Ini-Obong Epke is attending the Michigan Math and Science Scholars program where she is studying Dissecting Life: Human Anatomy and Physiology. Ini-Obong describes her first week at MMSS as “very exciting.” She has settled in with roommates, met with instructors, and started “diving into classes immediately with lectures and dissections, as well as assigning presentation groups and topics.”
“Anatomy and Physiology has been so fun to learn about. Just in one week, we covered a system each day and we even visited The Creature Conservancy that the head instructor volunteers at. We were able to see different animals and how different their physiology and anatomy are compared to humans, I even touched a snake, which was something I never pictured myself doing prior to that day. Her passion and involvement in putting together facilities for the animals with her husband is very inspirational. She’s not the only one, all of the instructors are really passionate whether it be teaching us and making sure that we understand lessons through group activities and check-in questions, or going to college and pursuing careers they’re interested in,” Ini-Obong reports.
Ini-Obong and her classmates have been learning about the nervous and skeletal systems. They have explored various tools and their functions while performing dissections.
“We started the week by dissecting a sheep’s brain and eyeballs. We even saw real human cadavers yesterday. It’s thanks to donors like the ones we saw yesterday that artificial skeletons are so anatomically correct,” Ini-Obong explains.
“It’s not just the class that’s informational, I can also learn with and from other participants. It’s been great working together with other attentive and driven young individuals. As well as experiencing cultural differences and how terms for specific parts of the body vary. The program has people from all over the world and the US. There are people from Dubai, Canada, California, Washington, Greece, and South Korea, as well as other places. Besides the people, the campus experience has also been great,” Ini-Obong adds.
When not in class, Ini-Obong and her friends have been exploring the local area.
“There are so many places downtown to visit, so we’re not always cooped up in the dorm and the counselors plan activities like Murder Mystery Night and Dance Night, just to name a few. In addition to the course, the excursions have been fun. I went on thrilling rides at Cedar Point and explored the Detroit Art and Science museums over the weekend, which was really fun,” Ini-Obong says.
“This first week has been fast and jam-packed, but the experience is worth it,” Ini-Obong adds.
Week Two
Ini-Obong reports that her last week at MMSS has been busy with course work and final presentations.
“My physiology and anatomy group has been really busy editing and going through practice presentations on why it is imperative that the systems we randomly selected work the best together. My group selected the Nervous and Integumentary system. We had to prove why our two systems were essential by using clinical studies, such as diseases or cases related to sensory nerve receptors in the skin not functioning how they’re supposed to. I had a couple of late nights editing my slides, as did my group mates,” Ini-Obong says.
After lectures and group activities were completed, students discussed future career paths, listened to stories and received guidance from teaching assistants and instructors.
“One thing I am keeping in mind as I apply to college is that your path is never rigid and you’ll never stop learning. Besides that, the last week of MMSS wasn’t just stress, college, and crunching this final week. MMSS still had many different events going on such as chalking, hustle night, family feud, jeopardy, karaoke, and sand beach ball, just to name a few things. Besides all of the fun and busyness, we were all thinking about our session ending soon and not seeing each other again for a while, so we made sure to hang out even more and look out for each other as the program came to an end,” Ini-Obong says.
“You can gather from my report that I did more than just study the whole time at MMSS, but also made long-lasting friendships, expanded my network by speaking with instructors and TA’s, as well as found a stronger passion for the scientific field than I have ever felt before,” Ini-Obong adds.
Great work, Ini-Obong. We are so happy to hear that the course has reinforced your passion for science and wish you the best in your future studies!
>> Read Ini-Obong Ekpe’s final report (PDF file, 96 KB).
>> Learn about other students’ experiences in the GFF Scholarship Program.
