Video Transcript 2023 Open House

Jen Eichmeyer: Alright. So, all genetic counseling programs are regulated by the Accreditation Council for genetic counseling which ensures that programs are meeting the highest standards for training genetic counselors.

We have been fortunate enough to be designated full program accreditation as of November 2022, and that is good for 6 years.

In addition to meeting ACGC standards, our courses also have to meet quality matters, standards, quality matters sets 42 standards based on best practices for high quality online courses. And since we’re an online program, we have to meet online standards.

And lastly, the American Board of genetic counseling administers the certification exam for genetic counselors. This board exam confirms that individuals have met the standards for genetic counseling practice, and provides guidance for the public in selecting qualified practitioners. Our courses and program learning and objectives are built around these standards set by these organizations so that our graduates are prepared for board certification and practice

his lists out our program outcomes. I’m not going to read it to you. I know you all can read just fine but if you’d like to look at them a little bit more closely. They are found on our website. These are very closely aligned with the ACGC practice-based competencies for genetic counselors. I know I’ve thrown out a lot of things, standards, competencies.

competencies, are the 22 practice-based things that an entry level provider must demonstrate to success successfully practice as a genetic counselor. So, think of this as the skill set of a genetic counselor. And then these skills are assessed on the ABGC certification again, exam, which happens outside of the program. So that’s your board certification exam, you taken after you graduate.

We are a fully online program, which means that all course activities are conducted virtually. Students do not have a requirement to travel to campus at any time during the program.

We are primarily asynchronous, which means all of the content is create, upfront and released on a weekly basis, and the weekly content is a variety of readings, recorded lectures podcasts, other multimedia sources.

And we do have need-based scholarships that are available for second year students, while financial aid is available to support tuition costs as well as temporary relocation costs for fieldwork.

Our program is full-time. That means that we recommend students commit at least 30 hours per week for course and field work. One of our goals for the future is to consider how to create a part-time track. As we know, this has been a needed option for a lot of prospective applicants. But we don’t currently have that available.

I do get a lot of questions about working during the program. And a majority of our students do have part-time jobs during the first year, but it becomes much harder in the second year, as you have to follow the clinic schedule for rotations, which is typically Monday through Friday 8 to 5.

And I do really caution against full-time work during the programs. It’s really, really difficult. And we absolutely prefer. You have a better work, life balance. But we also know that financial constraints are a priority. So, we don’t say you can’t work full time, but we really advise against it

The program is 56 credits, 41 of which are online courses and 15 are field work.

Students do not have a field work requirement until the second year, which starts in the summer after the first year. This is also a pedagogical choice, as we wanted to enhance the continuity of the clinical experience rather than having it broken up a couple weeks here through the first year, a couple weeks in the second year.

This also provides the students with enough background knowledge to be able to be more engaged in the participation in clinic.

We also have a capstone project rather than a thesis which we’ll talk about more later.

And we’ve built in more business skills and health policy into our curriculum as that’s now a very important piece of clinical practice. So our program focus tends to be training clinicians. That’s sometimes a question we get, what kind of a program are we clinical, psychosocial? And the way we tend to answer. It is, we’re both, but our interest is in training clinicians.

Our program accepts 12 students a year, and for the time being we see that staying, the number that we’re going to have.

So, in addition to coursework and field work, students also participate in supplementary activities.

We have a synchronous, o everybody together, journal club between first and second years, and we also have a synchronous activity called Peer Supervision Conference for second year students which allows them to present cases and process their clinical experiences with their peers and faculty.

Students also have an inter professional educational experience with a masters in science and respiratory care students to learn about interdisciplinary roles in the healthcare system.

So let me talk a little bit about online learning. It is really important to consider your personal learning style when thinking about an online program. The content is basically the same as you would find in a face-to-face program, but the delivery is quite different, and not everyone is suited for this kind of learning environment, which is okay.

