From what I've experienced in my internship with Dr. Robert and the Sun Smile Dental Group, I found that I have a more open-minded opinion of what I can do for the future. While the specifics of what college or career path I plan on choosing are still unknown, there's a lot of overlap in the career path I'm passionate about. Dental and Medical, from cosmetic to necessity, they share the same journey but end at different points of dedication and preference. With my mentor, he's had around 20 or more years of experience and many of his co-workers share their own journeys of trying different schools, jobs, and locations. With opportunity, time, and emotional possibilities to consider, I feel like I don't have to light time on fire for me to reach my goals faster. Taking the prerequisites, such as chemistry, biology, physics, etc., should be the same for all but if I were to go into nursing, colleges usually have a separate course for that. The most that's stopping me is my hesitation for self-advocacy and the ties I have here with family, friends, and my comfort zone.
As for what I should work on with my professional and academic preparations, I feel like I need to take on more independent work. One of the things that stuck out to me was my first impression with Sun Smile, while they may have had a lack of reference to compare, was when my mentor said he was impressed with my resume's content. I couldn't help but feel like I have a good footing in my academics regarding grades and extracurriculars. Though I do want to work harder to engrave proper time management and responsibility into me by attempting college classes in the summer as well as maintaining my current temporary job at the County Fair (Look for me if you're going!). I hope to find a way to feel confident in myself as a strong college candidate and I hope to continue working hard in my senior year. It's a long journey and I hope that everyone can succeed because we're technically the future for now.
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I've described and mentioned my internship project below in many of my past blog posts but I always love to clarify! In the three week that I've been an intern here, I was able to incorporate my own set of skills that I learned in school into a children's book about general pediatric dental care for my internship. It tackles the daunting concerns of cavities and of plaque and sugar bugs to the case of the Wiggles where baby teeth grow up and out for our big boy or big girl teeth. I've also incorporated interactive coloring sheets and a brushing practice activity. The book is called Sunny goes to the Dentist, please click on the title to check it out! I believe that this project hold significant, or at the most, some, importance because it assists in persuading and calming children with possible anxiety when it comes to the dentist. Teeth can be a confusing topic for both kids and parents alike so finding a happy medium for them and educating them with a story and guide in the very waiting room of the dentist might be useful in keeping the dentist visits light and engaging. In the time that I was in the office, I couldn't necessarily interact with the patients without teetering on the lines of HIPAA as well as the patient's comfort. I've heard about 5 kids cry, a lot about cavities, and a common occurrence of kids knocking their teeth out (same thing happened to me but someone punched me in the face on accident). I thought of the idea on a whim, on one of my days where I couldn't do much except get used to the space and wander around. They had everything from poster to video to picture to pamphlets but they all were tailored to adults and even the dental promotion for pets (they do NOT do work for pets)! I didn't see much for kids outside of their website---even then, it wasn't that kid-friendly. I had also come across a little girl waiting for her parent, I would assume, and my co-workers(?) handed her some markers and what-looked-like blank paper. Because of that, the idea formed into a project, without guidelines or direction. The adults already had their pamphlets and adult conversations with the dentist so I didn't necessarily apply the same thought process for them but I now say that they are always free to engage in my book project and coloring sheets if they aren't TOO mature for it.
The project itself was a long journey. Days seemed to stretch to weeks and each of the three weeks felt like an individual month. I was ready for the end of summer when summer had only begun. This seems like enough complaining from me, but the project was a very long process from start to end. Writing a children's book is not something you can do in just three weeks but that's what I did. If you really asked me how I did it, I wouldn't know how to tell you. For me, the beginning wasn't bad. I would jot down a start and a middle and work on the research and info-dump. It quickly turned to editing and consulting with my mentor about the procedures, the kid-friendly dental terms, the main concerns for kids coming to the dentist, etc. Hours were spent on the illustrations and breaks stretched to editing and re-writing time. I found myself rewriting the same pages and lines over and over again because it was just amateur work. I didn't have any references or any similar peers to check and I was going solo, a head-dive in a 'bottomless', dark pit with no light or helmet. I was able to enjoy doing the entire thing so it helped quicken the process but there was a lot to think about. What to cut down, what to add, what to change, what to draw to show the content clearly, how to format, how to shorten, how to lengthen, etc. Pictures to words, words to pictures, works to information, information to story and character. Even writing and coming up with the character was a challenge. If I could go back, I might want to change the perspective of the narrator or main character to emphasize the relevance of each subtopic I wanted to incorporate into the story. I'm still proud of my work though and I hope it's actually useful in the work space! |