Genetic Counseling Graduate School Interview Prep

Genetic Counseling Graduate School Interview Prep Tell me about yourself - I am a driven, empathetic, and thoughtful person with a passion for improving health equity in the American Healthcare system. I discovered genetic counseling my sophomore year of college funny enough in a sociology course, and it appealed to me because of how the profession will allow me to utilize my love for advocacy, science, and teaching to help empower patients to make informed medical decisions. Since finding genetic counseling, I have used my adaptable and resourceful skill set to seek meaningful experiences such as working as a GCA, tutoring children with down syndrome, and volunteering at Crisis Text Line, all of which has affirmed to myself that this is the path for me. I believe I really can contribute to the field of genetic counseling because I truly want to help guide and support patients through potentially emotional medical information while using my prior research and advocacy experiences to help push the field forward as a clinical pediatric genetic counselor.. What are your personal strengths and weaknesses - Strengths: 1. I can adapt to any situation Wharton lab anecdoteFirst time in a clinical lab and had to quickly learn all the wet lab procedures, how to effectively communicate with patients, complete literature reviews and manuscripts etc. Was able to become independent within first couple months 2. I can communicate to diverse groups of people. I have experience working with patients of all ages: from children to older adults. a. Children: Jake anecdote b. Adults: Wharton lab c. All ages at CTL (10 year olds to vets) 3. Empathetic and can usually see other's perspectives. This came from my experiences growing up with a transgender brother iv. Organized and good communication skills Weaknesses: 1. I spend time perfecting things that probably don't need to be perfected 2. Sometimes I fully devote myself to academics preventing me from having a good balance between work and social life Greatest Accomplishment - 1. What is important to me is helping people in all things that I do. Therefore from my perspective, my greatest achievement is the work I accomplished at camp. 2. From when I was nine to nineteen, I attended Camp Tevya. As a camper, I noticed the heteronormative culture and realized that the camp environment was not welcoming to campers of the LGBTQ+ community. At camp dances, it was expected to go with a member of the opposite sex, there were no gender neutral bathrooms etc. As I grew older and became a counselor, I realized that this heteronormative culture was also ingrained into the camp's staff and administration and became determined to change it. I stepped up into a leadership role as a Cornerstone fellow, a program where selected counselors from across the country came together in Maryland for a leadership retreat, and was granted an opportunity to make a change. Using my resources, I brought in a LGBTQ+ panel to the camp to educate and train the staff on how to be more inclusive and foster acceptance among the campers. We also did a pronoun training and collectively brainstormed ways to make camp a more inclusive place. The training was an absolute success, and today we have 2 transgender campers who attend the camp and many openly gay or lesbian campers or counselors. What do you think gives you a competitive edge? - a. Adaptability to any situation b. I can communicate to diverse groups of people c. I am able to handle stress well d. Determined and 100% commitment to whatever I am doing Describe a time you failed. How did you overcome? - Inability to break through to a suicidal texter at CTL i. One of the biggest reasons why I love volunteering at CTL is the feeling I receive after I help bring a texter from a moment of panic and despair to a place of calm understanding. ii.However, sometimes I am not able to placate every texter that I am assigned to and this I consider a failure. iii.An example that comes to mind is the time that I was unable to connect and break through to a suicidal texter. iv.This texter was coming from a very dark place and was cussing me out and refusing to open up about their feelings and why they were texting. All they said was that they had a gun and was planning on taking their life. I could tell how much pain this person was in and tried every tool in my tool box to try and connect with them. v.However, after an hour of back and forth and getting nowhere, they just stopped responding and I was instructed to close the chat. vi.This experience made me question my counseling skills and my ability to help others as I always try to be patient and empathetic with my texters but this individual l was not responding to my methods. Overcome: I was devastated that I was unable to help this individual. After I debriefed with my supervisor, I logged off, I did some selfcare, took a bath, ate some chocolate, and really realized that I did everything in my power to help this individual. Within a day, I regenerated my confidence and was able to log back on to help other texters. Describe a time you did not meet a personal goal - Not reaching the score I wanted on the GRE From high school, I knew I wanted to work in healthcare and spent my time at Emory focusing on academics and gaining the re