With Covid. I think most people have engaged in some sort of virtual learning in some capacity. But I think it’s important to know that our program was designed to be online before Covid. So, there was a lot of intentionality embedded in what we have put together in a synchronous setting. Students are in a web meeting together, engage in real time, but in an asynchronous setting. This really is more of a flipped classroom setting in which the content is provided upfront and understanding of that content is assessed with various active learning activities. And we do employ active learning strategies in our teaching. And this is this very specific method that supports learning beyond just recording and absorbing knowledge. These strategies include writing reflections, discussions, problem solving, all of which promote analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

And many of our assignments are small groups and pairs, and within those small groups or pairs student will, students will get together, live usually by video to work.

And we also work to create that social presence and community. So again, that intentionality really is important in an online structure.

we have engaging activities that involve opportunities for interaction with course, content with peers, with the instructors. And we actually measure how much of that interaction is occurring between students, between the content and between this instructor and that engagement. And so, we really are trying to plan for a balance of all of these different interactions.

Students do both individual and group projects which allows them to learn from each other as much as they learn from the instructors. We really do value what the students are coming in and their knowledge base. And we know that we can learn from them, and they can teach each other.

So, we really do try to use all of these different activities as often as possible. We have our videos on as much as we can, because we want to see each other. Since we don’t see each other in real life, we really are trying to create that sense of community and presence.

And then with the instructors, we, we have drop-in virtual office hours where the students can talk, live to the instructors on a weekly basis. Instructors are very accessible. I know that was a question that came in. They’re usually responding to course questions and emails within 24 to 48 h, and they’re usually available for one-on-one study sessions or meetings. If that’s necessary.

Important characteristics of online learners includes both being independent and collaborative.

Students often have to be more self-motivated, as they don’t attend a classroom on a regular basis, but they also have to be accountable to themselves, to their peers, to their instructors, as they will be relying on each other for assignments, and that engagement that I talked about.

This means having good time management skills.

We are also looking for individuals who are self-reliant and who can problem solve, being able to look for answers or solutions on your own first is important in an online program. Since no one is physically together.

We also do ask our students to be committed, patient, flexible. We are always thinking of ways to improve the experience and hope our students will come into the program with understanding and generosity, especially when things don’t go the way we hope that’s just life.

So, some of these are the characteristics we are looking for in those prospective applicants.

Now I’m going to pass it off to Leslie to talk more about field work and the capstone project.

Leslie Ordal: Thanks, Jen. So clinical rotations. In our program at Boise State we do 3 long clinical rotations. Some programs choose to go this route as opposed to several shorter rotations. The program that I attended I have probably 10 rotations that were, you know, 2 to 6 weeks in length. However, here we’ve chosen to do 3 longer rotations. And these are typically 7 to 9 weeks long.

During those weeks is 3 to 4 days a week in clinic and one of the reasons that we chose it to be this way is you really get that sense of continuity? Being able to not always be going through an orientation and being the new person in the clinic, but getting to build your skills and start to feel like part of the team. It’s it’s really an advantage when you are trying to learn as much as you can, and build up your skill, set and gain confidence. Just to be spending, you know. Essentially, it’s like working a job in your rotation. As Jen mentioned earlier, these are in second year, and the second year starts in the summer after the first year. So, the summer, fall and spring. Each semester is 14 weeks long, and we schedule in those 7-to-9-week rotation chunks at a certain point during the semester. So sometimes we’ll have a break in between, like if you go for the beginning of the summer semester, and then don’t go again until later in the fall, and sometimes they’ll be a little bit closer together.

