#essentially it is a mini assignment where they have to look through a doc i have with links to mini articles about whatever skill they chos

[that-was-anticlimactic]

friends!!! what is a writing skill you wish you learned in school? like... it could be something specific in grammar/grammar-related, maybe about how to revise, maybe you wish you learned about different/specific genres, maybe how to write setting... whatever it may be!!! i'm doing a thing on tuesdays and would LOVE y'all's opinions on what kind of stuff to find to add for them to choose!

[do-it-with-style-events]

Interest Check FAQ!

Hey everyone! We were absolutely blown away with the response to our Reverse Bang interest check—we can’t wait to get signups open tomorrow! There were some great questions asked on the interest form, so below the cut you’ll find some answers and explanations about things people have been confused about, plus a full explanation of how we’ll be running writer claims at the very bottom.

What happens if I don’t get claimed / get a piece during claims?

The DIWS mod team is committed to making sure everyone gets a match during claims. If you sign up, you’ll be able to participate. All writers will be given a piece of art, and all artists are guaranteed that at least one of their submitted pieces will be claimed. There’s a detailed explanation about the claims process at the bottom of this post, but rest assured, we will get everyone matched up.

Can I submit more than one piece as an artist?

Short answer: YES!

Longer answer: Yes, but with some specifications. Since we won’t know the exact balance of artists to writers until sign ups close, we’ve created a system that allows us a fair amount of flexibility, so we can adjust with the numbers.

Artists may submit up to 2 pieces which will be guaranteed to go onto the claims slides for the writers to look at. We only guarantee that one piece per artist will be claimed, but it is likely that any piece on the claims slides will be claimed.

In addition, artists may submit up to 2 pieces which will not be guaranteed to go onto the claims slides. Depending on how many art submissions we get and how many writers sign up, we will dip into this list of extra pieces at random to make sure we have enough art to go around. If you submit 2 extra pieces, you’ll be able to rank them, and we’ll go through everyone’s first extra piece before we start adding second ones.

We know this is a bit complicated, and as always please ask questions if you’re not sure about something. It all comes down to a matter of numbers. There’s no way for us to ensure there is exactly the same number of art pieces as there are writers, so we need this flexibility to make sure everyone ends up happily on a team.

What if I’m an artist and a writer?

If you’re signing up as both an artist and a writer, you may submit one initial art piece and one extra.

Is there a theme?

Nope! As long as it’s a Good Omens fanwork and does not include RPF (Real Person Fiction) or one of the Archive of Our Own major archive warning tags without prior approval from the mod team you’re golden!

Are crossovers allowed?

To a certain extent. Fusions, where you take another source material’s setting or aesthetic or inspiration from the plot are allowed, but full crossovers involving characters from other sources are not. A good rule of thumb is if someone could understand the piece fully without knowing anything about the non-Good Omens source material.

What’s the required word count for fics?

Minimum word count for all fics is 5k. There is not a maximum, BUT we strongly encourage you to plan a piece which you can complete in five chapters or less. This isn’t a hard limit, especially since once you’re working with an artist both works may grow from the collaboration, but please base your initial plans around keeping your work relatively small.

Are languages other than English allowed for fics?

Unfortunately no. We can’t guarantee matches for non-English works, and on the moderation side we won’t be able to do check-ins or claims effectively, so all fics must be written in English for this event.

How can I help out as a beta?

Because we don’t require beta readers or do beta claims, we won’t have beta signups for this event. We did for the Mini Bang and then didn’t use the list of signups much, so have decided to forgo it this time. However, we do have pingable beta roles for both fic and art in our discord server, so if you’d like to help out as a beta for the Reverse Bang we suggest you join us over there so writers and artists can contact you if they want help!

What does the timeline for working on event pieces look like?

You can check out our schedule right here!

Also, keep in mind that while posting begins on January 17th, it will go on for several weeks, likely until the end of February. And we don’t require the entire piece to go up on your posting day, so it doesn’t have to be completely finished by then, either.

If you aren’t sure that you’ll be able to commit to this timeline right now, you can also consider joining us as a pinch hitter, for either writing or art, and jump in to help a group that’s lost a member later on.

Claims

We’ve had a lot of really good questions about claims, which makes sense! Claims are complicated, and we totally get that they can be a bit anxiety inducing, so we decided to just give you a walkthrough of exactly how we do claims from start to finish. We’ll be using essentially the same system we did for the Mini Bang.

Before claims, artists will submit a draft of their piece along with some extra info: a working title, tags, warnings, the rating(s) they’re comfortable with, and, if they’d like, a loose summary or concept for a fic they imagine relating to their piece. The mods will collect this info, anonymize it by assigning each work a number, and then put them all into a doc. That doc will be shared with the writers, who will have about a week to peruse them and decide which pieces catch their eye the most.

