Hey everybody!
 
For those of you still in school, congrats on nearly finishing this Fall semester and best of luck on your upcoming finals! And for the alumni reading this, I hope all is well in whatever post-academic endeavors you are pursuing and look forward to hopefully catching up with you soon!
 
Just a little bit about myself for those of you who don’t know me: I’m Andi Hess, a 2012 Tech Terry from Muenster, TX. I graduated in May 2016 with a Bachelor’s in Nutrition, studied abroad in the Seville, Spain in Spring 2015, and am currently a second-year medical student at TTUHSC (Wreck ‘em Round 2). I have been extremely blessed during my time at Texas Tech, making it possible for me to be where I am today. The advice I hope to share with you all is some that I’ve learned over the past six years from incredible mentors, wise professors, supportive friends and family members, and oftentimes, from the you-live-and-you-learn moments. And while my previous experiences are mainly focused in medicine, I hope this information is valuable and applicable to all of you, whether it be geared toward your success in school, your transition into adulthood, or just advice to carry through life to be as happy and prosperous as possible.
 
1) There is always the opportunity to learn in everything you do. For a long time, I thought going to school was the only place I went to “learn” anything – statistics, biology, world geography, you name it. But then I met someone who used every opportunity to learn something new, and I realized I had been missing out on tons of experiences right before my eyes. Whether it’s reading a newspaper article or fiction book or gossip column, carrying on a quick conversation with a Market Street cashier, or observing an interaction between others close by, there is something to gain from any experience that will leave you wiser or more knowledgeable.
 
For example, because I’m in medical school and because I have a ridiculous love for Grey’s Anatomy (I know, I know), I look up diseases or symptoms they mention in the show that I’d like to learn more about. While it has nothing to do with the dramatic (and often inaccurate) scenes on the TV, it leaves me with newfound knowledge that may one day come in handy on a test or in my practice. I like to find 3 instances per day where I can practice learning more from seemingly casual interactions like this. Try it for yourself, and by the end of the week you will have learned 21 new things!   
 
2) Leave others better than you found them. Just a general rule of thumb, pretty similar to the Golden Rule they taught us as toddlers – treat others as you would like to be treated. Depending on the situation, “better” could mean healthier, happier, more knowledgeable, relieved or relaxed, etc. And by “leave others” I don’t mean walk out of their lives forever, but leave every interaction with this mentality. Even just smiling while walking past a sad stranger could brighten his or her day.
 
I like to use this one while networking. I’m pretty sure networking isn’t supposed to be a one-way road where one gains something without also giving something. And while your contribution may not be as significant while you’re still working your way up through school or a new job and gaining mentors, finding employers, and/or creating opportunities for yourself, you can go into every networking opportunity with a positive attitude, thoughtful insight, impressive work ethic, and unique experiences that makes the person on the other end walk away glad to have met you, interacted with you, mentored/employed you, etc. And one day when you are the mentor or employer, you will be able to make those bigger, life-changing contributions for others.
 
3) People may be smarter or more naturally gifted than you, but no one has to work harder than you. This is something my parents taught me from a young age that a fellow 2012 Tech Terry so appropriately put into words. I used to get so frustrated in college when I would study for hours and hours and do as well as someone I knew spent less time or effort studying, or when I worked so hard toward something that I felt was just handed to someone else. But I was way better off when I finally accepted that sometimes life is unfair. There will always be people who don’t have to study as much, or work as hard, or get credit when credit isn’t due. Instead of getting frustrated or wanting to take shortcuts because you feel gypped, direct that energy into motivation to work harder and be better, and I promise that in the end, it will pay off. Employers, at least good ones, will always prefer a hard worker to a naturally gifted individual because when the going gets tough, the tough get going – and that’s you, my friends.
 
4) Write down 10 things that bring you pure and total joy and incorporate 3 of those things into each day. As mentioned above, there will be times when the going gets tough, but use these things that bring you happiness to power through. Some of my favorite things include Facetiming my niece and nephew, talking to my parents on the phone, spending time with my siblings, going hiking at Palo Duro Canyon, getting together with friends, helping out in the OR, and cracking jokes with the little kiddos in the hospital (because they’re the only ones who think my jokes are funny). What are some of yours?
 
5) Never forget where you came from or who helped you get there. Probably my biggest takeaway from this post. When you finally get where you’re going, I hope you can look back and remember all the people who helped make it possible – your family, friends, significant other, teammates, coaches, classmates, colleagues, and undoubtedly the Terry Foundation. Lean on these people for support, get their advice, learn from their experiences, thank them for their support, never take them for granted, and always give back to them when you can.
 