The specialties that you will rotate in are prenatal pediatrics in cancer. And we sometimes call these the big 3 Internet counseling because they are the 3 main specialties. That being said, we also have opportunities for shorter elective rotations. These are usually non-clinical. They’re usually 2 to 4 weeks in length and at this point they’re all virtual. So, we’ve got opportunities with labs, with industry. We’ve got a nonprofit. We’re looking into some with public health.

we’ve got ones related to insurance and consulting. So, they are not required. But if students express an interest to me. In doing something besides clinical rotations. I’m always happy to look into these and try to set something up that matches your interest and that will fit in, you know, either before or after your main clinical rotation, just to make sure that you have enough time to devote to the the clinical Skill building. And one thing that I wanted to emphasize is that even though our program is asynchronous and online, your rotations are in person.

So, no matter where you live, you will be traveling and need to relocate temporarily for your rotation the advantage with having that asynchronous class schedule in terms of rotations is that you can spend the full day in clinic. There’s, you know, you don’t have to drop everything to run off to lecture in the afternoon. You can. You can really stay and see and be part of the team and not have it be interrupted.

Because you can manage it like a workday and then do your course work and your other program related activities in the evening on the weekends.

Jen, could you do the next slide, please.

Locations. We get a lot of questions about locations for our clinical rotations. And we are online. But we are based at Boise State University, and as such we have close connections with 2 hospitals. In Boise, Idaho. So, we have a lot of students will be doing rotations at one of these hospitals, or both.

Not everyone will. But it is a pretty common rotation spot, and with the rest of this list I’ve listed it out from sort of more common to less common. So again, as we move out into Pacific Northwest, we have you know, a number of rotation spots in Washington, especially Eastern Washington in Oregon, other States throughout the Western Us. And then once in a while, we will have rotations in States that are much further afield, either in the East or Midwest. I don’t sort of publicize a list because they do change sometimes, and well, actually, they change frequently. The reason for this being, while we do work with clinics long term, and like to have, you know, sites that we work with again and again and form a relationship with, they’re not always going to be available.

Many clinical rotation sites work with multiple programs, and even the ones that just work with us. We need to give supervisors a break once in a while. As well as sometimes. There are things like someone might need to go on parental leave or there might be a staff change. So, because there is some change ability in that I don’t. I don’t publicize like a fixed list. I just expect people to know. Yeah, you’re gonna travel. That’s that’s part of the the framework and next slide, please.

 

Now, in terms of deciding where you go. When everyone starts the program beginning of the year. You meet with me and also with Jenny Emerizy, who’s on call to discuss rotation, possibilities or preferences, anything that might be convenient or very inconvenient for you that we can. We can keep in mind, and then we meet again a couple of times throughout the year. And stay in close communication, so that it gives you plenty of time to plan ahead. To let us know if there’s any big changes that have come up that may affect you where you might be going, and just so that it’s not a big surprise, and we always like to give people 2 to 3 months of time ahead of time to be able to to make plans.

We do have budget and planning exercises and course work. When you first start the program, just so that you can start thinking about, you know what the costs might be, what are the logistics going to be? We share contacts with students who have rotated in the previous sites. Some of our alums are available, and we now have a resource source folder of people who’ve traveled to our different locations with recommendations about housing, about transportation, etc.

And even if you are in a location, you know, say, your your home base is somewhere where we have a rotation site., my message is expect to travel. It is, just important to understand that we don’t always have every single specialty available at each location all the time. So, it’s best. If you come in, come into the program. Being ready to say, Yeah, II can, you know, make it work for these 7 to 9 week stretches, do my rotation, and then come back home so, and but we will try and make it be as close a fit as possible for you.

Okay, next slide.

So, I wanted to move on. Now to talk about the Capstone project. So, at our program we have a capstone project. We don’t have a thesis. We really like the flexibility of the capstone project to to do something that is perhaps a little non-traditional. Everyone, regardless of their project are going to be learning strong foundational research skills. And you can either apply it to a traditional research project. You know something with a hypothesis where you are going to be investigating and coming up with data and making conclusion, or doing a more practical application or resource. And this is a very popular choice at our program. So, we encourage students to work on projects that again, using sound research skills and methodologies, you will develop some kind of tool or a resource. An educational module, something that will help patients or providers. But that’s more of knowledge, translation and filling, filling a known gap rather than identifying a gap through research. And I’ll give some examples of this on the next slide.