(A note on anonymity: it isn’t going to be perfect this time. Art styles are much more immediately recognizable than written ones, even in a drafting stage. We are confident though that the randomization element of our claims system should solve any issues recognizing artists could cause.)

During claims, all writers will be sent a google form to fill out. On this form, we ask for a ranked list of the artworks the writer is interested in working on. Last time we asked for a minimum of 7; we’ll decide what this event’s minimum will be after signups have closed and we know what our artist to writer ratio is.

Once the claims form has closed (after 48 hours), the mods will get to work pairing people up. Our system has a lot of moving parts, so bear with us while we go through this.

To start off, we assign every writer a random number. We do not do claims first come first serve, so this random number gives us our sorting order. Writers who are under 18 are given the first numbers, to make sure they can be paired with SFW only artwork.

Our first goal is to make sure everyone gets paired. To facilitate that, we start off by pairing up any art piece which was only claimed by one writer. We continue to pair solitary matches throughout the process when new ones appear as matched pairs are removed from the list.

Once there are no more solitary matches, we start at the top of our randomized writer list and give them the first artwork listed in their claims form. Then that writer and that art piece are removed from the list, and we continue on. As works are removed from the list, new solitary pairs may occur, and we pair them as soon as they show up, then continue down the numbered list.

As an example:

Writer #1 listed arts: 6, 4, 18, 22, 94, 38, 2, 71, 64, and 40 Writer #2 listed arts: 71, 83, 49, 22, 41, 17, 46, 60, 81, and 3 Writer #3 listed arts: 6, 71, 38, 94, 71, 62, 6, 18, 30, and 13

Writer #1 gets art 6; Writer #2 gets art 71; Writer #3 gets art 38, because the first two on their list are already assigned.

As an extra precaution to make sure everyone gets a pair, we’ll be offering writers the option to act as a wild card instead of giving us a ranked list of art pieces. Wild card writers will be assigned wherever we need to fill in once the main process is done. Wild card writers will still be allowed to tell us which ratings they are comfortable with and to give us a no-go list of things they would not like to be paired with, which we will respect when giving them their assignments.

This is a complicated process, we know. It took us about 3 days to figure out how to make all the moving pieces work last time, but in the end it went fantastically, and we’re confident it will work just as well this time. If you have any questions about it please don’t hesitate to reach out; we want everyone to feel comfortable with the game plan before we dive into it!

[its-bianca]

Studying/Planner Apps

Essential apps for studying, planning, health, etc. Who says everything has to be analog?

These are all the ones I’ve tried and downloaded (unless said otherwise). The ones with the * next to it are the ones I don’t use or have gotten rid of for personal reasons, but still highly recommend all of them.

I go through apps like a child goes through toys. I try them out, get rid of the ones I don’t like. Apps are toys.

There’s tons more, but these ones are the ones that I recommend to people with similar needs and schedules like mine. The ones I haven’t or don’t use anymore are ones I could definitely see being helpful to others or that I’d maybe use in the future if my needs change. 

Note: these are things from the App Store, but I’m pretty sure most are available on the Play Store too.

Podomoro Time Trackers

Forrest* - Haven’t tried this because you have to pay for it on the App Store, but I’ve seen everyone go bonkers over this app and how they plant trees for studying, etc. etc. 

Plantie - Best and only Podomoro app I still use. Gamified, but not TOO gamified. You just grow fruit, collect, coins, buy more fruit trees. It’s super simple, while still providing really good graphs and charts. Also, it allows you to turn off the feature where it stops your task as soon as you leave the app. Sometimes I need to use my phone for assignments, and I still want to track my time. It’s completely FREE, with GREAT charts as a visual. Other apps need a premium subscription to access the graphs and charts, which is why I love this app because even though the chart is quite simple, it does its job. Although, it doesn’t tell you when to take the longer break and it has to be adjusted manually. That’s fine for me, because I always get disturbed by something before I even get to 4 blocks, and if I waited until I had a big chunk, I’d never get anything done.

Block & Flow: Stay focused* - Podomoro but visualised with stacks of blocks for each day or week. And you can list out what tasks you have for that day and sort out sections for work, reading, school, etc. I didn’t need that feature, which is why I used Plantie instead.

Workflow Timer* - Another good option with options to make multiple tasks lists. One of the simpler and more user-friendly ones. It also looks really good!

Hours Time Tracking* - App for timeblocking, scheduling, and tracking the time while you’re working. It’s not helpful for me, because it’s practically impossible for me to strictly schedule something in my day after school, but could be useful for others. Really easy to makes tasks and separate by color. 

Stay Focused* - Simplest Podomoro timer out there. No distractions, no graphs, no gamification, just pure focus.

Planners/Calendars/Tasks

Wunderlist - Great reminder system, intuitive (type in “essay next mon” and it will schedule the task to be due next Monday), syncs everywhere, attach documents, etc. I used this for my assignment list, books to read list, schedule etc. for a long time, until recently where things got hectic and I wanted to make a daily to do list rather than only a master list. I use a bullet journal for school stuff now, but still keep Wunderlist for that shopping/movies/books/apps/websites to check out list. 

