Keith Larsen

Clinical Practicum II

Service-Learning Journal

This semester along with several other classmates, I volunteered to participate in

contributing to the student Facebook page for the annual AAMD meeting. For each session, a
student volunteer would initiate a post immediately following the presentation, providing a place
for further discussion on the topic within the student professional group.
 This was my first AAMD meeting and I thought it was a great experience. I greatly
appreciated the opportunity to hear from leaders within the profession and gain further
knowledge into the field. Conferences can be a great resource to break out of what can become a
somewhat siloed experience in your professional life as you can connect with people across the
country, if not the world, and learn about new techniques or philosophies that you may otherwise
not hear about.

Figure 1: An example of a post

Having never even had a Facebook account prior to this conference, this volunteer
opportunity was a jump into new territory for me. I quickly came to appreciate the experience
though as it really was a nice way to interact with others and gain further insight into topics
discussed. This was probably more useful than ever with the conference being held virtually this
year. In the past when the conferences were in person, I imagine you would discuss the topics
you learned about that day with your surrounding peers. With that not being possible this time
around, the ability to have these important interactions with your peers could only be done in
these online forums.
 I appreciated the opportunity to support the profession in this capacity. I believe
interacting with peers is a vital aspect to both growing into the field as I am and continuing to
stay on top of relevant advancements once you are established within the profession. Especially
in dosimetry it can be easy to lead a solitary experience alone in your office, but professional
interactions are necessary. Participating in the capacity I did has given me motivation to think
about how I can further support healthy discourse and be involved within the profession in future
years.