From cookies and face masks to research and mentors...
This year, the Bioethics Project is exploring the theme of “Medical Innovation and Healthcare Technology: Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine.” We are very excited to start our research, and we are beginning to think about the topics we might choose.
On Sunday, October 29, 2017, Bioethics Scholars Adithi J., Ava Z., Eleanor A., Eileen C., Grace H., Jessie Z., Julia A., Madison G., Maggie S., Nyakera O., Skyler F., and Vivienne G. went to the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University in Washington D.C.
We rode the bus for four hours (with one rest stop with a great Starbucks) and kept ourselves busy playing cards, telling stories, sending snaps in our Snapchat group, studying for chem, and doing homework.
Once we got to the hotel, it was nighttime. We ordered pizza and asked the teachers for cookies.
They said yes! Grace called Insomnia Cookies (which was only 1.9 miles away). Unfortunately, they said they did not deliver to our location. Julia called and said she was going to ~work it~. She told them we really wanted cookies, we were desperate, and we drove for four hours. They still would not deliver to our area. We were very sad.
Fortunately, we found another cookie business, Captain Cookie and the Milkman. We were overjoyed! Eleanor ordered us snickerdoodles, chocolate chip cookies, double chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, peanut butter cookies, and one vegan chocolate chip cookie.
Then we all went to our rooms and definitely 100% went straight to bed exactly after check-in. There was definitely no triller-making, TV-watching, face-mask-doing, or talking, because we were all absolutely asleep exactly at 10:00 pm. 😉
The next day we went to the Kennedy Institute! We met Dr. Laura Bishop, Mrs. Martina Darragh, Mrs. Patty Martin, and Mrs. Roxie France-Nuriddin, who welcomed us and taught us about effective and efficient research in Bioethics. We learned about a way to use a database called PubMed to find resources about bioethics.
We then went to the Bioethics Research Library to do our own research about our own bioethics topics of interest. When we were walking to the library, someone asked, “if there are only four computers how are we supposed to research?” After some silence, Grace replied, “Oh! They have books!”
Afterwards, we met with our project mentors and asked them questions. That was the end of our wonderful trip, and we were sad to leave. We are excited to return in January!
On our way back, we stopped at a rest stop with a Starbucks one last time. Maggie tried the Zombie Frappuccino!
We had a great time at Georgetown. The trip allowed us to learn more about bioethics research and our resources, and it also helped us bond as a group.