So, some of our capstone projects include a culturally tailored tool to encourage family history, gathering a trivia app for board exam practice. This was done in collaboration with the gaming, and oh, I can never remember the interactive media and mobile program states. So as a collaboration between one of our counseling students and students in their program, a curated online resource for people who are adopted or donor conceived to learn about genetic testing and how it may benefit them or may not. In a Spanish language video to educate consumers about pharmacogenetics, and that was specifically tailored to people of a Hispanic background which may affect some of the utility of the of the testing for them. So, these are all just examples of some of the some of the many projects that we’ve done.

Oftentimes students will say, I have no idea what I’m gonna do. You know, I always keep off a file of potential project ideas. These are things that have come up for me other program leadership. I also have other genetic counselors in my network that reach out and say, Hey, Leslie, if you ever have a student who’s interested in this. I think it’s a great idea, and I would love to mentor them or advise them on their on their capstone project. So that is another possibility as well. But I also love when students come in and have their own ideas, because as much as we all try and be open minded, and, you know, taken diverse amount of media from wherever we can’t help the fact that we’re in, Jan counseling. And sometimes our our perspective does get a bit narrow. So, some of the best ideas have come from students bringing in that outside perspective. And then I work with them to help them develop a project, find appropriate advisors for the committee, and then take it to take it to the final product.

Okay? All right, I think we’re gonna go back to Jen

Jen Eichmeyer: Okay, thank you, Leslie. I’m actually going to turn it over to Susie to talk a little bit about our application requirements.

Susie Seltzer: So, you’ve probably all been out on the admissions page. Everything is listed in terms of tree pre-requisite prerequisites. But on top of that we need. if that’s a part of your application. We need your personal statement. a resume or CV. there’s also a verification of commitments that we ask you to do that states that you have read and agree to the travel commitments and the coursework commitments. and then you will also need a national match number. Transcripts must be official and need to be sent to the graduate college because this is a sort of a 2-part thing where it’s going to start with the graduate college. All your stuff is going. Your application is going to be submitted with the graduate college. Once they have all your transcripts. They will calculate a GPA. And then they will send it to me.

I would say, if if you are applying to make sure to you log in a lot, because they will let you know if anything’s missing. There’s a checklist, and it will say, we have this. We have this with it. We have this. That’s once it gets to me, I will look for things that we need as a program like the personal statement or the Cv. And make sure they’re all there, and if I see something missing I will also reach out and say, I can’t find this. So, you check your emails a lot. Get back to the graduate college or me, just to make sure your application goes through smoothly. And during application, I’m the person you’re gonna deal with like 99.9% of the time. So, if you have any questions at all, feel free to email me, and I’ll have, I’ll happily walk you through what’s going on.

Think that’s it.

Jen Eichmeyer: Our interviews are conducted virtually, and they always have been. We typically invite 45 applicants for interviews and use these candidates for our rank order list.

If you are invited for an interview, it will consist of several interviews. Obviously, you’ll meet me. You’ll meet other program leadership committee members and current studios current students, all by video meeting.

There’s also a group interview with other applicants and an introductory video that must be submitted prior to the interview day for the interviewees. Again, we’ll provide specific prompts, as Susie said. So, you’ll be able to address all of those questions we have but pay attention to the guidelines. While face to face programs don’t require that you create a video. We do because there are many activities in our program that involve video work. We have a couple students current students with us today. And I’m sure they can speak to how many videos they’ve had to create for us over the last year.

plus, these videos do save time for us. As the interview committee. So that way, you don’t have to individually introduce yourself 5 different times. We are already. Have that introduction of yourself, and so we’ll be asked, able to ask you some different questions.