24me* - Personal assistant, lots and lots of features, with scheduling, to-do lists, notes, journaling, etc. Tracks weather and traffic to and from work/school. All in one.

Google Calendar - I don’t schedule on this, but use it to sync my school calendar with personal calendar. Easy scheduling and you can SHARE your calendar with a friend! All Google apps are made for collaboration basically. 

Habitify* - Habit tracker on your phone and tracks progress every day, showing when you skip and reminding you of it. Don’t quite remember why I got rid of it because checking back it seems really good. Might redownload. 

Trello* - Kanban boards, “cards” and lists, great reviews. I’ve heard people use it as a bullet journal sort of and project planner though that wasn’t it’s original purpose. I downloaded it for a club thing, but never really used it personally. 

Notetaking/Planning/Journaling

OneNote - I use this ALL the time, even though I don’t use my Microsoft account much anymore. My notes are organized and have a hierarchy. Very customizable with headers, notebook sections, pages, subpages, etc. Easy to share with group mates and an okay collaboration space if you want to see each other’s progress on research or something during a group project. MUCH better than having tons of Google or Word docs of notes. Completely FREE for the full experience.

Notion* - One in all workspace for journaling, notes, scheduling, planning projects basically a mini-website for your life and work. Great guide for bullet journaling on Notion from studyblr Eintsein here. Another Notion bullet journaling guide on YouTube here and here. I highly recommend it, but don’t use it since I use an analog bujo, prefer OneNote for class notes, and don’t have much use for it other than that currently. You do have to pay for unlimited notes, but there’s a pretty good amount to start out, and if you really don’t want to pay, there are workarounds to it.

Milanote* - Like Notion, but more restrictions on the free version. I don’t use it anymore because I’ve realized I didn’t really have a good purpose for it and it cluttered up my phone. In a way, it’s more ~aesthetic~ than Notion, but there are less things you can do. It does have a better learning curve though.

Evernote - I don’t use it often, but I have it to take quick notes or other stuff. Evernote is like a god in the notetaking world, because it’s user friendly, quick, and syncs up really easily with everything. 

Health

7 Minute Fitness - There’s a lot of these out there. Go find one or two. Don’t be sedentary.

30 Day Fitness Challenge - Same concept as above.

Simple Habit - FULL of free mostly 5 minute guided meditations (though there’s premium access). There’s no excuse now. Also, I used to try 10 minute meditations on Headspace which made me really sleepy. 5 minutes work best, because they’re quick, and if you want more time, just move on to the next part in the series or find another one. Lots of free series for basically any subject (school, women, mothers, grade anxiety, sleep) and SOS mode. Unfortunately, you can’t download any of them in the free version.

AloeBud* - Self-care pocket companion. Make reminders on your phone for every self-care thing you can think of. Schedule notifications multiple times a day with personalized messages. 

TaoMix2 - Mixer for relaxing nature/white noise sounds. It’s pretty restricted in the free, but it’s enough for me.

Cove* - If you’re a music person, this app let’s you make quick music and tunes matching your mood. A sort of an easy music therapy if you’re not good with instruments or composition. 

Reflecty* - Little journal buddy asking you fun/reflective questions about your day and tracking your mood. It’s short and sweet. Each entry is a “story”.

Oak* - Great for breathing and very simple guided meditations. Breathing practices for anxiety, freshening up, and calming nerves before a big performance. It just takes 15 seconds to breathe.

Grid Diary* - Journal prompts in grid fromat. Customizable daily prompts.

DayOne Journal* - Again, RAVING reviews. Everyone loves it. I haven’t used it because I prefer analog journals, but it’s a pretty good for travel journals with pictures, audio, video, etc.

UVLens - Reminds you to put sunscreen on throughout the day depending on your skin, activities that day, and type of sunscreen. 

Flo - Period tracker. Need I say more? 

Tasty - FOOOD (by Buzzfeed). New recipe ideas, includes shopping list, make your own cookbook.

KitchenStories - MORE FOOOOD. Includes Asian and international cuisine since it’s crowd-sourced.

Miscellaneous

Audiobooks - Audiobooks from the Gutenberg Project, but in app form. You can download classics for free, etc. There are some paid audiobooks, but they’re usually for better narrators/text corrections, so absolutely not necessary to get lost in an old book. Jane Austen, Charlotte Brönte, L. Frank Baum, all the good stuff.

Daylio - Tracks mood, activities, with intuitive charts. You can edit moods and activities shown per day. Free version is pretty good, and it replaces the need for making a habit tracker in my journal, because I don’t like making those.

