full circle

One of my goals for 2017 is to write at least one blog per week. The end of the first week of the year creeped up a little quicker than I expected and yet no blog. Hoping to remedy that immediately...

Shortly before Christmas was my graduation ceremony.

It was quite run of the mill as far as graduation ceremonies go. I've never been much of a fan of graduation ceremonies after having to play Pomp and Circumstance one bazillion times in high school and college with the band. But it was extremely special for 2 reasons:

1. I FINALLY graduated. With a degree. Not the degree I really ever anticipated receiving nor in the time frame I had originally planned. But with a degree that makes me extremely proud, gives me life and allows me to be excited about the work I am privileged to do every single day. 
2. My journey at UNMC ended in the way it began: me crossing the stage at Joslyn Art Museum in front of my family and loved ones. (insert The Lion King's The Circle of Life audio here)

My life is quite different than when I started at UNMC 4.5 years ago. It's also quite different from what I had dreamed for it to be that very first time walking across that stage 4.5 years ago. But it's really truly so much better than I could have ever imagined. 

I had a moment on that stage where the emotions of my time at UNMC quickly came flooding back: the terror of anatomy classes, the utter boredom of biochemistry, being diagnosed with Crohn's disease, the confusion over physiology, surgery, medical leave, M1 year--take 2, the love of neuro core, the looming dread that medicine (my dream since I was 8 years old) was not for me anymore, more sickness, abruptly quitting medical school and switching careers, the relief of being accepted into public health, the adjustment into a new lifestyle, the freedom to pursue things that interested me and to travel, the feeling of healing, the fear of the next steps in my career, the frustration at my capstone, and finally, the utter elation that I had finished. 

The past 4.5 years have been a lot. I really don't have a better way to explain it...there was plenty of awesome intermixed with the not-so-great and some in between things as well. But there was very little time for reflection in the midst of all of that other than what I wrote on this blog. 

So I need to thank you all for helping me survive (and thrive) throughout my tenure at UNMC. I needed this blog as an outlet for all that was going on in my crazy, wonderful life probably more than you needed to be reading any of my thoughts. I also need to thank my friends and family for being incredible support systems and for occasionally (literally) picking me up off the ground helping me move forward when I couldn't get up on my own. 

It's been a ride, but boy am I ever glad that I made it back, full circle, to that stage at Joslyn. 

Grandma + Uncle Dale
@ the hooding ceremony

My capstone adviser, Dr. Tibbits
@ the hooding ceremony

Aunt Lorraine + Uncle Dick
@ graduation

Aunt Jayne
@ graduation

 UNMC COPH 2016 winter graduates 

Annie, the other maternal & child health grad <3

Mom + Dad
@ the hooding ceremony

the very first time I walked across that stage
@ UNMC COM 2016 White Coat Ceremony
August 17, 2012

So what do you even do anyway?

Over the past few months I've been repeatedly considering what my job actually entails as I've been creating resumes for a big-girl job and I've been preparing to transition my job over to a new department with completely new staff and try to find funding for that new set of folks. That means I've had to really think through the big picture of how what I do on a daily basis affects campus, but also the best ways to inform others about the nitty gritty details.

And then a few weeks ago one of my good friends asked a simple question..."So what do you even do anyway?"

I speak to this person on an almost daily basis, but I realized I never actually tell people what it is that I do. So here we go...in case anyone cares!

I am the service learning graduate assistant for 4 service learning projects at UNMC. I oversee all 4 projects and then also consult with several of the colleges on the UNMC campus to begin service learning programs within their school. And the last portion of my job is reading and responding to student reflections on their service learning/volunteering experiences (something I was trained to do because of service learning at Hastings College--thanks Jean and Dan--AND the years I worked in youth/young adult ministry--thanks Adam--honing my skills at delving deeper and asking the next-level questions).

My job requires something different each and every day, which I love. There are many days that I have absolutely no idea what I'll be doing as I head into work. Others are certainly more predictable, but always bring adventures of their own. Some days it's just a whole lot of ordering food for events or folding brochures for hours on end, but other times I will go almost a week without actually being at my desk or in the office at all. The best part of my job is being able to work with students who are seriously bada**. They are well on their way to being professionals and they take so much time out of their schedule to actually work in the community and make a difference. It's so amazing to be part of. Below are some photos of what I get to do when I go to work.

Bridge to Care
BTC provides health care services to refugees in Omaha. I've written about them before in a very different context.
Besides the biennial health fair, they also provide monthly health education sessions to refugee adults and mentoring
for refugee youth in 4th-8th grades. This photo is from our fall health fair that served more than 300 refugees!

bag packing for the BTC oral health hygiene fair--I packed 120 bags for 4th-8th grade students yesterday!

