Looking back at your first blog post, did you grow in the way you had hoped? Please reflect on your summer externship and Kenan Fellows Program experience and describe how it has impacted you as an educator and person.
The Kenan Fellows Program has given me the opportunity to challenge myself in the way I write lessons, teach students, and offer professional development sessions for teachers. In the past, I always struggled with a way to show students how the concepts they learn in school are applicable in the real world. After working with Biogen, I was able to overcome that struggle. My mentor helped me see just how vital written communication skills such as Standard Operating Procedures and Process Flow Diagrams are to Biogen. Without these two documents, the medicines that Biogen develops would not be effective. In fact, they could cause more harm than good. I always tell students and teachers that I spent my summer learning how this company using science, technology, engineering, and math to develop medicine. This gives more credibility to my lessons and professional development sessions. Students understand the value of writing when they realize I was in the lab and witnessed how the documents were used. For them, it’s not “Here she goes again.” but “Oh wow! She was actually in the lab and saw how all this stuff fits together.”
I have definitely grown as an educator and person over the past year. The Kenan Fellows Program helped me develop new skills and gave me more confidence in my abilities as an educator.