Scannable - Very intuitive scanning app. I’ve used this for many legal/important documents and nobody had a clue it was “scanned” on a phone. It makes regular photos of documents easier to read and look like it came from a scanner. It can share as a PDF or jpg. Granted, you need good lighting for the best quality. 

Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Slides - Everyone’s probably used this before, but to reiterate, this is the best collaboration app/website. Super easy to share with real-time tracking and updates.

BEAKER by THIX* - For chemistry people. Mix compounds/elements together, make new compounds, see their reactions. Don’t have much use for it since my chemistry class is moving at a glacial pace but I could see this being useful for others. 

Chemtriz - Same as above, but gamified. You take elements and put them together in the right configuration to make compounds.

PictureThis - Plant Identifier - Weird addition to list, but it’s a cool app to get back in with nature. Now I know what a boxwood plant looks like.

IFTTT* - Hard to explain, but it enables different apps that don’t usually work together to work together. So if you input something in an email, you can make it go into a Google Spreadsheet(?). Just go check it out. It’s cool. Many shortcuts, track stuff in the Health App, get emails showing cool NASA pictures. 

Canva - AMAZING graphic design app/website for those who can’t use Photoshop (ie. me). It’s better online, but there are hundreds of templates for magazines, book covers, planners, posters, flyers, and basically any graphic design needs. Many free graphics and photos ready to use. Premium version is NOT necessary to get full benefits from this program. I used it to create this calendar for my room. 

[soan-colgate]

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES IN BOLIVIA

We are contacting Colgate University to kindly ask you to pass this information on your social medias and appropriate resources to your Latin American Studies students, in particular to those planning years abroad (or those currently on them). This opportunity may also be of interest to those studying degrees related to Spanish language, journalism, media, international relations and cultural studies.

Bolivia Unlimited (formerly Bolivian Express) is an organisation founded by Oxford graduates in 2010 and Bolivian journalists, and is based out of La Paz, Bolivia, in South America. We are dedicated to promoting journalism, intercultural exchange, and Bolivian culture to the English-speaking world. We run 1-3 month internship programmes in journalism, documentary production or Spanish, designed for students interested in learning Spanish and getting an insight into the world of print or video journalism.

We have worked with nearly 400 students from all over the world and recently completed our 91th edition. Many of these students come in their year abroad or looking for Summer Programmes and we have developed a wide network of alumni that we would like to keep expanding by collaborating further with your university.

I would greatly appreciate it if you could circulate the blurb and informational brochure (attached) at the end of this email to the student body (Facebook/Twitter), copying me in so I can confirm receipt. Should this not be the right department within the faculty, please forward to the relevant person (also copying me in so I can update the contact on our end).

For more information please have a look at our website: http://www.boliviaunlimited.org/   You can also contact one of our Alumni that could provide you with more information about the experience:  robertnoyes94@gmail.com

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about our organization.

Kind regards,

Caroline Risacher Espinoza

Executive Editor

Director

Bolivia Unlimited

---------------------------------------------------------

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES IN BOLIVIA

Internships and Training Programmes

Debating whether to go travelling or get work experience instead? Now you can do both.

Bolivia Unlimited is a social enterprise based in La Paz, Bolivia. We offer 1-3 month residential training programmes designed to introduce participants to print journalism and documentary production through internships in an international working environment. We also run Spanish immersion programmes, for those looking to learn or improve their Spanish whilst enjoying a cultural experience outside of the mainstream. Bolivia Unlimited was founded in 2010 by Bolivian journalists and Oxford graduates. Since then, over 270 talented individuals from 30 countries have worked with us, creating 77 issues covering everything from politics and art to football and gay parades. We’ve won the attention of TEDx, local sports stars and even the Bolivian Vice President.

BX Magazine - Print Journalism Programme

You will research and write your own articles and/or put together photo essays. You will be given extensive editorial support, as well as help with the production of your pieces, also taking part in designing the magazine. During the week you will take lessons in Spanish, journalism and photography, and will also attend newsroom sessions. The magazine is distributed for free across Bolivia and online for the rest of the world.

BX Doc Unit - Documentary Production

You will investigate, shoot and edit your own 3- to 5-minute documentary short. You will work with Bolivia-based video professionals, using professional equipment and editing software. During your stay, you will learn the basics of mini-documentary making, with production and theory classes, as well as one-on-one guidance. The shorts will be distributed through online platforms.

Is it Right for You?

You have an observant eye and inquisitive spirit. Spanish is helpful but not essential. Graduates, current undergraduates and year-abroad students are all welcome; we assign responsibilities in line with experience and reserve spaces for the uninitiated. Working with us you will be immersed in the local environment and, with our support, will get a chance to explore sides of the country largely undiscovered by tourist masses. Your dream career does not have to be journalism; Bolivian Espressos (as former BX interns are known) are sought after by universities and a range of employers for their international experience, level of intellectual engagement and initiative.