Decreasing the Donor Deficit
DDD signs up potential donors to the national bone marrow registry (thru Be the Match) and also provides
awareness/education on campus to health professions students about blood cancers. 

do juSTIce (DOuglas county Jail United with Students To Impact a Citywide Epidemic)
do juSTIce is the group I've been working with the longest. They offer free chlamydia and gonorrhea testing/treatment
to inmates at the Douglas County Jail. Additionally, they give age-appropriate/evidenced-based STI education at the
 Douglas County Jail, Douglas County Youth Correctional Facility, Omaha Home for Boys, and Community Alliance.
The students provide a full 25% of ALL chlamydia and gonorrhea tests in the county
(think somewhere in the range of 1,500+ tests per year plus the individual counseling that goes alongside that!).
This photo is from the poster session at the Society for Scientific Study of Sexuality conference in 2014.  

do juSTIce: actually getting to provide the STI education with inmates...one of my favorite parts!

condom kit assembly: condoms, testing locations, condom information shirts and a t-shirt designed by youth detainees
to promote STI testing. It's not uncommon for my co-workers/professors to ask  "you have the condoms out again...
what's the project this time?" 

EMPOWER
EMPOWER provides health education to domestic violence survivors in the Omaha area. They also provide education to
health professions students on domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking through documentary screenings,
awareness events, and lunch panels. This picture was taken at the "Take Back the Night" rally, which was a joint-effort
event with the UNO Gender & Sexuality Resource Center. Also pictured is the UNMC Title IX coordinator. 

EMPOWER had a service day this past weekend. They partnered with
Rejuvenating Women (organization that works with sex trafficking
victims) and Open Door Mission (homeless shelter) to do whatever
they needed. My task was to be buried in piles of tiny toiletries.

clearly I was having a wonderful time at the EMPOWER service event last weekend... :)

The Omaha response to Paris

As the world mourns the unconscionable terrorist attacks in Paris last night, I'm sure that we will soon hear more arguments for closing borders to Syrians because "they are all ISIS terrorists." But Omaha is responding today in a big way and I am so proud to be part of it.

Today one of the groups I oversee is sponsoring a health fair for refugee populations. We expect around 500 refugees and will provide health services such as blood pressure, glucose, vision, dental, hearing, and STD screenings as well as free flu shots. We also have free glasses and glasses cases. There are educational booths on poison control, sun safety, developmental milestones, insurance attainment, tobacco cessation, immunization schedules, and many more.

I am so proud to work with the amazing individuals who have planned and coordinated the event. And I'm even more proud of the message this can send... "To those of you fleeing from persecution, we welcome you to Omaha." The first wave of Syrian refugees have begun to come to Omaha and certainly that will change the programming/services we provide for our biennial health fairs, bi-monthly health education sessions, and mentoring sessions with refugee youth--we tailor our programming/services to the needs of the specific refugee community. I think it's an important reminder that those who are committing these acts of terror are the exact same people that refugees are fleeing from. And we can become the safe haven for those refugees to finally feel some semblance of safety in their lives after years (and sometimes decades) of unrest.

Today truly I am proud to be part of Omaha.

Great news for Nebraska!

We get this daily email with updates about things that are going on at UNMC. And today the most wonderful news was attached!

Nebraska Medicine (the hospital associated with UNMC) received a large donation from the Scott family to become one of the top centers in the U.S. for treatment and research for inflammatory bowel disorders (IBD). Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are the two primary autoimmune disorders classified under IBD. The two conditions affect an estimated 1.6 million Americans.

As many of you know, I have Crohn's disease and I'm so excited that this incredible research center is going to be literally across the street from me now. They're going to recruit new physicians, researchers, support staff and others. And most importantly, they are going to integrate care into a team-based approach, which from a patient perspective feels less-than-optimal at the moment.

This is a HUGE win for Nebraskans with IBD--soon we will be able to be enrolled in research trials to someday find a cure (or at least legitimate long-term treatments).

You can read the whole announcement here.

White Coat Ceremony

Friday was our white coat ceremony. It sort of made this whole medical school thing real. The ceremony was held at Joslyn Art Museum (which is beautiful and wonderful...if you haven't been, please go the next time you're in Omaha). We got a brief history of the medical school, the president of the alumni association talked, had a few brief remarks from the Dean of the College of Medicine and then, finally, we got our white coats.

I know that you have to be pretty smart to get into medical school, but they gave us this long list of things to do while we were on stage (get coat, shake two hands, place paper in basket, put coat on, shake 3 hands, sign your name, shake one more hand, get two pictures taken) and it was honestly kind of hard to remember all of the steps. I was nervous and got a serious case of stage fright, so my brain went out the window, but apparently I walked through all of the steps without any major hiccups.

After we all were coated (I'm not really sure that "coated" is a word, but I'm going to go with it. It sorta sounds like being knighted, which is pretty awesome, but unfortunately I'm not English and don't get the privilege of being knighted, so I'll settle for being coated), we had to take an oath. Here's the oath:

I dedicate myself to the sciences and the art of medicine.