I I get this question a lot, what advice do you have for applicants to our programs? Specifically, so we do have really, really specific prompts for the personal statement, and our personal statement is 4 pages long, which means we are giving you a lot of space to tell us who we are.

Use that space, use as much of it as as you’re allowed, based on the instructions to answer the prompt and tell us how genetic counseling is a good fit for you.

Having a sense of the applicant is a really important part of our evaluation. So, use it to your advantage. Tell us about yourself. Tell us about your skills. You have this opportunity to showcase yourself through the personal statement, and it’s up to you to figure out what you want to highlight.

I would also recommend that you are meticulous about following the directions. Don’t go over the allowed page limit.

but take up the page, look at the guidelines for the font size, the spacing, the margins, the supplies to your CV. As well. We give you an example of what we want to look for on the Cv. And the reason we do that is because that makes it easier for us, as an interview committee, to go through those pieces of the application to see if those things are there. If we’re having to search through pages and pages and pages of things to find the answer to these questions that’s going to take us longer. So please try to follow the directions as they’ve been indicated.

We are paying attention to how much you are paying attention to those details. Because again, we’re an online program. And in an online program, you don’t have somebody who’s there right at your fingert tips to ask those questions to. We need to make sure our students are able to follow directions and pay attention to those details.

Susie mentioned GPA. From the graduate college. That’s just a requirement for the graduate college and it is a factor we review. But the grades on the specific courses are much more important than the overall. GPA.

We will absolutely review applications with lower GPAs. So, 3.0 or lower, we do ask for additional letters of reference that can speak to academic aptitude. We know that a GPA does not necessarily represent your ability, but we want to know that you can be successful at the graduate level.

So, I do encourage you to include a narrative about your GPA. In your personal statement. Explain how explain? Why? Explain what you’ve learned? Tell us about it.

All of this is part of our holistic approach to admissions. Now.

this piece about skills relevant to genetic counseling. This is not the same as shadowing. We do not require shadowing to apply to our program, and while shadowing experience are encouraged, and they will probably be helpful. What we really want to know is, are you able to articulate what the profession is?

We want to know that you want to be part of it, and we want to know why you think you’re a good fit for it. You may be able to answer those questions without needing to do a full, shadowing experience. You may be able to get that from your own personal experience you may be able to get that from interviewing genetic counselors attending a conference or being able to be part of one of the journal clubs. There’s a lot of different activities that can teach you what the profession is without it having to be shadowing 265.

So, try to be creative and thinking about how you can present what you think the profession is in your personal statement.

Advocacy, leadership, volunteering, experiencing populations that are different from your own. Those are all things that fall under the category of skills relevant to genetic counseling. Those are important skills to have as a genetic counselor. And we do take a very wide approach,

to any of those skills. So maybe you’ve been a coach. Maybe you’ve been a camp counselor. Maybe you’ve been an RA. Maybe you are the leader in your family structure as long as you can provide a narrative for how your experience is related to these genetic counseling skills, and how they can apply to the practice of genetic counseling. We are really pretty generous.

Maybe your leadership skill is different than what other people have. It might not be the traditional sense of being a president or a vice president of a different club. It might be a different kind of leadership experience. Maybe your advocacy looks a little bit different, because maybe you immigrated from another country, and you had to advocate for yourself, as you navigated a new system.

Some of these different kinds of experience do get overlooked.

But those are things that we’re interested in. Those are skills or qualities that you gained that are still relevant. And we call these transferable skills because they’re certainly relevant to how you can practice Internet counseling

and as far as reapplicants. One of the things we really do like to see is some self-reflection in the personal statement about not matching.

and as far as reapplicants. One of the things we really do like to see is some self-reflection in the personal statement about not matching.

I’ve encouraged many reapplicants to think about how to engage with the genetics community like volunteering for a support group, or getting more exposure to somebody who is living with a genetic condition, working in a clinic or a hospital. Even attending conferences can give you more exposure to the genetics community.