BX Spanish and Spanish Plus - Spanish Language learning

You will attend Spanish classes at a local language school, providing a crash course in language learning. With Spanish Plus, you will also receive guided immersion around La Paz with our teachers, allowing you to practise your skills outside the classroom. With both programmes, you will improve your speaking and written language skills, whilst being connected to the vibrant cultural organisation that is Bolivia Unlimited.

Is it Right for You?

You have a desire to converse in another language and an interest in discovering a new culture. You seek a learning experience not limited to verb tables and vocabulary tests. Graduates, current undergraduates and year-abroad students are all welcome; whether you are a complete beginner or have a faint memory of Spanish GCSE, all levels are encouraged. Come and learn language how it should be learned - interacting with native speakers and putting skills to the test in real life, everyday situations.  

Apply

We take up to eight participants every month, and as entry is oversubscribed (especially for the summer months), you should apply immediately if this is for you. A number of previous participants have been able to secure college funding to cover part of the programme and travel expenses involved.

More details are available in the attached information sheet, and on our website, where you can also read past issues and apply: http://www.boliviaunlimited.org/

[charismatickarishma]

Note Taking 101

Greetings fellow students! The key to being a successful student, besides being organized, is taking good notes. Good note-taking can help prepare you for your exams. Today I am going to share with you my tips on how to be an effective note taker. Let’s dive in! 

Start by setting up your notebook. This year I did something different and bought mine by theme. I even used washi tape to label and separate my classes. This is optional but staying organized will help you identify where everything is and what to study for. Another option is to color code your classes.

Prior to purchasing your notebooks, create a key in which you can use to take notes in class. I like to take notes by hand because it can help in retaining in the information; however, you could take notes on your laptop and rewrite them at home to save time. I would suggest investing in an Ipad and Ipencil which allows you to take digital hand-written notes. Yup, you read that right. 

Your key will be your guide in knowing when things are due, what homework is assigned, what’s important for the exam, and which vocabulary words to study. It is similar to having a mini planner. 

Once you have completed creating your key, the next step is creating an index. Your index will help you navigate through your notebook. Start by creating the unit or chapter title. Each subsection will be the headings of each topic in your textbook. Do not forget to include the page numbers in order to find the material in the textbook more effectively. After the end of each chapter, add the chapter summary, answers to your study guide, and the powerpoint points. Now you have everything in one place.

Here are a few of my tips you should know if you desire to be an effective and successful note taker. 

1. Know your learning style! Create a note-taking system. 

Are you a Visual learner? Auditory learner? Reader and Writer? Kinesthetic learner? Everyone does not study the same and that is fine! Learning what kind of learner you are aids in knowing what method works for you and there are several methods for creating notes. 

If you are a Visual learner: 

1. Create Charts and Diagrams. 

2. Color code key terms and vocabulary.

3. Highlight.

4. Hang your notes up in areas where you frequently pass by.

If you are an Auditory learner:

1. Record and listen to your lectures.

2. Ask relevant questions in class or before and after class. 

3.  Recite the material out loud. 

If you are a Reader and Writer:

1.  Rewrite your notes and essays to examine how much you have retained. 

2.  Annotate your textbook. 

If you are a Kinesthetic learner:

1. Have a study partner and teach each other the material.

2. Work out practice problems. 

2. Decide whether or not you want to have multiple notebooks or one notebook with sections within it.  Organization defeats procrastination! As previously mentioned, it may be helpful to label your notebooks or color code.

3. Print out Powerpoint slides in Notes format. Write down what the professor is saying in class on the lines. Now you have both the text from the powerpoint and the professor’s key points, which is often on the exam. Pay attention! 

Here is an example from my Developmental Psychology class: 

 4. Use abbreviations! DO NOT waste time writing down every single word slide to a slide, especially if the slides will be available to you later. If the slides are not available, seek permission to record your lecture. If both options are not available, then abbreviations can help shorten the time it takes to capture the essential points.  

5. Minimize distractions. No phone. No web-surfing. C’mon! You and/or your parents are investing in your education. That text can wait. 

6. Revise! Revise! Revise! Make your notes shorter and shorter until you can recall the information without having to constantly look at your notes. Also, revising helps you put the text into your own words for easier reading comprehension. 

7. Annotate your textbook! Summarize the main points in the margins of your textbook using a different color. 

8. Be an active reader! Use post-its or flags to mark where you have read and what are the key points, similar to annotating. In case you get up to get a snack, using flags will help you find where you’ve left off. 

9. Get a study partner and keep each other accountable. Special shoutout to @xrosecoloredboyx :).  I would suggest creating a Google doc which allows you to take notes and see what others are adding to your document in real time. Add your notes in a different color so you can identify who wrote what. 

10. Lastly, reward yourself. You CAN and WILL achieve greatness with hard work, discipline, and faith. The word impossible has the words “I’m possible” within it. 