I promise:

to be humble in my ignorance

to preserve the dignity of those I serve

to respect my colleagues in the health professions

to conduct myself in a professional manner

and to offer support and encouragement to fellow students.

May I fulfill these responsibilities and bring honor to the University, the faculty, and the students of medicine. 

Yikes, bikes and trikes! That seems like such a tall order! I know that my friends, family and classmates will be there to help support me throughout the next four years as I live out the words of this oath. Thank you to everyone who has been there to support me this far...

• to all of you who patiently listened to me complain about my classes and course load at Hastings College
• to those of you who have written letters of recommendation for me over the years for various scholarships, summer programs, medical school, etc
• to all of you who reassured me that I would, in fact, get into medical school
• to my parents for loving me even when I was being neurotic (and for cooking me meals and for allowing me to have a temporary study haven at the house whenever I needed some peace and quiet) and for teaching me to work hard to achieve my goals
• to my fellow classmates for all of the late night study sessions and for explaining basic concepts to me when I was just too dense to understand their simplicity
• to the doctors whom I have shadowed over the years and who have modeled the right ways to become a great physician
• to the staff and members of Church Health Center for challenging me to always remember the humanity in health care and for supporting me in my wacky bi-vocational career goals
• to my beautiful roommate Megan who has been by my side every step of the way as we applied, interviewed, were accepted and prepared for medical school. I know that I wouldn't have survived orientation week without you by my side!
• to the new friends I am making within my M1 class for reminding me to laugh when I am scared to death of the journey we are beginning.

I'm quite sure that I've missed far too many people on my list, but please know that each of you have made an impact on my journey. One thing that was re-iterated several times this week was that we will NEED to rely on our friends and family to help us get through the next four years, so thanks in advance too!

Something that I thought was really cool about the white coat ceremony was all of the people who have been part of my life, even tangentially, that were involved or present. Obviously my parents were there, my grandmother and Godmother/Aunt, Dr. Edwards, and Megan's parents also were there. But then there were the others. My mother's best friend from college (who is actually a friend of mine's mom!) helped to sponsor my white coat (Dr. Edwards sponsored the rest of it), one of my classmate's grandmothers used to work at Good Samaritan Village with my mom and remembers me as "little Jenny," another one of my classmate's uncles went to HC with my parents as well and was excited to meet me. Moments like that remind me of how small the world is sometimes. There are several of my classmates who are actually high school friends with some of my closest college friends. I actually just discovered that I used to teach dance to the younger siblings of one of my classmates. I'm grateful for these connections and am excited to continue to expand them. 

Megan getting her coat.

Fellow HC student, Jake Wardyn, getting his coat.

Dr. Lydiatt (President Alumni Association) coated me. 

UNMC Class of 2016

Thank you Aunt Lorraine for everything you've done over the years!
And thanks for sponsoring my white coat!

A special thanks to Dr. Erin and Dr. Chris Masada for sponsoring my white coat
and for the wonderful little note you sent with it!

My wonderful roommate, Megan! 

Mama and Daddy. 

Grandma
(I had to take my shoes off so I wasn't too tall for this picture)

Oh and just so everyone knows...I have only *officially* joined one extracurricular group so far. I'm still considering 3-5 more, but can everyone just take a moment and be impressed with the self-restraint I'm showing? Okay, great. Thanks for that! 

Classes start 8 am on Monday morning in the Gross Anatomy lab. Tomorrow I begin a delightful 10 weeks with a cadaver and 3 other students in my lab group. Wish me luck! I apologize in advance for smelling like formaldehyde. 

Orientation: Day 1

Megan and I have with our
sweet backpacks on our first day!

Today was our first day of orientation at UNMC. It seems like actually being a fully licensed medical practitioner is almost forever away, but I suppose I've already come pretty far in my journey towards medicine. My roommate, Megan, and I were talking last night about how excited, yet nervous we were to begin today. The anticipation and worry had been building up since we were accepted in December, but until last night it didn't seem real.

The day began with some basic introductions about the school, our class, and what to expect during orientation week. We grabbed some lunch with our M2 buddies (students who were first year med students last year) and took a tour. My M2 buddy, and her twin, were actually students at Hastings High School, so it was a blast from the past to see them. After lunch, we broke into our Problem Based Learning (PBL) groups. These groups will change throughout the next two years, but the basic premise is that it's a small group that works through case studies. We create a differential diagnosis and management plan from a patient history and results from some fictional tests.

We also took our ID photos today. We will be using these photos for the next four years, and good news, my eyes are actually open for once in a smiling picture! (the little things in life...)

Well we already have assignments for PBL, so I'm off to do that while I wait for the Internet people to actually come install our internet (instead of us using a sketchy unlocked network).