And while being part of a research team research team or getting a GCA job are really going to be helpful, they are in short supply, and we don’t expect that of our reapplicants. So be thoughtful about where you spend your time and energy. Some of the things may not be about experience, but maybe it’s about the application process itself.

Critically think about your personal statement. Did you answer all the questions? Did you answer all the questions fully. Did you use all the space on the page? Did you showcase yourself in a way that we could see you and see what you bring to the table

some for some applicants. It’s about their interviewing skills. It’s about getting more practice and experience with answering questions on the spot.

Not everybody has a lot of experience with that, and that’s okay. But being part of the interview is something where you have to perform to some extent. So, think about how you can get better practice at answering those kinds of questions. So those are all things that you can do to help with your reapplication.

So, this is our contact. I’m sure you know all of these, our social media. Susie’s really good about putting things out there.

What I’m now gonna shift to is looking at some of the questions we got from those of you that sent it in ahead of time. I think we have hit most of them. But one of the things I’d like to do is ask our 2 students, Elena and Caitlin. I’m putting you guys on the spot now. One of the questions we got was about cohort cohesiveness.

So, the question specifically is, do the cohorts do any activities or team building? Does the online nature of the program affect teamwork and how close students are. And I’m gonna ask you,  you 2 to speak to that

Caitlyn Stringham: Hi everyone. Elena, would you prefer to go first, or would you prefer me?

Elena Talache-Prager: Go ahead, Caitlin.

Caitlyn Stringham: As Jen mentioned, we have people from everywhere.  So, my personal experience is, you are as cohesive as you want to be. You’re not gonna be in classroom with people every day. but phones work both ways, and computers work both ways. So, once you start to get used to your classmates. it is very common for us to jump into group chats or do video chats together, or just

randomly call or text each other. Sometimes you have to think just to switch ahead if there’s a time difference. But I think if you want to form those friendships and relationships with your peers and other students. It is very possible. and especially when you’re going on rotation. Sometimes it’ll overlap a little bit with some people, and maybe you can see each other. Then, if you prefer.

Elena Talache-Prager: I’d agree with you, Caitlin. The way the program is set up. There’s lots of teamwork and lots of group activities. So, you do get the opportunity to interact sometimes synchronously with your classmates. And so, you’re able to build a relationship. You know, based in the the coursework. But then, of course, there’s always a little bit of discussion of how’s your day going? What’s going on that kind of stuff in the community does build overtime with that kind of interaction.

Caitlyn Stringham: And we do have monthly socials over zoom, which are completely optional. Sometimes we just chat sometimes for the game. That’s a nice opportunity to see people.

And every once in a while, the teachers will do a synchronous session at the beginning of the class at the beginning of the semester. So that’s another way to talk with people in real time as well.

Jennifer Eichmeyer: And our hope this year is that we all might be together at NSGC. Or most of us will be together at NSGC. So, we’ll actually get to meet each other in person before graduation, which is not something we’ve had the opportunity to do because of COVID-19.

So, I think that that’s also a chance for people to get to know each other is through the conferences. In the second year.

Leslie, the next question is for you, do you have any fieldwork opportunities abroad or in languages other than English.

Leslie Ordal: So, while I wish we had field work opportunities abroad, logistically, it’s just not possible in terms of insurance and and liability. However, we are always on the lookout for opportunities for rotations in languages other than English, which is typically Spanish. So, we have had a couple of students rotate at a site where the lead Genetic counselor councils in Spanish.

There are also a couple of other sites that have Spanish speaking GCs. And if you speak Spanish, even if you’re not fluent. But if you’re conversant and want to learn counseling Spanish, that’s absolutely an opportunity.

