Day 4

DAY 4: The Grind

Fridays in the Sheikh lab mean lab meeting days, or where technicians meet collectively with Dr. Sheikh to provide progress updates and get feedback on ongoing experiments. I got to sit in on the meeting and listen to a summary of some of the major happenings in the lab over the past week. I was able to learn a bit more about the everyday workings of the lab, or what happens in addition to the cool experiments. While at first I was disheartened to be sitting in on a less-than-thrilling lab meeting after an especially exciting day of experiments on Thursday, I learned that a lot of the work in a lab involves collaboration and discussion and careful research much before experiments can be conducted. I guess this could be considered part of the daily grind, the less exciting but nevertheless necessary tasks that make up part of this profession.

Later that afternoon, Ashley (the lab’s clinical coordinator) and Shruti and I took a walk over to the UNC Children’s Hospital to collect tissue samples from pediatric patients with inflammatory bowel disease. As we trekked through the intricate maze that is the hospital, we talked about the importance of collecting the various tissue samples so that they could be used in experiments at the lab. Although it was a slower day, I still was able to learn a lot!

Day 4 – Hedgehogs and More Surgeries

Friday was a pretty exciting day. Not only did I get to see two surgeries, but I was also able to see how Vets handled smaller and less common animals. It was wellness day which meant that the vets could bring in their animals and get them checked. One of the nurses brought in her pets and I was really surprised. She brought in two hedgehogs! Their names were Pamela and Cynthia and they were very grouchy. Three vet techs had to help get them into the correct position but even then, the hedgehogs kept rolling into balls and hissing. In order to solve this problem, the owner brought an anesthesia tank towards the hedgehogs with a cone at the end of the tube. She took the hedgehog ball and covered it with the cone while the gas came through and calmed her down. After the hedgehog was at ease, another vet tech pressed its small belly to search from some problems and the owner helped to cut her nails. They were so adorable! After this Adrienne and I were able to watch a splenectomy which was really interesting. It was cool how the Vet could take out the whole spleen (which is way larger than a human spleen) without harming the dog in any way. I can’t wait till next week which will probably be filled with more surgeries and maybe even more interesting animals. (Not the same dog that got the surgery)

Day 4: Ah yes, nonafluorohexyltriethoxysilane

In the morning, we talked to Dr. Kevin Boggs, who works in commercialization at RTI. He talked to us about what his job entails, his education, and his career path. I honestly wasn’t expecting much from the meeting, but Dr. Boggs was very engaging and I found his story fascinating. I realized breakthroughs in research can’t make a difference on their own: they have to be commercialized for the public to benefit. Dr. Boggs talked about how it was gratifying to bring life-saving applications of research to people, even though he wasn’t involved intellectually in the discovery. He discussed how it was beneficial for him in the business to have a PhD in biology – it allows his to understand the concepts he’s selling and also gives him credibility. It was interesting to hear about an application of an advanced science degree that isn’t in research. I also learned about the Copyright Clause in the US Constitution (Article 1 Section 8 Clause 8) that guarantees an inventor the right to their invention!

The afternoon was dedicated to extensive chemical inventory. Madisen and I got through two shelves of chemicals in bottles big and small, some expired, some leaking, some with names that took up two lines on the bottle. A particularly memorable name: (heptadecafluoro-1, 1, 2, 2-tetrahydrodecyl)trimethoxysilane. As Madisen aptly put it, “you know it’s bad when (something like) ‘cystamine dihydrochloride’ seems refreshingly short.” It’s all part of the intern experience.

The many bottles of chemicals we sorted through

Day 4 at Raleigh Orthopaedics in Cary

I saw around 6 ACL tears today, everyone in different stages. I was surprised about how common the brutal injury was, with one girl there being one day out of surgery. I helped many patients with their exercises and kept them company. I actually saw my uncle there, recovering from his ACL tear from 5 months ago. I did not expect him to be there, but once again, it shows the wide range of people physical therapy touches and how critical it is to society.

I find myself doing many of the same things each day, but it never gets boring because I see new people daily. I get to have casual but genuine conversation which I really enjoy. I also have seen a few who have returned within the 4 days I have been there, and it is nice to see familiar faces.

