Category: Uncategorized

Day One: Monday

Today was my first day and a lighthearted one as such, and I really just worked in preparation for tomorrow. Ms. DeVivo, my primary mentor, gave me detailed instructions on what the rest of the week in person will look like and towards the end of the day sent me a bill that we will be working on tomorrow, Tuesday, with the bill’s author, an old friend of hers. Coincidentally, the bill would provide reforms to the organ donation system, which overlaps with research I am doing for another activity this weekend. Hopefully each can better my understanding of the other, and I look forward to our work!

Andrew L.

Day 1 Vector Textiles Environmental Modeling

Today was our first day working with Vector Textiles. Mr. Self began by walking us all through an overview of the company, discussing a rough outline of the work that we were to complete of the next few days, and answering any questions we had. The main research topic was about permethrin, a chemical pesticide used on mosquito nets, and how it impacts humans and the environment specifically in Sub-Saharan Africa. After leaving the meeting, we came up with a plan for work times, check in dates, as well as specific aspects of our research topic to delve in over the coming days. Mr. Self approved the plan, and we spent the rest of our day researching a general overview of the chemical, just to get a basic understanding of its effects before we started going deeper into the research process. We had a pretty flexible schedule today, as a lot of the specifics of our work were left to us to decide, which was really cool.

 

Day 1

For our Work Experience, Sophia and I will be working in marketing and social media with Vince DiFrancesco and his wife, Nikki Scandalios, at their business, Homestead Sage. Homestead Sage provides energy auditing services, training for energy auditors, and UV-C installations. Today, we had a Zoom call with our hosts to discuss a schedule and framework of our time with them. Our first task was to develop a marketing/communication audit using SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. We will also be creating a resource library of articles to share information with the public to promote the values of UV lights and energy efficient technology and to counteract misinformation. Later in the afternoon, Sophia and I met on another Zoom call to discuss our project. We created shared Word Documents and spent the rest of the afternoon researching to prepare for our check-in call with our hosts on Wednesday. We are both so excited to continue our work with Homestead Sage over the next two weeks!

Day 1: Vector Textiles – Environmental Modeling

Today was our first day working with Mr. Self at Vector Textiles. Our goal throughout these two weeks is to research the environmental impacts of a certain chemical commonly found in mosquito nets: permethrin. As Vector Textiles’ mosquito net repels mosquitoes without the use of chemicals, it would prevent any adverse effects of permethrin on the ecosystem. It is our job, however, to find out more specific information about this chemical’s effects on Sub-Saharan Africa. We spent the day planning our schedule for the upcoming two weeks along with doing some initial research about the chemical. Overall, I am super excited to do more in-depth research about these environmental impacts!

5/24/2021-Day one

What didn’t I do today?

I started off the day helping Guilford County Public Defender ShaKeta Berrie and Elon University Law student Hailey Porterfield in District Court room 1c. I helped Ms. Berrie label some of her shuck files (“personal” files on defendants appearing in court) while she was defending her clients. I watched Ms. Berrie help many people who appeared in court until recess. We then walked to the driving court where I meet the judge before going upstairs into the superior court that Ms. Berries describes as “just like the courts from forensic files”. It was very interesting as the superior court was much more serious than the district course because it dealt with felonies and more serious crimes. When we returned back down to district court 1c, we saw a witness being denied the right to plead the 5th so we rushed to Ms. Berrie’s office and she helped a fellow public defender with the case by using one of her many law books. However, when we returned, the case was over. After that, we went down to the judge’s chambers to have them sign some paperwork. This was all before lunch!

I ate lunch with all the public defenders as we discussed our dogs and their days in court. After lunch I watched first appearances (Where the judge informs people who were in jail and did not post bond about the basis of their arrest, decides if they get out of jail of what their bond would be, and advise them on their rights) which was very cool because the defendants were video called in from the jail which was across the street. I saw Judge Smith work through a very difficult and complicated case as in his words “something is just not adding up”.

Because it was a Monday and most people get arrested over the weekend, there were over 33 first appearances. We were so busy today I forgot to take pictures, but later on this week I may get the chance to visit the jail, watch a very high profile case presented in superior court, and help Ms. Berrie with other tasks. I cannot wait for tomorrow!

Tuesday, May 25th: Day 1

Today was my first day working at the North Carolina Heart & Vascular center with Dr. Ashley Lewis and her team. I was fortunate to already have a connection to Dr. Lewis (her being my next door neighbor), and was able to set up my apprenticeship on my own terms. I was able to join Dr. Lewis for clinical outreach, which she does in Lillington, a little town shy of an hour from our homes. During the drive, I was able to bond with her, and ask her my pressing questions about her backstory as a doctor and my own potential pathway towards becoming an MD. She gave me plenty of great recommendations and had lots of great insights.

In the morning, we met with 10 patients, many of which were patients who Dr. Lewis already knew, and had treated before. These were follow up appointments to check in on their vascular health. A rare few of the patients were new, and Dr. Lewis and I were able to meet them for the first time. Before we went into each patient’s room, we went over their patient history, medications, EKG charts, and the patient’s heart rate taken by the nurse upon their arrival. We visited patients with an array of cardiovascular issues, including irregular blood pressures, valve diseases, heart murmurs of aortic stenosis. After each patient we regrouped by debriefing, updating the patient’s charts, sending in prescriptions to pharmacies, and getting ready for the next patient.

Brainstorming Ideas

Today served as a planning day for the next two weeks. After reading about NC NOW and researching current issues that the organization is working on, we started brainstorming ways we could help. Ms. Paliga gave us brief overviews of some of the things that NC NOW is trying to focus on and then we came up with ideas to achieve those goals. Some of the current interests included Medicaid expansion in North Carolina and fighting against an anti-abortion law that is being considered.

We then met with Ms. Paliga and shared our ideas. Together, we came up with ideas for how to spread awareness and get more people involved in NC NOW’s initiative. Over the next two weeks, we plan on creating postcards for people to call legislators, writing to our own legislators, building the organization’s presence on social media, and even redesigning the NC NOW website.

 

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