Dr. Justin Shafa

This was the most interesting conference for me yet. It made me think about other fields in medicine. Until that point, I have been locked on for orthopedic surgery, but now I keep looking at new field of medicine every day. Him showing us all the tools that an interventional radiologist would use peaked my interest. I looked into it, but i decided that it wasn't for me. Dr. Shafa himself was a great guy. He kept the conference exciting and was very open minded with our questions and answering well. This was my first time moderating a conference as well. Nobody told me any criticism so I assume I did well, I guess. The only reason I was able to moderate well was because i had personal interest in the conference, and along with that my co-moderator, Samiha, was very helpful and carried the conversation when I couldn't. Overall it was a great conference and I really enjoyed it. I would like to thank Dr. Shafa for talking to us.

Damla Sahin/ Sal Leto

I felt like these two conferences were polar opposites. When we talked with Damla, she was told us about her experiences, but always linked back to us. She would makes us feel like we were the important guests, not her. She asked about how we were dealing with the quarantine and how diffrent our senior experience was than other normal years. It was also our first conference in quarantine, which was definitely weird for me. I'd never thought that i'd end up taking my classes on FaceTime from home, but here we are.  She was a very nice and polite person, and opened up another option for me of going to med-school abroad, which i never considered before.
Sal felt like it was a business meeting or like the professional development the teachers always tells about that get us half-days. I didn't disagree with the things he was saying, people don't have to go to college to be successful, but it is a higher chance of success than not attending at all. I have respect for him in his efforts to keep youth off the streets and get them working and educated. I feel that it is a major problem of some urban cities like Paterson, Detroit, LA etc. He was a very inspiring guy and I would like to talk to him in the future, after college perhaps.

Matthew Colacino

This was an... interesting conference. A martial artist who got an engineering degree at Steven's. I thought this would go a whole diffrent way. Matthew himself was an awesome guy, and i would've loved to talk to him about many things. He intrigued me because when I was young, my parents started me in Tae Kwon Doe, which was super fun and I learned a lot, but the place I practiced at closed down, so i stopped and forgot everything. It was cool to see someone who went all the way. I also wanted to ask him his opinion of Tae Kwon Doe, but apparently he had already gone over it when I was getting my lunch. And at the end, I wasted to ask for a recommendation, because i had planned on starting MMA after high school. Although I got flustered due to time running out and people around me telling to hurry up it just came out wrong. I thought it was cool that he went to Steven's but he didn't really bring that up or engineering, which I would've like to talk about. If we could have another conference with him, I have a whole bunch of questions I would ask him. I wanna thank Matthew for talking to us.

Corona Virus Discussion

To be honest, when we first talked about the Corona virus discussion, I didn't think it would this level of danger. I was just thinking of it as another swine flu or just a-lot of people overeating to media propaganda. With the situation we are now put in, I cant really say these are valid theories. There have been over 84,000 people who have recovered from Corona, so this lead me to think the danger ins't actually the casualties. Then it dawned on me, we had briefly discussed a drop in the stock market, the problem is what it has done to China, which is a hotspot for the world's economies, and what would happen if that happened here, the other major economic hotspot of the world. The way this would happen is if our medical system was overwhelmed and couldn't function properly, which would stop the vulnerable to the virus from receiving care, which lead to a lot of casualties. I feel that is why it has escalated to the level it has, with a curfew and whole counties shutting down.  I hope it gets better soon, because when you look at Italy and Bergen county, i can't help but think this is no way to live. Even at my dad's store, i have costumers practically beg me for toilet paper which i don't have. It has affected many of my friends in the sense that their senior season sport is cancelled, it was their last chance to play their sport and work their hardest. Again, I hope this clears up soon, and prayers go out to all the families in trouble.

Michelle Powers

Not to have a pessimistic start to this post, but I thought this conference was a very average and slow conversation. It didn't draw my attention in very well, but was just interesting enough that I could stay engaged. Mrs. Powers herself wasn't the problem in any way. She was a wonderful person to talk to and she was very polite, respectful, and a nice person, but rather it was the content of the conversation. The fact that we kept it focused on her professional responsibilities and how her daily work schedule is dulled the conversation. I don't know if this was just me because this is not a field I am interested to work in, but I would have liked if the conference had a more personal feel, due to the professional aspect not drawing me in enough. Like when Matt started to talk to her about central Jersey I felt the conversation get a little more personal and more interesting to engage in. I still enjoyed talking to Mrs. Powers and would be open to another conference with her, and a thank you goes out to her for making space in her life to talk to us.

Goat USA

On Tuesday October 1st last week, we spoke to the founders and owners of Goat USA. This company was founded by three friends who believe "ordinary people can do extraordinary things" which is the explanation behind their company motto "anyone can wear the crown." While I was sitting in the conference, I was thinking to myself these guys have a natural charisma that it takes to run a business. This also brought up a question in my head. After starting this brand did they look for help from friends and family? I don't mean just for like support or like monetary support, but like need jobs to help them start off. It wasn't a necessarily important or interesting question, but it piqued my interest. I was also curious about who had the idea first, like it's not exactly an easy decision to just start up a clothing brand. So it interested me to know who thought of it first, like which one said to the others, "lets make a sports clothing brand." Lastly I would like to thank Goat USA for sending us some merchandise and officially "goating" us.

Biography

Hello, I’m  Youssef, and I’m an aspiring doctor.
If we’re gonna be more specific I want to be an Orthopedic Surgeon and work in bone replacements and the like. I hope to go to Penn State for college and I can’t wait to read an acceptance letter from them. If I am unable to get into a 7-year program for a medical profession then I hope to double major in biomedical and pre-med. I am a senior in high school who runs cross country and track and plays soccer with my friends for fun. I work at a convince store and volunteer at church. If you found your way here then you must be here to experience the class CITVC with me. Here I will be talking about who we talk to and what I thought of it.