Kylie McGrath

The virtual GROW experience began differently than I expected. When I was accepted to be a part of the GROW team, I thought we would jump right into our work at the beginning of the summer. To my surprise, there was a lot of training before the summer began. This training helped me feel like I was fully a part of the larger GlobeMed network. In fact, meeting people through initial GROW preparation meetings throughout the spring urged me to reach out to other chapters throughout the summer to hear about their experiences with GROW. 

GROW this summer obviously looks much different than normal because all of the work was conducted virtually. Grace, Phoebe, and I went into the summer with a lot of project ideas and expectations. Although we were able to find success with many projects, others were too difficult during the time of a pandemic. Our biggest challenge throughout the summer was communication with PEDA. Finding regular times to communicate with Thip from PEDA from different time zones and work schedules was difficult. Hence, we began working on some independent projects that could benefit our Notre Dame GlobeMed chapter. I began to reach out to different GlobeMed chapters to learn about their GROW experiences and possibly plan joint chapter meetings for the fall semester. Many chapters were very receptive to the idea of meeting and communicating. We have been able to communicate with a few chapters and understand that we are not the only chapter facing partner communication struggles. Many chapters have commented that they changed their expectations throughout the summer especially as the pandemic continues to affect the world in different ways. Other independent projects we worked on include reaching out to past GROW interns to learn about their in-person experiences, creating blog posts, and creating a presentation about PEDA to share with the Notre Dame chapter. Thus, the work we completed through GROW this summer was less focused on solely assisting PEDA, but rather making previous and current information from GlobeMed more easily accessible to our chapter. 

We were able to complete a good amount of work to support our partner, PEDA. We used documents provided by Thip to update every section of the PEDA website. These updates include the most recent information about PEDA. Additionally, we created a short video explaining the work PEDA does. This video will be added to the website and can be used by PEDA to provide information to potential supporters. By updating the website and completing the video, I had the opportunity to learn more about PEDA and our partnership. I was able to understand the structure and work of our partner, and I hope to pass this information on to the entire GlobeMed chapter.