On Monday and Tuesday, I went to work at Benson Hill, which is a biotech company. I have been learning about a python module called OpenCV, which is meant for image processing.
I have been given a task for the week to count the number of seeds of rice in an image by creating a program that can read the picture. This is so any picture can be read and instantly analyzed rather than counted by hand every time.
What is particularly difficult is separating overlapping seeds in an image as the computer has trouble reading slight changes in pixel values.
The past two days have been appointment days. I have been helping the vet techs as well as Doctor Leonard with appointments by comforting the patients and giving them treats and lots of hugs. After the appointments I clean up the exam room. I have observed how they collect samples and how they do heart worm tests. I did get to meet a super cute golden doodle puppy who came in for a puppy check up.
Today I was able to attend a seminar given by a professor visiting from Duke University. The presentation was about his own research into root growth and plant mutation. I have also organized various storage areas in the lab and have attended weekly presentations given by guest speakers. Not only have I been able to learn about science but public speaking as well.
Today was my first day volunteering with Doctor Leonard at Cherry Hill Vet Hospital. Today was surgery day, so I mostly observed. They had three patients who needed surgery, one of the vet techs said that they usually have around four. I also restocked syringes. Doctor Leonard went over some x-rays with me and pointed out different thing that looked a little odd that I would never have noticed by myself. She keeps me on my toes by asking me questions about simple things she has taught me throughout the day.
For the last two days at the Missouri Botanical Garden, I spent some time doing some general stuff, and I got to visit and talk to the Audio/Visual department. They’re the people who operate all of the screens and support all of the events that the garden holds. I also finished up that laptop, which was great because I didn’t want to leave that project unfinished.
Really enjoying my time at Danforth! After spending time learning how to use the VR system I have crafted a user protocol explaining how to operate it. I have also helped with a few other task around the lab and am now preparing soil testing packages to be mailed.
Yesterday was my last day at Emmaus. I spent most of the day at Tiffany Court which was the home at which I spent the most time over the course of these two weeks. I really got to know the three guys at that house very well and I was (and am) sad to not be able to spend as much time there anymore, one guy, Ron, was pretty mad that I was leaving.
Over these two busy weeks, I learned so much about caretaking, responsibility, and human services in general. I did not think that I would be that interested in this career path, but as the days went on I found I really loved what I was doing. It´s hard, but rewarding work. You are giving people who may not be happy a chance at living a good, happy, and independent life. I met a lot of staff members that were so passionate about the work that they were doing, the people they cared for were their family. Discovering that really inspired me and made me want to pursue some career like this in the future.
On Wednesday I went to the State Capitol in Jefferson City to advocate for Emmaus. I spent the day meeting one on one with senators, representatives, and legislators. It was really interesting but also very stressful. I have never been in such a politically charged environment before. It was very new and eye-opening to the world of politics.
We were advocating to get the Emmaus budget from 20million to 40million. This is the money that the state grants Emmaus to keep it in business. For our organization to run perfectly we would need at least 76million dollars but the state refused to pass that. So, we advocated for the senators to reevaluate the bill and increase our funding. I got to sit in the room as the bills were being moved on from the Senate to the house, and luckily Senator Eigel objected to the original bill and asked the chairman to keep the bill open to increase the finding to 30million. So, our campaigning and advocating worked!
Yesterday was my last day at the World Bird Sanctuary. I spent the whole day helping out in the bird hospital. It wasn’t very busy so I pretty much did most of the same things like laundry, cleaning cages, and helping with food prep. The highlight of the day was after I finished at the bird hospital, I got the privilege to meet and pet baby emus!
For the first Day and a half, I shadowed some of the programmers, which meant that I was at a desk for the entire time. Near the end, there was some work that they let me do, which was mostly copy/paste work.
Today, I worked with the server administrator and got to see everything that went into keeping the servers running. I got to go inside of the server room, where there was less hardware than I imagined there would be. It is also a very loud and windy room.
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