Education

Harvard Admissions Insights

While at a meeting sponsored by the Harvard Club of Washington, DC, representatives of the admissions office visiting DC from Cambridge made a presentation to alumni and stressed themes often reflected in advising at NVCC. Nothing new for our students looking to transfer to Harvard, or any other competitive 4 year university! Some highlights:

  • Find the school that is the best for you. Harvard is a great place, but you may not find that it is somewhere you would like to be.
  • Do what you want to do and make the most of the the resources and opportunities available to you (as well as restrictions that are placed on you). If you have to work or have a long commute, it won’t be held against you, but sitting on the couch and playing video games for 4 hours a day will be. There is no magic number of AP (or other) classes to take and you shouldn’t play tuba (or do anything) if you don’t have an interest in it.
  • Through recommendation letters and personal statements, they are looking for insight into your character and personality…what makes you tick. When writing your personal statement, express your genuine self and what is important to you. Never write what you think you “should” write.

Have you spent time to find what is academically important to you? What are areas of interest outside the classroom that you have developed during your college time?

Uncategorized

Thank You!

Though loathe to talk about myself, I must take a moment and thank the anonymous student(s) and/or faculty colleague(s) who nominated me for a college-wide award which was presented on April 27, 2017. I was humbled to be recognized for “extraordinary service above and beyond” and unfortunately, I do not know whom to thank. Thank you for taking the time to nominate me for this honor, it was quite a surprise!

Career Development

Job Search/Career Events – This Week On Alexandria Campus

Attached are the events starting this Monday on Alexandria campus relating to job searches and career development. I will be at the Networking Event on Thursday for a brief period starting at 3pm. Please email me if you have questions about any events (eg., you are unsure what the session covers). Great programs all around, I’d highly encourage students finding time to attend as many of these as possible. We faculty members participate in these events because they are as important as in class learning to your future success!

Education, Medical Education

Pre-Meds: Time To Start Thinking About Personal Statements

As mentioned in class this week, spring break is over and it is time to start thinking about your medical school personal statement. Please email me if you are interested in updates about our spring meeting to brainstorm your personal statement. We’ll be looking at personal statements that worked for students, the early rough drafts these students wrote as well as talk about what admissions’ committee members are looking for (and what drives them crazy). We don’t have a firm time and location for our first meeting over the coming weeks just yet, please email to be added to the announcement email.

Education, Medical Education

From Friday (2/24) – AMSA Conference 2017

A few things that stand out from the AMSA (American Medical Student Association) Conference in Arlington, VA.
From the companies exhibiting products:
– new to the US, AMBOSS is a German company that has created a great, tightly integrated platform for studying content for the medical shelf (and USMLE) exams. A quick demo showed that this system is truly a one-stop shop for mastering clinical cases without relying upon other resources (such as textbooks or clinical photos).

From the lectures:
Dr. Pritish Tosh (Mayo Clinic, Internal Medicine Residency Program Director)
– Reinforced few points that we make to our pre-medical students, namely, as a medical student your standardized exam scores are important but less so that being excellent and taking advantage of opportunities at your school.
Dr. Roberta Gebhard (Masonic Care Community, Assoc. Medical Director)
– Emphasized taking care of yourself as a prerequisite for outstanding patient care and also reminded students to be kind to all people they encounter (from the janitorial staff to the CEO of the hospital).
Dr. Claudia Krebs (Professor of Teaching, Univ. of British Columbia Medical School)
– Insightful look at how you learn should change and evolve as you progress from college, to medical school and beyond.
Mr. Petros Minasi (Kaplan Test Prep)
– Spoke about your medical school personal statement. 100% agree that all students should work with an engaged, expert advisor who supports your success, but disagree with the Kaplan “one-size-fits-all” philosophy and some of the statement writing suggestions. Certainly worth discussing during our on campus pre-med seminars.

Highlights from selected day 2 fun conversations and talks….coming soon!

Education, Medical Education

AMSA Annual Meeting (Feb 23-26 2017)

Having been asked by many pre-medical students how they might be able to learn more about medical school, meet other pre-med students and learn from current medical students about their schools (and how they got into medical school), I have referred them to a conference held by the national American Medical Student Association. An annual conference is held in Crystal City, VA (in Arlington) and offers students many opportunities to learn by attending lectures, meet other students and gain exposure to clinical aspects of medicine, including the always popular suture tying mini class (don’t worry, you won’t be stitching up people!). Review the conference program, think about what your goals for attending the conference are and plan how to get the most out of your time and money at this exciting meeting. The first day, Thurs is generally less compelling for most students, the lectures and events pick up more on the 2nd day (Friday) and on Saturday. Visit their website at amsaconference.org and certainly send me an email, I will be there meeting with other advisors and attending talks.

Education, Health

NIH Community College Day – Oct. 28

The National Institutes of Health are the nation’s premier federally-funded research labs conducting experiments to further human health. Many of the world’s leading discoveries have been made by researchers at this Bethesda, MD campus, including discovery of the virus that causes AIDS and the complete decoding of the human genome. Every fall, the office coordinating education reaches out to DC-area community college students to: introduce them to what the NIH does, offer tips on networking & resume writing and provide exposure to a network or internship & job opportunities at the NIH. Researchers from all over the world travel to work at the NIH and NVCC students have an opportunity to spend the day through a very rich activity. Looking forward to seeing you at this year’s event!

https://www.training.nih.gov/communitycollegeday

Architecture

Architecture Promoting Creativity

Article in 8/4/16 NY Times discusses the power of open design architecture to stimulate creativity on academic campuses. Moveable furniture, couches, open hallways, glass panels instead of walls, all designed to encourage colleagues to interact with each other and foster an environment likely to stimulate creativity.

Uncategorized

Avoid The Dental Drill!

We’re back after a brief blog break for the summer. No child enjoys the dentist and the dental drill in particular elicits unease amongst even the most calm young patients. Never mind that having a cavity filled isn’t exactly cheap (at least $100). An article in today’s New York Times highlights a cost effective, painless way to apply a chemical coating to cavities to prevent further tooth decay and also avoid the pain of a dental drill. Cavities have been filled by placing a coating over the part of the tooth that has rotted. The infamous dental drill is required to cut away the rotten material. A newly developed form of flouride (silver diamine flouride) can be painted onto a cavity to stop the cavity from further rotting. No painful numbing shots, no dental drills, and only $25. The child then loses the baby tooth and has avoided costly and uncomfortable drill-based cavity fills. Currently, few dentists know about the treatment and use it in their practices. What are obstacles to adopting a new treatment? Why are scientists not researching treatments such as this to make painful and uncomfortable processes easier for youngsters?

Art, Books, Education

What Do You Notice?

A newly published book, Visual Intelligence, by art historian and lawyer Amy E. Herman sheds light on the power of observation as an invaluable tool in all types of careers. Ms. Herman has created a career based on her love of art and used it to improve the skills of law enforcement and future doctors. After running a course for a decade that has taken police officers and medical students into art galleries of New York City to study paintings to hone observational skills, Ms. Herman now writes about these experiences and suggests (too frequently) that they are applicable to all professions. If you can get past the first person accounts of how she has or hasn’t noticed things in her life through her glamorous world travels and if you can overlook her often incomplete and perfunctory-seeming explanation of the science underlying her work, this book is an excellent tool for all students. Of particular note: high school students exposed to this type of observational study went on to have higher standardized test scores. Do you think of yourself as a good observer? Do you notice details that others may miss? How do you think observational skills may be helpful in improving your academic performance? Or on the job performance?