In terms of other languages. Beyond that we haven’t really had that chance. But when I meet with everyone at the beginning of the year, what if my questions is always, do you speak any languages other than English that way I can just be aware if anything comes up, or I happen to know you speak mandarin, and there happens to be a GC that counsels in mandarin, you know. That’s a great opportunity. So, hoping to see more of those hoping to see a lot more Spanish speaking. GCs

So that’s that’s something we always try to jump on and seize if it comes up

right.

Jennifer Eichmeyer: Right. And one more question for you, Leslie, with the online learning MoD model, how does Boise? How do we ensure students attain meaningful clinical rotations?

Leslie Ordal: I you know, I think that’s really hat’s a great question. And I think it’s because you are online. You know, there’s so much that you can learn online in terms of learning counselling skills. And there’s been so much work that’s gone into this program working with instructional designers who are skills in adult learners in teaching things like counseling skills online. They’ve worked with a master’s social work program here prior to us. Many, you know, Boise State has 20 years of clinical online learning expertise.

But you know, when it comes down to doing your clinical rotations, that’s another benefit of that longer rotation structure is that you really get a chance to immerse yourself. And becoming part of a clinic building skills. Because each specialty is different and each clinic is different. So, it gives you that continuity and that chance to build a relationship, and future networking with your supervisor and other individuals at the site. And. as I mentioned, we have sites, you know, across the Us. And sometimes, you know, there’s changes in the schedule. But I also mentioned that we like to work with sites long term and so students will often ask, well, you know, there’s there’s a clinic near where I live, you know. II bet they would take me. Can I just set up a rotation there? And that’s not really our model. We don’t really like doing one offs because we invest a lot of time in building that relationship with supervisors to make sure that you know they’re teaching style aligns with ours. Their philosophy aligns with ours. We do a lot of training. We provide a lot of support. And it really means that when we work with students to find their rotation. It’s not just about location, but it’s about fit with the Supervisor, you know. I wanna make sure if someone is struggling in a certain area, you know. Maybe they you know, or feeling a little nervous or or you know.

or, conversely, maybe they they just wanna do as much as they can. They really just wanna jump in and try things out. You know, I wanna make sure they’re they’re with a supervisor that that’s gonna work with whether it’s helping, do things stepwise and build them up in confidence, or someone who’s willing to say, you know, take a crack at it. We’ll see how it goes, and we’ll reassess. So that’s part of that knowing people over a long period of time, as you get to know who’s gonna be the best fit and cause it’s such a core part of your education in this program.

We’ve put a lot of time into making sure that these are meaningful.

Jennifer Eichmeyer: Thanks. Leslie. Caitlin! Elena, do you have anything to add about clinical rotation? Since you’ve now finished your first round of those.

Caitlyn Stringham: I think part of that will just depend on everybody’s personality. I am an information seeker, and I had asked my supervisor up front. Can we be very clear about your teaching style, my learning style, how to incorporate feedback milestones that should be meeting skills. I should be developing throughout I found that very helpful, and we had the guideline of a plan. and then we deviated when we felt like it. But it was really good to be very open and honest about my abilities with my supervisor and what she expected from me.

Elena Talache-Prager: I’ll say, my experience sounds very similar to Caitlin. I actually worked with 4 supervisors. And so, I was able to compare, you know, different genetic counseling strategies and styles, and learn from them, and kind of implement. And I was encouraged to experiment with finding something that works for me, and it was all within a a guideline, you know, a very I’ll say loose, loose expectations, but it was always supportive and with honest feedback that I took to heart and am tried to implement in my future counseling sessions.

Jennifer Eichmeyer: All right. Well, I think we’ve addressed most of the questions. So now I’m just gonna open it up to a QA. So, if any of you attendees have any additional questions, we’d be happy to answer them.

Kendra: I do have a question, but it’s incredibly specific to my situation, so I can wait until everyone else is done. I just wanted to talk to additions, folks, while I had you here.

Jennifer Eichmeyer: Anyone else?

Okay? Well, I think that concludes our open house for today, Susie, I think you can stop the recording.