Second blog

Hey guys! I am back again. Today I want to tell you more about what's going on with my CSL. I have definitely done more work now and I have so much to share with you. So, my main role at CNIB is supposed to be a vision mate. This has changed unfortunately because of difficulty finding someone whose schedule would be compatible with mine. Ugh, it's annoying to be taking five courses plus labs in a semester. It really messes up your schedule. Fortunately enough, I got to make my other minor roles to be the main ones. Right now, my main roles are event planning and supervisor and shop CNIB assistant. 

My responsibilities as an event planner and a supervisor are to make sure that all of the required material for the event is purchased in advance. Not only that, I do a lot of decorating for the events and cleaning up after the events. My role during the events is to keep a close eye on the kids to make sure that they are having fun but most importantly safe. As the kids that we have at CNIB are visually impaired, one must be very vigilant around them. I have already finished an event for Valentine’s Day and let me tell you, IT WAS AMAZING!

On the other hand, my responsibilities as a shop CNIB assistant is to sell products that patients need. I am supposed to teach them about the cutting-edge equipment we have and how to use it. This way, they can decide whether to go for it. I will start with this role next week, so I am very excited!

Now, away from my roles and what I do, I want to talk about what I have learnt from this placement so far, what impacts it has on my personal growth and on my future career. I will break the content down to sections so you won’t be lost. Ok so let's begin. 

Professional skills that I observed 

Throughout the past few weeks, I was able to observe many professional skills. These skills include conflict resolution. Being an event planner, I have to make sure that everything is ready and done on specific times. This way, kids will have fun and do not get bored and most important so that they can have the most from their day. This, my friends, require very important organizational skills. Being in Biochemistry and having two part time jobs aside from other volunteering positions I have, I thought that my organizational skills are excellent. I guess I was wrong. After the first event that happened, I noticed improvement on my level of organization. For instance, instead of writing on my calendar “Valentine’s Day event” on Feb 22, 2020. I broke down the day into small sections, and I put a small note reminding me of the task that I needed to do for that time. This way, the other volunteers and I made sure that kids had a variety of games that they played. This was important for me too as it gave me the opportunity to make the most of my day. That day, I was able to write my lab and finish the event; let me say, that’s IMPRESSIVE and never happened before. Adding to that, I was able to shop for all the decorations and necessities a week before and finish all of the decorating before the event. Anywho, aside from that, I was able to enhance my problem solving skills. If you have younger siblings, then you probably understand why problem solving skills are important. Kids tend to always fight. It's in their nature. They also hate the word no. As a result, this raises many conflicts between them. For instance, I had a kid during the event who hated storytime (a relaxing game we did during the event) and because he hated this game he used to yell “lame! Lame! Lame!” each time someone tells a story. So, I told him during the game “[X] let's be nice to each other ok” and I was promoting the game by saying things like “storytime is my favourite game”, “storytime is excellent way for us to learn about others”, “storytime makes us reflect on ourselves” and a bunch of others. The kid was still not convinced and continued yelling out those words. To be honest, I kind of got scared because I did not know what to do. So, I gave it a little bit of thought and decided to talk to him separately. So, I called him over and we had a little chat at the corner and away from the other kids. While we were chatting, I asked him what his favourite game was and he said,“Simon says” So, I told him to imagine that we are playing that game right now, how would you feel if someone started yelling out words that are bothersome like boring. He said, “I would be annoyed” Then, I kept asking him about what he would truly feel if that happened and little by little, he said that “I would be really sad”. Then, at that point, I told him “that’s how the other kids and I feel now because this is our favourite game!” He was so sweet, and he hugged me and apologized. I also rewarded his courage of expressing his inner feelings to me by actually playing Simon Says afterwards. I know that this is a long example, sorry! But I really did feel proud when I made him behave. It really did hit me at that time that I am actually learning a lot from my placement and I am very happy with that.

Links to what I want to do 

I really want to become a research scientist. That’s my biggest dream. But there are a lot of competitions nowadays even when it comes to applying for masters and PhD because everyone wants to do it. So to increase my chances of getting in and to be able to get the job I want to apply for the Translational Molecular Medicine (TMM) program. This program is a research intensive program that teaches students how to conduct and design their own experiments. It also provides many skills and experiences to students who are interested in pursuing a career in research. Because this program is so good, it is really competitive to get in and also it is very small so the chances for a student to get accepted is 1/40 which is very low. Having done CSL will not just help me learn so much and gain many skills that are beneficial to my future, it will also make me a well-rounded person who is not a bookworm and is worth getting accepted to this program. 

Skills that are related to what I want to become 

Remember when I said that it is my dream to be a research scientist. Well, aside from being able to get to TMM, the skills that I gained and still continuing to gain are transferable and will be useful a lot to me when I'm doing my own research. The biggest example of this is patience. Patience is critical add on to my skills repertoire especially because I want to become a scientist. This is because it takes years for the scientist to get presentable results, prove a hypothesis or to answer a question. Sometimes, questions can never get answered which is very frustrating. And that's why patience is important. With CNIB, patience is a gain for sure. Being surrounded by many kids, especially when they are yelling is a struggle. Sometimes I just want to yell QUITE but I cannot because that's not what professionals do. For example, during the Valentine's Day event, I was on my nerves most of the time because kids won't listen, they are impolite and extremely slow learners. This tends to trigger me as I really dislike repeating myself and having to talk slower than my normal pace and such. So, by the end of the day, I have learnt how to self-control. I was able to hold my emotions tightly in a box and only express a smile. I am working on these skills until this day because it is very important even in my personal life.

Problem solving is also a very important skill that will help me a lot in my future. Being a scientist, you have to have strong problem solving skills as what I will be doing my research about won’t be something that I could find on google. If it is, then what am I really researching? 

Observed personal growth

I have observed many improvements in my personal growth. I am normally the type of person who is very weak. I cannot handle looking at people who are injured and hurt. This is because it makes me feel hurt and sad. This is the main reason why I crossed out medical school out of the picture. But at CNIB, most of the kids that we had are visually impaired. Looking at them trying hard to make out the colors, walk, and act in general made me feel upset. It always makes me question and ask why them? However, because of spending time being in an uncomfortable environment, I have learnt how to be adaptable. Adaptability is definitely a trait that I gained from this placement as I had to adapt to the uncomfortable situation I am in. I was able to control my feelings and show kids smiles only. I was also able to be very interactive with them. I helped with the decoration of their cookies. I have also taught them many dance moves. I really did make these kids have fun, and I am really proud of myself and how I came along because typical me would have sat in the corner upset the whole time.