Summer

This summer not only will I be working full time at Dana Farber, but I will also be working part time at my old job. This is going to be one of the busiest summers of my life, and I am going to have to find moments of freedom and really take advantage of those. It is my last summer before I graduate college and I want to be able to enjoy as much of it as I can. I feel like this is very possible, as long as I learn to enjoy the small moments in life, and don't try and dwell on the things I'll be missing out on. I know that this summer is very important, and that it could have a huge impact on the rest of my career. I am planning on taking full advantage of every opportunity that I can find. I am hoping that I can leave a good impression at Dana Farber and maybe go back and work there once I graduate. I am not planning on treating this as an internship, but rather a job that I am looking to keep for awhile. I want to be able to impress all those who I am working for and with, and I want them to be able to rely on me right off the back. I am going to volunteer for as many things as possible. I want to meet as many people as I can and get my foot in the door in a lot of different areas. I also hope to keep in touch with some of my classmates so that we can compare experiences and root each other on. Best of luck to everyone else :)

End of an Era

Tomorrow I am moving out of Durham for the summer. I have been packing all weekend and it is making me more sad than any of the other years I've moved out. This is because every year since I came to school here I have lived with my best friend from home. We shared a dorm room freshman year, just the two of us, last year we shared an apartment with four of our friends, and this year we shared an apartment just the two of us. However, next year we have decided not to live together. We didn't do it because we weren't getting along. We did it because we have different priorities. She wanted to be somewhere in the middle of everything, where nightlife is easily accessible to her. I wanted to be somewhere quieter, where I have more privacy. Over the last year I have made two really great new friends who understand that side of me in a way my old roommate and best friend do not. I am living with them in the lodges next year and I am so excited. I am really nervous and upset to leave my best friend though. I have never lived on my own without her before. We know the way the other works. We know how to not step on the other's toes, and we work well together for the most part. This is going to be a big step for both of us in stepping out of our comfort zones. I'll be interested to see how I adapt.

Giving Back

Today is known as the Giving Day, for the American Red Cross Association. I am a member of the American Red Cross Club here on campus, and I am a nationally recognized volunteer. This week we have been running a blood drive in the MUB which I have been volunteering for. I help people make donation appointments, and make sure they are feeling well after they donate. I recruited my roommate to join the club this year as well. She has been really great at just jumping right into things. At the blood drive yesterday she dressed up as the Mascot, the blood drop, and walked around the MUB encouraging people to donate. She looked absolutely ridiculous, but she was having fun and I admired her for that. Today she decided that she wanted to donate blood herself, and I was shocked. This was very out of character for her, but all she could take about is how its something so small and easy that she can do, and that it is so important to others. One donation at a blood drive can save up to three people's lives. I have been a member of this club since the beginning of last year, and I have never been able to work up the courage to donate. I recently got a tattoo also, so I won't be eligible to donate until next year. After watching Carly do it and see how happy it made her, I think she inspired me to do it next year. No matter how scared you are nothing can beat the satisfaction that you get knowing that an hour of your time will save three people's lives. I encourage everyone to think about donating, or at least volunteer with the Red Cross. They are an outstanding organization and I a, very proud to be apart of it.
   
                                 

Crunch Time

It is the first day of the last two weeks of school. Only eight more days of classes, and while that feels great to be able to say, these eight days are going to be rough. There are so many assignments due, and they are all extremely important, time consuming ones. The difficult part of the next two weeks is going to be trying to figure out what things to prioritize. I have always struggled with this, as I can never decide what is more important, because everything is important! I did some research and found an article on the liquidplanner website, which was kind of helpful. It outlines six steps that are designed to help you when trying to organize and prioritize task. They go as follows:

1.Collect a list of all your tasks.
2. Identify urgent vs. important
3. Assess value.
4. Order tasks by estimated effort. 
5. Be flexible and adaptable
6. Know when to cut

Sometime in the beginning of this week I am going to need to sit down, and go through all of the things that I need to get done before the semester ends. I am going to try and follow this advice and see if it helps me stay more on task, and if it helps me to get more things done.