Pictured below is an ultrasound unit which helps the circulation of blood

Day 4- Sales

Today I shadowed Justin Lambiase in the sales department at SAS. Justin has only been working at SAS for two years, and though most of his day was filled with talking to his colleagues over the phone, it was his back story that really caught my attention. Justin didn’t really know what he wanted to do when he began his college career so he decided to follow the pre-medicine track. However, by the time he finished this degree, he realized he didn’t have the heart to handle the many ups and downs of being a doctor. He had done countless internships in hospitals and, consequently, saw all of the difficult decisions doctors have to make and didn’t think that he would be able to break bad news to the families of his patients. Justin later went on to earn a degree in Finance and begun working at SAS. He talked with me a lot about his college experience and how important it was to do something outside of the normal curriculum. Justin worked for multiple startups in his area during his college career. He told me that in his career he has used more of the knowledge he learned at the start ups than what he learned in college. Justin had many of his own small businesses when he was a teenager, such as a window washing service and running golf lessons, both of which he employed his friends. Justin told me that as a very people oriented person, business and sales always seemed to come naturally for him. In his current job Justin was constantly collaborating with other members of the sales department, as well as the companies he was selling to. Like many other employees at SAS, Justin earned a degree in something that was completely unrelated to what he is doing now. But over time he was able to find a job that really suites him, and that he enjoys.

Now that I am done at Liles, the rest of my time is going to be spent in an independent study manor. I spent yesterday searching through many patterns to decide what I was going to make. I then proceeded to fabric shop for about 3 hours as I am picky and indesisive. I have chosen to make a shirt, vest, and tie. As I only have one week left this is ambitious but possible. Sorry nothing exciting happened today but this part of the process is quite tedious and boring. I included a few pictures of the fabric store for those whom it may interest.

Day 4

Back to building C for day 4! George and I met with Anna Harper at 9 am to discuss marketing and what consists of it at SAS. Anna stressed the importance of digital marketing at this day and age and expressed how lucky we are to have these types of courses offered at universities. We were then introduced to Katie who we would shadow for the rest of the day until lunch. Katie told us lots about her job and introduced us to her colleague David, who is responsible for communicating and making deals with google for paid search. Katie allowed us to listen in on a conference call, but she didn’t tell anyone we were listening because she wanted us to have a realistic experience. At lunch we met with two of her friends and mostly discussed college and what George and I want to extract from our experience at SAS. The three of them took us on a more elaborate tour of Building C. We visited the sixth floor which houses Dr. Goodnight’s rock collection and gave a cool view of the grass and solar panels on the roof of the building. We were then introduced to Karen who would allow us to shadow her for the rest of the day. She took us around the office to briefly talk with people from all over marketing and then we got to attend our biggest meeting yet, and it was one that was off campus. The last portion of our day consisted of getting back to SAS and talking with the events planner lady who organizes any sporting events or events in general for SAS. Excited for a break but also ready to come back Monday to experience internal/external communications!

Day 4

Fridays are always slow days for the state government, so going in, I knew that there wouldn’t be a lot of work related to bills. Rep. Grier Martin was not in his office because he had reserve duty, because he’ still active in the military. His legislative assistant and the other intern were in, doing some office work. I was able to answer emails to concerned constituents, and even make phone calls to schedule appointments. It was a slow day, since there was nothing on the legislative agenda, but hopefully next week there will be more bills to be discussed.

Day 4

Today I finished digitally tracing my design for the dragon boat festival and also played around with brush strokes to make it look cooler. I was going to take a picture to post, but unfortunately the program crashed as I was finishing up and I couldn’t get it to render the art again. Hopefully on Monday it will load, if it doesn’t then my project would be gone….

That’s all I did today because they let me leave at noon, so here are some pictures of the office I took:

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Day 4- The Sad Part

Today was a sad day at the Vet clinic. It was eye opening to see what a vet’s life is really like, the good and the bad. Today a dog had to be euthanized. (Not the dog pictured below!) The dog was brought in after the owners noticed she had trouble going to the bathroom, and the vet technicians read from her ultrasound that she had a tumor blocking her bladder. The vets told us that her owners would be given options as to what to do but putting her down would be the most humane option. Aesha and I were not in the room, but we did get to comfort the dog while she was waiting for her owners to bring her her favorite food. Although incredibly sad, it was important for us to see that these are the hard moments in vets life, and it’s not just cuddles and kisses from dogs. We did however, get plenty of that from Kit (the dog pictured below)!