Mentorship Write Up

My Profile: Hello everyone my name is Valery. I love academics as I love learning new things. One of my goals in life is to learn at least two more languages. I find it amazing that if we all truly wanted to, we could learn a good five languages and already would be able to communicate with at least five of the seven continents. I feel this would probably bring the world closer together. I believe that this love I have for learning influenced my decision to go into the medical field. To become a surgeon you have to go through eight plus years of education and even then you do not stop learning about the field. As you go through this career you continue to learn as studies evolve and you help more patients. Another one of my top reasons behind choosing the medical field was what I felt the main focus of this field, to help those in need. I feel that in life if you have the capability and motivation to do big things for the world then you should. I love the challenge of this field. I choose Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta as my mentorship because I felt it was the perfect place to start my journey. What better way to begin learning about the medical field then with cute kids that are still constantly learning themselves. I felt that mentoring with children would make my experience even more cheerful and memorable.

My Mentorship: Last year during Lacrosse, I meet an inspirational leader, and she introduced the mentorship program to me. I did not need much convincing to apply for the program as just the thought of being able to experience what it is like to work in the medical field excited me. Fortunately, my teacher was able to find me a slot to mentor at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. I work in the rehab department. I’ll be honest originally when I was going into this mentorship, I was not sure what exactly an occupational therapist and physical therapist was, did, and who their patients are. However that was not something that worried me much because I knew this was an excellent opportunity, and I knew that even if I did not know the answer to those questions now I would soon learn. I began my mentorship in September and will not finish till the end of the school year. So far I have been able to work with both physical therapist and Occupational therapist.I have learned the answer to the three questions. While I am at my mentorship, I am allowed to interact with the patients. I help them build their obstacle course for their therapy. Often the obstacle course contain a puzzle in them. The puzzle pieces are used to count repetitions. Thus often I hold the puzzle and help the kids solve it each time they bring me a new piece. When I assist the occupational therapist, I tend to either learn by watching and asking questions, or I pretend to be the patient's peer from school so he or she can practice their giving directions skills and listening to directions skills.

My Future: In my near future, I plan on participating in the physical therapy competition in HOSA (Future Healthcare professionals) as I feel this will enrich more both my experience at CHOA and my experience in HOSA. The more I learn about physical therapy in HOSA the more question I can ask at my mentorship and the more knowledge I acquire in this part of the medical field. I also plan to reapply for the honors mentorship program next year as I feel this has been a very beneficial experience. As for my more distant future this mentorship has only encouraged me more to continue in a career in the medical field. I love the environment and the responsibility that comes with the occupation. I feel I have the determination and desire to pursue this lifestyle.