Tabitha Julien
Class of 2005 - Present
Freeport High School
Topic: 2006 Woody Genera of Metropolitan New Yoyk Area
Topic: The Biochemical Study of Celiac Disease
About:
The Harlem's Children Society has given me the opportunity at this young age to give me an insight on what the medical field is all about. I would like to be a neurosurgeon and the when I was given the chance the work as an intern in the medical field, I was very ecstatic. This program also gave me a chance to evaluate and determine if the medical field is something that I am very interested in. This summer I was an intern at Columbia University and there we studied Celiac Disease and the different treatments that would be effective in helping patients with celiac disease. The work in the lab required a lot of responsibility. We had to be very cautious because the samples that we worked with were patients. Before every lab procedure we were given a packet giving us an overview of the experiment we were about to perform. We were then required to read it and understand what we were doing so that now mishaps would occur.
Every Mondays and Fridays we have conferences at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. I loved these meetings because I saw a variety of projects that each of the 100 students were working on. This was very interesting to me because it gave me an idea of the different fields of medical work. We also had many different guest speakers that spoke about a variety of topics. For example we had a manager of Chase Manhattan Bank come in and talk to us about how to budget out money and how to keep up a bank account. We also had a guest speaker talk to us about AIDS, HIV, and STDs and how they affect us in our world today.
This whole experience has taught me many things. It has taught me discipline of work and the motivation you need to do what you have to do everyday. It has also taught me the importance of research. If we didn't have research, there would not be any medicine in the world to cure the many epidemics taking the world by storm today. Many people do not know or begin to comprehend the importance of doctors and medical researchers. I have learned that they are very important and that the world cannot live without them. I thank Dr. Sat from the bottom of my heart for giving not only me, but also city kids this opportunity.