The link to the website: https://www.liquidplanner.com/blog/how-to-prioritize-work-when-everythings-1/

Making it on your own

Today my mom came up to UNH to bring me a few things that I had left at home over Easter break. We went out to lunch at Libby's and had a pretty interesting conversation. We were talking about how important it is to be able to support oneself financially. I have had a part time job all throughout my college career. The reason for me working wasn't because my parents weren't capable of supporting me, but because I wanted to be able to do it for myself. I didn't want to have to keep asking my parents for money every time I wanted to go out to dinner or buy a new shirt. I must say that ever since I have become financially independent from my parents (for the most part) I have never been more proud of myself. It is a different sort of feeling purchasing things with the money that you worked hard for. It is a new sense of independence and freedom that is so important while you're still young and growing up. It has made me crave more; more hours working, a higher salary, a more reputable job. The struggle between juggling schoolwork along with my work schedule has not been easy. However, I feel as though it has been beneficial for me to go through this struggle now. This is because I am planning on getting my masters degree a few years down the road, and I am going to have to work full time while going to night classes in order to afford it. It will be a much harder feat than it is now, due to the higher intensity of the job and class work load. I am grateful to my parents for everything that they have taught me, but especially how to be hard working and independent.

Wrapping Things Up

The end of the semester is so close, yet so far away. There are roughly one million things that I need to do before I can leave Durham for the summer. I have mixed emotions about going home for the summer this year. On the one hand, I could not be more excited to be done with school work for a few months, this year has been grueling. On the other hand, I don't really get a summer vacation. I am not necessarily upset about this because I am excited to be having an internship for the summer, but it does make it a little bit harder to get excited to leave UNH. I am also sad about the fact that the next time I will be coming back for a fall semester, it will be my last. I am not ready for a full year of "lasts". It is going to be really hard for me. Not only have I made some unforgettable friends here at UNH, but it has also become my home, I don't know what it is going to be like to leave this place for good next year. I believe that next year is going to be totally different for all of us in HMP. We are all going to have some real experience under our belt, and we are going to be able to share that and teach that to each other. When I first went to my sisters graduation from UNH three years ago, I was sad to learn that we have to sit next to the people in our major instead of our friends during the ceremony. Now that I think about it, there is no one else I would rather sit next to than the people I spend countless hours in Pettee 114 with. We have been through the best and worst classes, the hardest tests, and the funniest memories. We all understand what the other has been through over the last few years. I feel as though when we finally reach the finish line, and get handed our diplomas, we should do it together. I really do believe that we have grown together as a family. I have developed friendships with people in our major that I wasn't planning on. I genuinely enjoy their presence, and would hang out with them outside of class in a heart beat. I am so glad that I chose HMP as a major, not only because I believe it will help me be successful in the future, but also because I love how small and close knit the program is. I could've gone into business, and probably been just as successful, but I would have sat in classrooms full of 60+ people everyday, not knowing everyone's names, and not developing relationships with my teachers. Sometimes I take all of this for granted, but at this moment in time I am not.

Organizational Culture

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! Last week Carly, Sarah, and I did our final presentation for our Healthcare Management class. We decided to do it on Organizational Culture, and I thought it was extremely interesting. We started the class off by doing a few team building exercises. The first one was a 30 second dance party, which I personally really enjoyed, but I don't know about everyone else. The second one was the human knot exercise. For those who don't know what it is, it involves a group of people forming a circle and reaching out to hold the hands of two different group members. The next step is to try and untangle without letting go of the other people's hands. The purpose behind these activities were to show how working together and doing silly fun things can help to build relationships and therefore form a culture. We watched a few short videos on organizational culture, my favorite was the one that portrayed the culture of Zappos. I liked this video the best because it gave a real world example of an organization that had a very unique culture. For the rest of the presentation we decided to take a different approach than usual. Instead of just finding a universal definition and going off of that, I found an online thread from Linked-in that had many different executives describe what they believed organizational culture entailed. I found about twelve different quotes that I believed were of value to share with the class, and then went on to describe them. We asked which ones most people agreed with the most and everyone seemed to agree on the most part. We then had a pretty great class discussion that lasted a while. It involved fraternities and sororities and how they have their own organizational cultures, and we then related those to that of an organizational culture in a workplace. I am glad to be done with my presentations for the semester, but I do believe that they were important and a good experience to have had. It helped me working on my presentation skills, as well as my public speaking skills. I feel as though I am now much more comfortable talking in front of a crowd than I was before.