8.16.18 - 8.26.18

BACK TO THE FUTURE

I am now an ISM 2 student! This first week has been about determining what I want to spend this year doing. I began the year with a lot of ideas; museum curator, baker, and vocal performer were just some of the options. However, I wanted something that I could really use as I pursued a future career.

Through research and discussion with people who know me, I ended up deciding to pursue medical ethics. I’ve studied medical ethics once before at a summer class at Duke University, but I never really knew how to apply ethics to a complete topic of study before. In ISM 1 I pursued medical research, and decided I want to pursue biochemistry and a doctorate in college. By using my work in medical research as a base, this year I can study medical ethics as a sort of supplemental to my future career. Obviously, it will be very important to understand ethics for me to be the best researcher I can be, and I am very excited by the topic.

Once I determined my topic I was able to start a few things; I found my quote, wrote my mission statement, and began my website. I don’t know why exactly I began my website so early this year, but I think it’s because I want a lot of time to make sure it is perfect and unlike last year, I’d like to keep it updated as I go to make sure that everything is quality. My quote and mission statement were a little more relevant, as they will be guiding pieces to my whole year. For the mission statement I had no trouble; I know exactly what I want from this year. The quote was a little harder, though, because although I know what I want it’s hard to find someone else’s words to describe it while still being relevant to my topic. I’m still choosing between two quotes at the moment.

Over the next week I really need to turn my focus to research. I need to find out exactly what an ethicist is, what they do, and who I should interview to learn more about the topic. I should probably start interviews as soon as possible to make sure I can talk to professionals before everyone else calls and before they get too busy. I gained some tools to begin the research through our research stations activity so I feel prepared to take on my first research assessment next week, and continue my ISM 2 journey.