Assignment 11: Mentorship Write Up/ Picture

Up until this point, you know my work ethics and details about my mentorship, but you barely know anything about me! Let me formally introduce myself, my name is Kamayla. I will be graduating from West Forsyth in May 2018. I am the youngest and have an older brother and sister. I am very excited for college and am impatiently awaiting for my acceptance letters. My dream schools are Duke, Georgia Tech, and UC Berkley. Although these are a reach, I am hoping to go to Clemson or UGA then transfer. On my free time, I enjoy knitting and sewing. Funny I know, but it is a hobby that I highly recommend partaking in. Other than school, I am a golfer and compete in tournaments all year long. Before golf, I was a competitive figure skater. I trained everyday from 5:30AM to 8AM, which included ice time and gym. Due to constant training, I injured my back and had to hang up my skates and go through intense physical therapy -- one of the reasons why I chose my internship.

I am passionate about my internship, which is at Children's Healthcare. Currently I am in the Sports Medicine department and am interning a physical therapist, Jessica. I intern six hours a week and occasionally want to stay longer than I am supposed to. The first thing I do when I walk into the clinic is clean all the equipment and tables. During the first 30 minutes of my arrival, Jessica usually does not have a patient, so I shadow other therapists, such as Chris, Kieth, or Pam. Once Jessica's patient arrives, I assist her in demonstrating exercises and grabbing equipment. At a time, she has two to three patients at once, so when she is with one patient, I will watch over her other ones. For instance, when she was cupping her patient's back, I demonstrated an exercise, called kick and punch, to one of her patients. Sometimes when the clinic is slow, I try to do as much as possible by reorganizing or cleaning.

Following my internship and graduation, I plan on going to college. I am not exactly sure what school I will attend, but so far I have applied to U of Alabama, Auburn, U of Florida, U of Miami, UGA, Clemson, U of Minnesota, Emory, and UCLA. As of now, I have been accepted into Alabama and Auburn but am hoping for other schools. Although I am interning for a physical therapist, I dream of becoming an engineer. Yes, the two do not match, but I am still young and am unsure of what to do with my future. By taking on this internship, my goal is to be influenced on what steps to take and how I can achieve them. Hopefully, I can go the medical and engineering route of becoming a biomedical engineer. Biomedical engineers create and design products, which aid one's health. These products range from prosthetics to internal organs. Maybe one day, I can create an evolutionary prosthetic and work with a physical therapist, who will be treating a patient with the prosthetic.

Here I am holding a resistance band, while a patient flexes her foot.

My mentor and I standing in front of the clinic's sign.