Quick Summary: 

At the end of the day, it is really about time management and how much you want that A. Have a clear study space with no distractions, revise, and review! 

Happy Studying! 

[angeliquemd]

The Post-Graduate Internship Experience

What is a post-graduate intern (PGI) you ask? In some countries such as ours, after doing 4 years of undergraduate college studies, then another 4 years of med school proper, and then finally FINALLY graduating, we are expected to do a year of hospital work before we can take our licensure exam. These are essentially physicians in training - already having a medical degree but cannot practice without the supervision of a senior, and cannot take the board exams just yet. At this time, we once again do rotations in different specialties/subspecialties for further exposure, and well, I guess we need as much exposure as we can get for us to really learn the art of saving lives. I had my internship at Chinese General Hospital and Medical Center, and it isn't by far something I regret. When I was still in school doing my clinicals, we had guest PGI's from different hospitals give talk to us on how life as an intern is. Mostly, their goal was to get us to apply in their hospital after graduation :P Chinese Gen was always dubbed as a "toxic" hospital - having 1 intern per building at duty hours (which I didn't believe at first but later on found out to be true). I still decided to push through and go in this hospital because 1) it is near the university area, and 2) although I am proud to be a Thomasian healthcare provider, I thought it would be great to learn about the culture of other hospitals - non school-based hospitals with a variety of doctors coming from different institutions. I'd also probably add to my reasons the stipend they offer all interns, as well as the free meals (yep, breakfast, lunch, dinner, as well as our midnight snacks are free). It's the perfect set-up for busy bodies especially those who live alone in dorms/condos and do not have the time to fix meals. My first rotation was Internal Medicine, and you can read about my write up here Let me do my impressions to the specialties I’ve been in, otherwise this post would be a novel haha. Surgery: What is this “rest” you speak of? It was in Surgery where I experienced the most tiring day of my life (from non-stop OR’s in the morning and ward calls at night, then after the 30 hour shift we have to stay for dance practice. YES! It was Christmas season that time and Chinese Gen is big on Christmas parties so yeah). We had to stay for 40 hours straight then were expected to be present by 6:30am the next day, no excuses. Oooh I also did a 5-day straight duty here so I can avail a 5-day straight off. That was during the Christmas/New Years’ season. I took the straight Christmas duty so I can be free on New Years’ Eve. That time it was me basically bringing my whole house to the hospital. Haha. During the non-holiday months, the OR schedules still looked like ward censuses where we reach 20++ OR’s per day, so by no means should one think that surgery is a sitting down rotation. We also had our Anesthesiology, ENT/Ophtha, as well as Psychiatry mini rotations during surgery, all of them were a-okay. OB-GYN: Where do all these babies come from? They said OB-GYN was benign - I don’t know why I fell for that. I must have examined a hundred of cervixes (LOL) during OPD as well as Charity sessions, and the cesarean sections I have scrubbed in to was close to that number. I experienced a duty wherein I was in the OR from 3pm to 11pm at night. Good thing my residents were super cool and chill. They’re the perfect balance between a cool mom *yay Mean Girls reference* and a prudent friend. Community: Pedia patient 1: Cough and colds. Pedia patient 2: Cough and colds. Pedia patient 10: surprise!..oh wait, it’s still cough and colds. All interns do community work, and it depends on your hospital what kind of community you'll be at. Thankfully, the community we got assigned to was just a few minutes away from hospital base. The outreach center caters to both adult and pediatric patients, where we mostly do check-ups. For me, this was a great breather. We were already 3/4 done with internship by this time so I guess everyone from my team was already so burnt out that anything which involved outside rotations was welcome. Community was light. We get off early and don’t need to come in till 8am. We do however come back to base every 3 days to do ER work from 4pm to 6am, then we’re off to go to be at the center by 8am. Our co-interns are super nice to those who did ER work the night before, thank heavens. They do most of the work and let those who did ER duties sleep. Community was a good time to meet new people as well since our center catered to interns from different hospitals so yeah. Everyone was chill and awesome :) Pediatrics: Where your patient is the child AND the parent. My last rotation. To be quite frank, I didn’t expect I’d have fun in Pedia. I was the only one in my team to have a partner dutymate, so all my work was reduced by half ;) We had so much cases that reviewing for the board exam was me basically thinking of the patients I handled! From Kawasaki disease to dextrocardiacs to tracheoesophageal fistulas -- we sure had a great variety. My favorite though was exposure to the neonates. It was here that I learned the skill of extracting blood from day old babies :)) The downside of pedia thought is that parents can be sooo overprotective at times that it hinders you from doing your job. I mean, I understand why parents can act a bit extra at times but also please understand that what we do is for your child as well. Okay? :) Overall, my stay in ChiGen is an 8/10. Aside from the stipend and free food, I forgot to mention that interns are also involved in conventions c/o the hospital. We get the lectures as well as the freebies!!! We take home so much stuff in the end, I swear. I ended up giving away the physician's sample meds to those who needed them more than I did. Also, in the hospital, we were treated as doctors and the staff was very kind and courteous to us. It was always a "kilig" moment when we get called "Doc" in this early phase of our career. I would recommend it to clinical clerks still wondering where to do their internship. That's it for my post, sorry if it got a bit lengthy! :P

[leadershipinalison-blog]

Week 5: Reflecting on the Encore Card, Attending the LEAP Gala, and New Project Idea!

