The journey toward my undergraduate degree has been eventful, especially in regard to dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. You鈥檙e probably as sick of hearing about it as I am, but with an event as big as this one, there is a lot of ground to cover.

A little over a year ago, I wrote a something for an extra-credit assignment for my American history professor. This professor made it clear to us that we were living in a generationally defining moment in history, and that we should soak up as much of what was happening as we could because it will affect the rest of our lives.

This whole experience has taught me to think more on my own.

The assignment was to pick an artifact from our homes that historians would look back on to remember the pandemic. I chose an analog clock from my living room. At the time, all I could think about was how much time I was losing from my college experience. I felt like I wasn鈥檛 going to learn anything well online from home, and I was missing out on all of the fun times that come with being a college student. To quote myself, I said it felt like 鈥渢he clock stopped and everything was put on pause, but we are still losing time.鈥�

I wrote that when I was 19. Now, as I am fully vaccinated and slowly returning to normal life again, I am 21. A lot of time has passed, and I can look at the words of my past and say that I was wrong.

I thought then that the pandemic and the shutdown of the majority of the world was ruining my four years of college education. But all of the time I spent online and away from the classroom taught me that things also can be learned out of a classroom, too.

During the lockdown and quarantine period, I learned so many life lessons about perspective and appreciating life. My whole mindset evolved into a much more positive state than before and I started to really live life to the fullest.

This whole experience has taught me to think more on my own. For example, when studying for a chemistry exam, not only did I learn about chemistry, but I learned about time management while planning out my studies. And once I got that A+, I learned that I can achieve hard goals if I work hard enough. These are valuable life lessons that will benefit you in the real world.

Lessons are in every walk of life. Every experience, every interaction you can take something from it if you think about it. Through the struggles of the pandemic life, I have gotten better at identifying these lessons and really trying my best to learn from everything.

Once I started thinking this way, I started appreciating my college education a lot more, even if it were cut up by COVID-19. I look at the whole experience not as a setback, but as another part of my education.

To be a student does not just mean to study hard and get good grades; it means to always go through life with open eyes and ears to learn as much as you can.

Narvin Chhay is a UCF junior majoring in sport and exercise science. He can be reached at narvinc@knights.ucf.edu.

The聽UCF Forum聽is a weekly series of opinion columns from faculty, staff and students who serve on a panel for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday on UCF Today and then broadcast on WUCF-FM (89.9) between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday. Opinions expressed are those of the columnists, and are not necessarily shared by the 海角直播.

His revised project on masks to protect front-line healtcare workers from infection was recently honored as the winning clinical research project at the recent national American College of Physicians’ Internal Medicine meeting.

The annual event is regarded as the premier scientific meeting in internal medicine. The conference, held virtually this year due to the pandemic, featured Anthony Fauci, the nation鈥檚 top infectious-diseases expert as a plenary speaker.

Collins鈥� initial FIRE project was to test the efficacy of periodic glove changes in reducing bacterial contamination during shoulder surgery. However, with COVID-19鈥檚 聽lockdown and physical distancing restrictions, he couldn鈥檛 conduct the lab work required. So he pivoted to look at the effectiveness of N95 respirators versus surgical masks in reducing viral respiratory illness among healthcare workers in hospitals.

鈥淭he idea for this research came about as we wanted to ensure that frontline healtcare workers were adequately prepared to treat patients with COVID-19,鈥� says Collins, a rising third year medical student. 鈥淲e noticed a lack of consistency in personal protective equipment [PPE] protocol amongst the CDC guidelines and hospital systems that they work at. This prompted the idea to develop an evidence-based protocol for respiratory viral disease protection.鈥�

Guided by research mentor Benjamin Service, an orthopedic surgeon at Orlando Health, Collins conducted a meta-analysis of previous data showing the infection rates of viral respiratory infections in healthcare workers, looking specifically at whether they were using N95 respirators or a surgical mask during the time they were infected.

鈥淲hat we found was that there was statistically significant evidence showing that N95 respirators do have a protective benefit against viral respiratory illnesses over surgical masks,鈥� Collins says. 鈥淭his is something that has not been shown before in the literature, and we鈥檙e hoping that once we get the word published, it will help create guidelines for arming our frontline healthcare workers ensure they are protected.鈥�

The FIRE module is one of the most detailed and extensive parts of the curriculum for first- and second-year medical students at UCF. It is designed to instill a spirit of inquiry in students by requiring them to do scientific research on a medical topic about which they are passionate. The UCF College of Medicine is one of a few medical schools in the country that requires its students to do medical research.

鈥淚 find that research is very rewarding and is an important aspect of an academic medical career,鈥� says Collins, whose project also received honors at the 2021 FIRE Conference. 鈥淚 hope to take the experience I have gained from UCF鈥檚 FIRE and continue exploring research in other medical fields.鈥