Personal Narrative: A Career As A Biomedical Engineering

The pandemic struck the world and infected 1/3 of earth’s human population, killing over 50 million humans. The world’s top doctors have never witnessed anything of this killing magnitude besides the bubonic plague of 1348 but the transmissibility is of nothing they’ve ever seen in their lifetime or of recorded history. People abruptly became aware of the importance of health, and need of medicine and cleanliness.

The third and final wave of this lethal killer came in the spring of 1919. Although this mutation was less deadly than its predecessor, it still devastated communities as it continued to add to the death toll. This outbreak was responsible for taking away ten years from the average life expectancy of a person, kept people in a constant panic, and “In its wake, the pandemic would leave about twenty million dead across the world. In America alone, about 675,000 people in a population of 105 million would die from the disease.3” Governments and private organizations both scrambled to find a cure and in 1918 they believed they might have found the source of the virus to be a bacteria rather than a virus. They operated under that assumption until

He looked so calm but I knew he was as scared as me. It wouldn’t take long for the infected to reach us we had to hurry. Hold on a moment I better at least tell you who I am. I’m Kennith Rennell but everyone just calls me Ken. This is my version of what happened to me and my friends Mattie Day and Joyce Carlyle following October 26 year 2050. Over the last few months Matt and I had been working on a vaccine for the corrupt cancer known as G-23. After intense research we found that we could only make a vaccine.

My career plan has taken quite a few turns through the field of health care but I have found my niche where I really enjoy my job and the individuals I take care of. My short term career goal is to get my bachelor degree in health care administration and apply for a job as Q of the houses I work in now. This means I would take care of the mentally handicapped individuals that I take care now just in a different capacity. My long term career goal is to eventually be an administrator for the company I work for now. This means I would have to take the state and federal exams. Then I would be able to take care of multiple homes and have the Q’s under me as employees. Another long term career goal is to continue working on my education and to go for my master’s degree.

During my 15 years of existence I have had numerous experiences that have expanded my enthusiasm and desire for the endless field of knowledge that is STEM, but two experiences stand out the most. Perhaps the earliest experience I’ve had with STEM was wandering the halls of my parent’s veterinary clinic to come upon an open white room full of surgical tools and machines. It was in this well lit room that I was first brought into the STEM world by my mother doing a splenectomy (as she later explained to me). Pushed back at first by my own intimidation, I slowly walked forward in interest. With the explanation from my mother, my interest for information regarding the veterinary field grew. I constantly asked questions about surgery and what it

I remember being awaken by the loud commotion going on from the living room, so I decided to go check. I went out calling for my parents, but to my surprise, I only saw my mom on the phone crying from the reflection of a mirror. I wondered where my dad was. I got closer towards the living room and stood by the wall. I witnessed my dad sitting down on the floor having trouble to breath complaining about chest pain while my mom stood next to him. I closed my eyes in fear. I then heard something calling me to open my eyes. It was a siren that got louder and louder each second. I stood up and saw red lights shining through the window. There was a knock at the door and my mom went to open the door. Two men and a woman came through the door in navy

A few months ago at a free clinic for recovering drug addicts, a 19-year old female came seeking treatment for her active heroin addiction, and reported her addiction had progressed over the previous six months, paralleling her boyfriend’s, moving quickly from use of oral opioid painkillers to intravenously injecting heroin. The day she came to clinic, make-up barely concealed an injection site on her neck, which she reported, was where her boyfriend injected her with heroin, as she did not know how to inject herself and the veins in her arms had collapsed. The addiction specialist I shadow decided to treat her in the clinic and asked her to return in one week to monitor her transition from heroin to buprenorphine. This patient struck me, as she was so young and overwhelmingly consumed by her disease. However, I was not able to follow up with her case as I began my current position at UCLA. As a shadow, the inability to follow patient’s care as much as I desired, along with knowing I did not have enough experience or knowledge to care for the patients, was incredibly scary and frustrating, although it was simultaneously

“It's not the operation itself that is the concern it's the anesthesia. That’s a bigger risk than the operation.” (Gupta)My career would be in nursing specifically an anesthesiologist. Basically they give anesthetics to patients undergoing a procedure. Also they have to keep a close eye on the patient during the procedure to watch out for signs of distress or a bad reaction. I am a very caring person and get very concerned with the well being of others. So naturally I want to go into nursing to help others when they are at their worst. I found it is difficult to find a career and a school that will meet my needs but will keep me entertained. If you don’t enjoy something you won’t want to be there or do that career for the rest of your life.

Ask someone, and chances are, they’ll argue that health comes first. Doctors say it, parents repeat it, media promotes it, but in actuality, not many of those who suggest making health a priority can truly say that they’ve never jeopardized their health, whether that be through something as small as skimping on sleep or as big as stressing themselves out, for their job. While some might not consider it one, maintaining a certain BMI is another health benefit that goes neglected, especially in modeling, a career that carries the stigma of only consisting of starving girls who need to “eat a burger”. Luckily, I never had to worry about my weight mainly because I danced 22 hours a week, something I could maintain in middle school only because I was homeschooled. Once I started high school, however, I found it hard to stick to this rigorous schedule, so it wasn’t long

Heading in to taking the tests, I was expecting for my results to confirm what I was already thinking; which was that I would lean toward the psych or engineering field. And it did, while also showing me new career interests that I’m going to also have to consider. I tried to answer all the questions truthfully and honestly to the best of my capabilities, which I believe I have.

made almost half of the population stop working to find the cure and get back to their

The swine flu was predicted to sweep around the world, killing and maiming like the black plagues of the Middle Ages. An unprecedented massive and immediate inoculation of Americans was carried out. The swine flu never appeared, but hundreds had crippling diseases from the immunization itself”

I discovered that it didn’t react like previous strains of the flu. I decided to run test trials on it with vaccines that worked in the past. I went through every variation of vaccines, but, none of them had the slightest impact on it. Crystal and I ran this new strain, later to be known as X-01, through a graphic model on our computer; the computer predicted that within seven months, at least 99.99% of the Earth’s population would cease to exist. We immediately contacted the CDC, or the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, when we discovered the results of the graphic. The CDC sent in Swanson, possible the most profound immunologist in all of history, to our labs. We were instructed to work with Swanson to find a vaccine for X_01 no matter what. It was discovered that there was no other type of influenza like X-01 ever

First, I had an interest in genetics and wanted to be a genetic engineer and/or a genetic counsellor. I shadowed a genetic researcher and then knew for sure that I did not want to be a researcher and it made me think of options other than genetics. My mother also told me of a friend whose husband does genetic counseling and said not to do that because it was very sad and had poor effects on their lives. Next, I considered biomedical engineering. I did not know very well what it was about but I thought I would like it and knew it was similar to genetics, as in it worked with the human body. I looked into it a little more and read that it was basically a version of chemical engineering that had less jobs options, so I switched to chemical engineering.

Being clean and clear at heart is the foremost quality that I have acquired from my parents. Following the right path that would lead one to his/her success is what every being should desire to do in their lives. Ever since I was a child I have dreamt of becoming a heart surgeon which is an extremely hard and longest career for one to pursue. In order to pursue a career in life one has to be really careful and stress free to handle the problems that they would experience in their future. I have made this resolution when I was 7 years old that I would not hurt anyone in my life and will always make others stay happy. The reason behind this resolution of mine was to improve the mistakes I committed when I was a child. I always feel that I hurt