Introducing Toxicology … and me …

My name is Tina De Giso and I have been in Colorado for a little over a year. Since late summer of 2011, I have been lucky enough to be
able to slave away…err…work hard toward a Master’s in Science in Environmental Health, specializing in Toxicology here at Colorado State University. My hope is that through this blog and this upcoming year, I will be able to share all the craziness that comes with  finishing that process.

Now, as for a background on who I am: I am a hapa SoCal girl from the sunny city of San Diego, California (where it does. Not. Snow…). I graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor in Science degree in Neuroscience from UCLA. I took two after graduation to work in a hospital in the radiology department. After working two years on the night shift (and boy, do I have crazy stories from that time…I love sick people), I decided that coming back to school was something I definitely wanted to pursue.

Why Toxicology? No…wait, the first question I always get is: what IS toxicology? For all of you uninitiated souls, toxicology is the study of how natural or man-made poisons cause adverse effects in living organisms. As to the why this program…? Well, my ultimate goal is to enter Medicine, and with my two years’ experience in Radiology, Toxicology seemed to be in line with what I went through. Diagnostic Medicine was like being surrounded by map readers of the body (except the maps where all made from radiation and written in a foreign language that I wanted to learn). Although I may have yet to have had the decoder ring for those maps, the program here has opened up so many other options on exploring and explaining what is going on in the body. Since coming here, I have had the opportunity to expand not only my knowledge in science (and my nerd impact factor is at least a 13 now), but have the pleasure of getting to know some A-MAZING faculty members. As large as my undergraduate school was, this program is unique in the fact that you truly get one-on-one time with your professors. They WANT the students not only to succeed, but to flourish. Regardless of where our end career goals are in life, they want to get us there.

As for my daily dose of life here at CSU here is an outline:

  1. Fall out of bed (the floor rushing to my face is a great wake-up call)
  2. Gym (yup, 6 days a week)
  3. Work (I work for an office on campus known as: Student Leadership, Involvement & Community Engagement)
  4. Class (I AM a student)
  5. Lab (I am so blessed! I get to study PD in Dr. Tjalken’s lab. I LOVE THE BRAIN)
  6. Work (I work for our Department as a Student Coordinator)
  7. Work (I also work for a couple of business off-campus)
  8. Study (I AM A STUDENT!!)
  9. Cook (ya, I have to pack all my meals so that sometime in between all of THAT [insert exhausted pointing finger at the rest of the list] I can eat something)
  10. Sleep (if lucky)
  11. Repeat

So, I will say good-bye for now, but I look forward to sharing my adventures this year.

Cheers!

2012
09/20
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CATEGORY
Environmental Health
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CVMBS in Japan

On Sunday, May 13, representatives from the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences will be traveling to Japan to continue to build relationships, investigate new projects, and work with our partners in Tokyo, Gifu, Chiba, before heading to Taiwan. 

While there, we’ll be visiting the Fukashima Prefecture to survey damage and redevelopment in the area ravaged by last year’s tsunami and nuclear accident. The College’s new dean, Dr. Mark Stetter, will be joining the group so that he can meet our partners in Japan as well as gain a better understanding of the work in which the College is engaged.

I invite you to join us as I attempt to blog daily from Japan to report back on exciting new developments as well as the people, places, research, educational partnerships, and joint ventures in the Far East. 

Sayonara, Carol

2012
05/11
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Internships
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Last Week of Internship!

At the end of this week I will be completed with my internship here at the CDC in Atlanta.  I was able to take a tour of the Emergency Operations Center.  Currently the EOC here at the CDC is working on Deepwater Horizon (Gulf Oil Spill), the earthquake in Haiti and H1N1.  The EOC was amazing because they had these televisions screens that filled an entire wall that monitored many different things.  One screen was monitoring all of the weather alerts across the entire country.  It was cool to see that because I could tell where there were flood warnings and many places that were under a heat advisory (including Atlanta).  It has been incredibly hot all summer here.  Also, there was a screen that was a map of the enter world.  This map showed any disease outbreak that was currently occurring and how many cases there were at the time.  It was pretty cool to see that because I never realized how many different outbreaks are occurring at one time throughout the world.  Each event that the EOC is dealing with such as the Haiti earthquake, H1N1 and Deepwater Horizon also get their own monitoring screen.   I really enjoyed getting a tour of this facility and seeing it in operation.