Wow! Week 5 has come and gone, and I honestly can’t believe I am entering the latter half of my LIA experience. New developments are happening with my work at East West, and I really immersed myself in LEAP because the 35th Anniversary Gala happened on Friday! During the beginning of the week, I was at EWP finishing up partnerships for the Encore Card with Kelly. We have successfully connected with 26 businesses (!!) and we are really excited to move on to creating the Encore Card and also working on improvements for the intern experience (in regards to the Encore Card) for incoming students at EWP. While we faced challenges working on the Encore Card, I think Kelly and I were able to make the experience successful by consciously taking note of each other’s work styles, and thus figuring out how we could work together to both optimize our strengths and improve on our weaknesses. Kelly definitely took the lead in terms of mapping out which businesses to visit each day, and created Google docs to organize our progress. It helped a lot that she already knew the Arts District/Little Tokyo area fairly well (especially since I have zero sense of direction). I like to think that I contributed through the personal interactions like approaching businesses, being a second eye on the documents, and discussing ways to improve the intern’s Encore Card experience. 

During the whole process of putting together information packets, visiting businesses, following up with them, and now beginning to create the new cards, Kelly and I have found it very important to reflect on how we can make the process more efficient and the card more useful to users. After discussing our experiences with each other at length, and also talking about it with other interns, we met with Monika to reflect on how our work was going, and ways we thought we could improve the Encore Card experience. For example, a problem Kelly and I noticed was that the Encore Card isn’t actually used that often. We began to understand this when returning partners would turn us down because they were not interacting with consumers who actually used the card with them. When we approached returning businesses, many times the everyday employees would not know what the Encore Card was. I also received feedback from a business owner who said that he never used the card, despite going to partner businesses regularly. Kelly and I proposed a new idea, to make the Encore Card into a keychain (thanks for the pitch, James Choi! aka owner of Cafe Dulce!), but unfortunately EWP does not have the finances for that. Monika did like our other suggestions, like listing our Encore Card partners on the EWP website. This way, our subscribers and donors can look at more specific data about the benefits they will receive by joining our community. Looking forward, we also suggested that EWP might want to develop an app that could centralize information about their productions, and also act as a digital Encore Card for subscribers and donors. Monika was telling us that EWP has never received this kind of feedback from interns, which to a certain extent makes sense, especially considering a new group of interns work on the Encore Card every year. Without continuity (of the people who work on it), I think the Encore Card has become functionally antiquated in many ways. I hope that Kelly and I’s suggestions on how to improve it will help make the Encore Card a more useful program, as it has great potential! Through this process of working on the Encore Card and giving feedback on it, I am realizing the importance of new energy and fresh eyes on different projects, as well as fostering a work environment that is welcoming of feedback and innovative thinking. Additionally, I have really appreciated being a part of an organization like EWP that has so much history behind it, but I am also realizing that being an established institution leaves you at risk of getting comfortable in work processes that become redundant or inefficient. I don’t mean this in a robotic/unemotional way, but more that it is so important to dedicate our passion and energy in a way that optimizes impact and reward. Especially in a nonprofit that is always busy and in-demand of energy, it is essential that we make things smoother and easier for ourselves when we can. To put it simply, I think we feel happier and more invigorated when we approach projects that we know will give back and have a purpose in our communities. I think the weaknesses that Kelly and I have found in the Encore Card, which have largely come out of the overcapacity that characterizes nonprofits and a high turnover rate of interns, can be improved on over time by focusing on making the Encore Card more accessible to cardholders, and on the flip side, more streamlined (in term of applying/reapplying) for businesses.

Wow, that reflection on the Encore Card was a lot more in-depth than I thought it would be... but anyways, on to the gala! What an affair. LEAP set everything up so beautifully - outside, there were high tables for people to gather around and talk, and streamers and stars strung in the air in a pagoda-like fashion. Target was our main sponsor for the event, so the color theme was red and white. In the VIP area, there was a beautiful set up in the bamboo garden with ethereal white lanterns and lovely ukulele music played by Jason Arimoto. The VIP reception was where I was assigned to take photos for our social media campaign, so I spent the beginning of the gala asking VIP attendees if I could take their photo, chatting with LIA interns and alumni, and enjoying delicious hand rolls prepared by Kazunori. At first I was quite nervous about approaching people to take their photos, but over time it became easier. I received some unwanted attention from men overcompensating for their masculinity, but I think I navigated it quite well. Note to self/curious readers: if you are young, and quite a bit younger than the creeping men, mentioning your age in conversation is a smooth way of setting up a roadblock. You will likely need to deploy other tools besides mentioning your youth, but it is a nonthreatening strategy that can potentially protect you from unwanted conversation/further unwanted attention.

