase 2. This work has taught me the emphasis that engineers put on learning about a product that they might put more work into. When you think of something you would want to invent, often the first thoughts are: has anyone else done it, what is already out there that’s like it, what’s the state of the art, and has anyone done any studies on the topic that would help me gain information and reach my own conclusions. Being a company that needs to be sure about these things, that initial learning and discovery process is extremely critical to the success of both the product and the company in the long run.
Day 3 was very eventful for the promo team and me. We coordinated many activities (as usual), but my favorite by far was the mini Wool E. Bulls. We recruited 4 kids around 6 years old to dress up in Wool E. Bull costumes and run around with the real mascot on the field between two of the innings. I got to help them get dressed and then keep them occupied underneath the stadium while we waited for the inning to finish up. Not only were they adorable in their costumes, they were the sweetest kids and although it wasn’t easy getting them dressed and entertained while the rest of the team coordinated other activities, I had a great time. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a picture because I usually don’t have my phone on me while I’m working, but imagine 4 tiny children running around in little Bull mascot costumes…it was adorable. Another event I loved helping coordinate was the knockerballs. We recruited 4 men to get into giant inflatable rubber balls and then run around and fall into eachother infront of the whole stadium. While it sounds a bit chaotic, the goal was for them to race around cones but run into eachother for the amusement of the stadium and fun of the game. While I didn’t enjoy carrying the gigantic and heavy knockerballs all the way from the offices underneath the stadium up to an area to the side, I enjoyed, as did the crowd, watching the players run into eachother at full speed and then bounce straight backwards, unharmed of course. I once again enjoyed working with the team and I’m looking forward to tomorrow!
Competition among small businesses run high, especially when they are right next door to each other. Halie’s Boutique is to the right of Magnolia’s, selling similar items. Magnolia’s sells more clothing, attracting more people, so Halie’s has to fight to keep customers interested as they walk down the sidewalk to stop in more than one boutique of similar nature. Today I learned that the display window as well as signage is a main tactic Halie’s uses to lure in customers. I redesigned the sign to give outside of the store a new look. I never realized there were so many companies that sell the same products, and the competition that lies behind the many stores that we carelessly wander into and don’t think a second about where we purchase our goods from.
After a few days, I’ve finally settled into a sort of schedule at FHI 360, one that is full of project work and meetings with new staff. My favorite meeting today was with Irina Yacobson, a Technical Advisor who trains healthcare providers around the world on how to safely administer contraceptives. As she is Russian, Yacobson was initially hired to work with women in the more remote regions of the former Soviet Union, where the problems with contraception were almost the opposite of those of more conservative or developing countries. Though women did have access to contraception, abortion was used as a method of family planning, and some women had large numbers of abortions rather than taking contraceptives to prevent pregnancy in the first place. FHI 360 worked to both prevent those possibly damaging practices, and I found it interesting to see that the non-profit’s scope was not limited to just preventing pregnancy and STDs in developing countries, but addresses all aspects of women’s health worldwide.
Irina Yacobson also told us about how important experiential teaching is – many organizations dump large quantities of contraception, like IUDs or injections, onto developing countries. But the organizations don’t train the healthcare providers in the countries how to use them: in Eastern Europe, depo-provera, an injectable, was being injected twice a day like an antibiotic instead of once every three months like it was supposed to be, all because there were no instructions accompanying the delivered drugs. That middle step of training between creating the contraceptives and putting them to use is so crucial, but one I’d never thought about before. Lastly, Yacobson showed us her demonstration on how to insert an IUD that she gives to health care providers, with a plastic uterus model and all – it made the whole process a bit less mystical to me. After a couple days with the CTI team, I’ve realized that my sexual education had been lacking in contraceptives beyond just condoms, and other methods as well as female sexual activity and reproduction are still pretty stigmatized, even in the US. That’s why I’ve really appreciated the work the CTI team does – they are working make female reproductive health safer and less stigmatizednot just for teens like us, but for women all around the world.
One of the highlights of Day 3 at FHI 360 was the CTID Brainstorming Lunch. By this point in time, we had met with a scientist, technical advisor, and worked on a couple of our many assigned projects. Anyways, Maddie, Hope, Caroline and I promptly headed to Room 3101, a spacious conference room, with our lunches brought from home in hand. I for one felt like I had returned to my elementary school days, for my lunch box contained a homemade peanut butter and jelly sandwich with pringles and cashews. Just like most of the meetings we had attended so far, this one began late, after all of the members of the team congregated into this area. To begin, I was tasked with calling an associate who was located elsewhere, impressing myself with my ability (and success) to use the unconventional phone residing in front of me. After everyone began munching, signaling that they were situated, the laid back, informal meeting started. I was extremely impressed by the diversity within the team, from their background to origin, and admired how everyone shared an incredible passion for global public health, specifically contraception and planned parenting. The so called “journey” of each member to FHI 360 was fascinating, and I was amazed by the incredible, moving opportunities these people had, especially their stories of work in the field (most commonly in Sub-Saharan Africa). We not only learned those sorts of identifiers, but also participated in an ice breaker regarding food. I admired the closeness and community-feel of the group, which allowed me to better see myself working in a similar organization in the future. For me, this experience was particularly interesting and rewarding because it was an opportunity to really get to know our mentors, uniting the information we’ve previously learned with real people and their goals. Although only an hour, I felt like I learned a lot, in a way different than that of previous days, and I am excited to see what cool experience tomorrow brings.
I began the day today by being sent to Narnia by my brilliant phone. There was traffic on my way so I thought it would be a good idea to try a different route, but ended up nowhere near where I wanted to be and completely unsure of where I was. Luckily, I had left early enough and wasn’t late.
I started off the day sort of “debriefing” the meeting from yesterday. There were a lot of numbers and figures and medical terminology that were all being fired off at once, which made it a bit hard to understand. After having gained a better understanding of it, I then was sent to one of the account reps to look at the ways in which payment claims are processed. It was cool to see how much work is put in for what most people would likely think is a seemingly simple task.
I did a few other things throughout the day, but my favorite had to be going to all the different locations to pick up the charge tickets. This may sound boring, but we went to a number of different surgery centers and hospitals, and it was very interesting to get to see what each of the different locations do on a daily basis. At one of the locations, we also had to be in the pre-op and post-op areas, which I originally thought would be mundane but actually proved quite fascinating. I had thought that this little “field trip” would be a waste of time, but I actually quite enjoyed meeting a number of the physicians and office staff at all of the different places. In addition, getting to actually go back where the patients were held wasn’t something I thought I would do, but it was intriguing nonetheless.
One of the more humorous events of the day was when we were at the location in which the office manager and I were back in the pre-op and post-op areas. One of the things we had to do was pick up patient records in addition to picking up the charge tickets. At this location, the patient records were actually kept in the “Operating Suite,” where all of the operating rooms are housed. When we reached the door to the suite, she very quickly pressed the door button, reached her arm through the door as far as she could without actually walking in, then yanked her arm back out and shut the door. She laughed, somewhat embarrassed, saying that it always makes her a bit uncomfortable to have to pick those sheets up without wearing any kind of sterile clothing. She told me that she has had dreams in the past where she was sucked into the suite through a vortex or tripped and fell right into someone’s procedure. Though her dreams were a bit far-fetched and comical, I understood her point perfectly. Literally right on the other side of the door, the operation suite began and there was an operating room probably no more than 20 feet away, which was a bit daunting.
This has been a fantastic week so far, and I am looking forward to bringing Week 1 to a close!