This summer I have been exposed to many new things and I have learned a lot.  I have been able to explore the issues with pesticides in  our food supply and the problems associated with the pesticides that are buried in other countries.  Since I was working in the Chemical Weapons Elimination Branch, I was able to see the issues that our country is facing with the disposal of these weapons.  I was even able to get an in-depth look at one specific facility.  It is amazing how these weapons are destroyed and how damaging it would be if they were ever released into the environment.  Throughout the summer I have also had many opportunities to network with the employees at the CDC.  I have gained some great recommendations and they have provided me with great advice as I enter into the job market and into graduate school.

Living in Atlanta was also a new experience.  I was able to see many of the tourist attractions here and meet many new people.  It was great to be living at Emory University with hundreds of other interns from around the country.  I have really enjoyed this summer and I will be happy to be coming back to Colorado!

2010
08/09
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CATEGORY
Environmental Health
Internships
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Animal Handling

I believe that everyone has at least one irrational fear. Whether they’re heights, needles or blood everyone has one, and everyone has to face them at some point or another. When I was younger I was terrified of snakes. And spiders. Oh, and bleach (don’t ask). But now, with the help of the Maryland Zoo I have been able to conquer, some, of my fears.

Part of my internship at the Animal Embassy in the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore involves animal handling. The animals kept at the Embassy as used for educational purposes and are used to contact with humans. The remaining animals in the zoo are certainly not accustomed to being handled by people.  There are four levels of animal handling, with each animal being assigned to a level based on difficulty. So the African black-footed penguins are level four, whereas the hissing cockroaches are level one. I’m proud to say that I’ve begun training on level three animals, which include our Eastern Screech Owls, Chinese Alligator, Boa Constrictor and the Kookaburra.

When I took the level two animal handling test, my mother recoiled at the idea of me working with a Corn Snake and Ball Python, while she was very pleased to hear about the Giant Flemish Rabbits. Ten years ago, I would have never thought about being ten feet close to a snake, much less having one on my arm. It’s funny to think that I’d be using bleach, holding snakes, and being in awe of spiders now. I’m glad I’ve overcome some of my fears at this internship while just…doing my job. However, I don’t believe I’ll have the opportunity to get over acrophobia at the zoo anytime soon.

Til next time,

Marykate

2010
08/09
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CATEGORY
Environmental Health
Internships
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Feasting

It has been a busy week as I prepare to make the trek home from Santa Fe, NM to Colorado next Friday. Yesterday I went with the four other environmental health officers from the Santa Fe Service Unit up to Nambe Pueblo to talk to one of the Community Health Representatives (CHR) there. The CHRs do a ton of work with the community to ensure that health initiatives are in place and are successful. In Nambe, they worked on a very successful community intervention for fall protection – primarily targeting seniors and those with disabilities – that was actually a topic for a poster presentation at NEHA’s conference this summer. The CHR we spoke with explained how she and the other people involved were able to collaborate and network with other entities to find the funding and put environmental controls in place to prevent falls. It was really encouraging to hear about a very successful intervention, and I learned a lot about the process for implementation. We also were able to propose the idea of starting as asthma program in the community and talk a little bit about some of the materials I have been working on. After our meeting we went to check out a mold issue in a house on one of the reservations and offer advice to remediate it and limit the hazard.

Today I was able to attend another feast! This was a particularly large feast in Santo Domingo (Kewa), with plenty of temporary food vendors to survey, carnival rides, and dances. Our whole office went out so we were able to finish up the surveys relatively quickly and feast at a couple of different houses. I am really going to miss the people in the communities I’ve been working with and all the homemade green and red chili.

2010
08/05
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CATEGORY
Internships
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