I had so much fun during the gala dinner (the food was delicious!!), and it was so fun to hang out with the other interns and feel a little glamorous. I also spent some time with other volunteers, and I really enjoyed Fuzzzy’s performance. He is actually part of Kollaboration LA (an org that showcases API entertainers), which is being held at East West Players, so it was cool to see his success being reflected in Little Tokyo at the gala as well! To top it off, we all received $100 gift cards from Southwest as gala attendees!! I feel extremely lucky to be a part of the LEAP community and receive these opportunities and privileges, and the gala has definitely been a highlight of my LIA experience.

On Friday, our morning was focused on giving feedback about the gala and then heading off to lunch with LEAP’s board of directors. We mainly had positive things to say about the gala, and we realized that a lot of our critical feedback had to do with mishaps related to Givergy’s responsibilities. The fact that the shortcomings of Givergy negatively affected LEAP’s fundraising during the gala will have tangible consequences on its programs and growth as an organization. Hopefully problems will become at least partially resolved when Givergy and LEAP engage in conversation post-gala. After discussing the gala, we put together our Flipagrams/mini movies about our nights at the gala. Hopefully mine will be up soon on LEAP’s social media! 

At noon, we headed off to Fu-ga for some lunch and networking with LEAP’s board. Honestly, the beginning felt really awkward for me. I wasn’t sure where to place myself because separate conversations was happening among interns and board members, and I was stuck in empty space. I am really grateful that Linda saw me looking a bit distressed, and introduced me to a board member. Before we sat down for the lunch, I ended up having a really good conversation with a director named Jim Lactaoen, and we ended up sitting next to each other during the lunch as well. As the lunch progressed, I was able to engage in meaningful conversation with all the directors sitting around me, and they ranged from discussing my LIA experience to Hawaiian food franchises to intensive Korean SAT training. It was strange how all these conversations came together because of our connections with each other, ranging from our ethnic identities to our travel experiences to our generational differences. I was also very conscious of how my participation in our conversations was predicated on class privileges we shared. For me, this mainly involved my upbringing in Hong Kong and international school education, being able to travel around the world, having access to college preparatory programs, and, related to class, being East Asian. When I have these kind of conversations, I like to acknowledge these preconditions, in that particular space, I did not feel comfortable enough to do so. This is not to say that other people in the room were unaware of how privilege played a role in our conversation, but I think that consciously creating space to address privilege is necessary to breaking down classism and systems of oppression. I hope that in the future, when I might be a mentor figure, I can foster and participate in these kind of conversations.

Friday was also a big day in terms of our community impact project. We have decided to change our idea from creating a workshop, and shift to a project that is centered around our identities and experiences. I think that the workshop idea had potential, but mutually we felt a sense of discomfort at the likeness of our project to that of helicopter advocacy. To be brief, helicopter advocacy is the concept of entering a community that you do not have a connection to, trying to make an “impact” on them through research, outreach, and other kinds of activities, and then leaving the community without any intention or means of maintaining a sustainable relationship. Helicopter advocacy is self-centered and a privileged activity. Historically, it has often involved rich and/or white people entering poor and/or colored communities for “research”, “philanthropy”, and other white-savior-complex activities. In regards to my feelings about our workshop idea, I mainly felt comfortable with it when we were leaning towards making it for college students. I thought we could center the workshop around our own experiences as a cohort, and invite fellow college-aged API students we knew to participate. We would be a very specific community addressing API issues, and I felt comfortable with this idea because it was a community I identified with. However, my sense of comfort with that audience only resolved a small part of the larger issue tied to us as a cohort not being from the LA area, and thus not knowing how best to serve the LA API community, and furthermore, assuming that LA APIs would want some sort of “help” or “impact” from us. I feel much more motivated and at ease with our new idea, and I am excited to share it with you all.

Our LIA 2017 cohort will be creating a mixed media website that features art pieces about our API identities, our CBOs, and ourselves as a cohort. Works will range from short films to moodboards to zines, and our aim is to create a resource about the complexities and diversity of the API community, open a window into the amazing work done by our nonprofits, and also reflect on ourselves as a group. Our community impact will be online, and later on, we will be strategizing on how we will get our website out there, the audience we want to target, and how we will maintain impact beyond the end of the program. I won’t disclose my project ideas yet, but stay tuned for my next post to find out what they are :) I am really looking forward to the self reflection that will come out of this community project, and I hope to learn more about myself, my fellow cohort members, API organizing, and what it means to create change.