Bye for Now, Chicago!

We are all headed back to Waco today after a fun few days in The Windy City. I had a wonderful time between attending sessions at the congress, spending time with my classmates, visiting the Science and Industry Museum and meeting up with one of my sorority sisters from college.

Yesterday was my fullest day at the congress yet and I really felt like I got a lot out of it. One of the sessions I attended yesterday discussed how one healthcare system is utilizing statistics in order to predict daily volumes. My classmates and I discovered that we have been doing some of the same analysis in our QBA class over the last five weeks! Although I’m sure they are using much larger groups of data in their analysis, it is exciting to see an application to what we have been learning within the healthcare industry. It’s also a great reminder to make sure I save my professor’s slides from QBA to refer to during my residency and after graduation!

In addition to having some great sessions, we also attended a luncheon as a group yesterday. The luncheon featured the guest speaker, Tim King. Mr. King is the CEO and founder of Urban Prep, which is a nonprofit, charter high school for boys. Mr. King discussed the challenges he faced when forming the organization, but that the school’s motto “We Believe” encouraged him to push forward. The schools were developed in response to address the poor graduation and college completion rates among boys in urban areas. Mr. King’s speech was a reminder of the importance of tenacity when we face challenges. I found the story of Urban Prep particularly interesting since I got together with one of my college sorority sisters who is doing Teach for America in Chicago just a few days beforehand. She shared similar stories of the challenges that students in lower income areas of Chicago face that Mr. King shared. It was truly a wonderful speech and overall a wonderful day.

Although I am glad to be going home, I am going to miss Chicago! I have only been once before and definitely need to come back when I have some time to explore more. Back to the real world now!

Erin

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