 
Safe travels and Happy Holidays, yall! Terry love,

Andi Hess
 
P.S. My whole goal of this blog post was to give advice to pre-medical students, but I got carried away. So, if you have any pre-med, medical school, or medicine-related questions, feel free to email me at andrea.hess@ttuhsc.edu



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Throughout my time at Texas Tech I have enjoyed being involved in many things, but one of the most rewarding things I have done is participate in research. As a microbiology major this helped me determine what path I wanted to pursue - either research, medicine, or something else. I started off my journey into research in Dr. San Francisco’s seminars as a freshman (check out the honors weekly email for more information on these!) where we heard from a variety of Texas Tech faculty about their research projects and how we could get involved. Professors from the fields of chemistry, history, engineering, social studies and more discussed their fields, research possibilities, and invited students to participate in research. I began observing in Dr. San Francisco’s lab under Dr. Kruczek, and saw how the current undergraduate students conducted research, and I participated in weekly lab meetings with faculty members, graduate students and other undergraduate students. The summer following my freshman year I began officially working in Dr. San Francsico’s lab as an undergraduate research assistant through the URS program in the honors college. There are many similar programs such as CALUE and CISER that help students get plugged in with research. The new Pi-Squared program for incoming freshman is also an excellent way to introduce students to research.
 
Through research I have learned new skills in the lab and shaped the research project to fit what interests me as the project as grown with me and I have become one of the leaders on the project. My project is on the air microbiome of Lubbock, and specifically how the fungal species in the air effect our health, and how the weather effects the microbiome of Lubbock. Because the project has many aspects to it, I have learned skills that relate to atmospheric sciences, statistics, and data analysis. Every year in the spring the undergraduate researchers at Texas Tech present their project at the CALUE research conference. Students from other universities are also invited, and students have the opportunity to present their research at other conferences across the nation as well. Through this, we learn how to create a visual aid, typically a poster, that concisely portrays the data, graphs and text necessary to understand the project. We also practice speaking skills by having to present to the judges and answer their questions.
 
Research has been a very fun and fulfilling experience for me. I am currently writing my paper and will be able to publish it, hopefully by the end of this academic year. Participating in research has had a positive impact on my time at Tech as an undergrad, and has impacted the path I want to pursue in my career. I encourage everyone, regardless of major, to find something you are curious about or interested in and participate in research. Not only does it stand out on a resume, but you will also develop great skills and enjoy the experience.

Sara Sorge

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Service: Dinner to the Volunteer Firefighters
Shallowater Fire Department : 801 Avenue H, Shallowater, TX 79363
Monday, November 27th – 6:00PM
We are going to be making Chicken Spaghetti, salad, and bread for the folks who are there for training on Monday.
Service Committee Members Contact: Rebekah Lackey, Laura Montoya, and Chase Gibson    

​Sign Up to bring food: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/508044fa8a922a6f85-dinner 
      
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/708398396030870/

Give Back Night
Friday, December 8 at 4 PM - 9 PM
We have scheduled the final Fundraiser night for The Terry Foundation for this semester at Pita Pit. It is on 4th St, just past the West end of the Loop, near Wal Mart and Slim Chickens. I know the holidays and finals week are stressful for everyone. We all need a little break, and can stand to eat some good food, right? (Not to mention that Pita Pit is mega affordable!) So please come out and show your support for this wonderful foundation. All proceeds will benefit future scholarships, as well as the rebuild efforts in the Houston area this coming spring. Make sure to let the staff know that you are there for the Terry Fundraiser! Spread the word, and tell your friends!!! This event also requires a minimum headcount, so please click on the actual GroupRaise link, and RSVP to the event! Thank you for helping to make this fundraiser a success https://www.groupraise.com/events/40008-terry-fundraising-at-pita-pit

​Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/134038277315452/ ​

​Back to School Event
Main Event : 6010 Marsha Sharp Fwy, Lubbock, TX 79407
Tuesday, January 23rd – 6:00PM
Join us at Main Event for bowling, laser tag and dinner! $5 for Terry’s and $20 for non-Terry’s. Sign ups coming soon.

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/144642879501595/ 

Social Committee Members Contact:  Ryan Conner, Eric Moore, Angel Cruz, and Karen Yang

​Service: Ronald McDonald House
3413 10th St, Lubbock, TX 79415
Sunday, November 19 – 7:30AM
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We are cooking breakfast for he residence. It’s not easy to have a sick child and the holidays can make it even more difficult. As we move into Thanksgiving, please come help us bless them. We need 10 people to RSVP on our Facebook event here https://www.facebook.com/events/2415190038705178/

Service Committee Member Contact: Kaevyn Maple

Thanksgiving Meal
November 23rd at 11AM
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One of the smallest towns in the country is a hit every year at Thanksgiving. The town of Pep, located 50 miles northwest of Lubbock, and holds their annual church fundraiser when in just three hours this town with a population of two people turns into more than 1,500. People from all over the South Plains flock every year to eat a turkey lunch cooked by Saint Phillip Neri Church members.

If you are in town, come with the Medley's to Pep for a Thanksgiving you won't forget!

Service: Dinner to the Volunteer Firefighters
Shallowater Fire Department : 801 Avenue H, Shallowater, TX 79363
Monday, November 27th – 6:00PM

We are going to be making Chicken Spaghetti, salad, and bread for the folks who are there for training on Monday.
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Service Committee Members Contact: Rebekah Lackey, Laura Montoya, and Chase Gibson           
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Give Back Day of Service
Tuesday, November 28th

​To say Happy Birthday to Mr. Howard Terry, the founder of the Terry Foundation, we want to preform service projects from our hometowns! While you're home, do something for someone else.
Post to Social Media about your project. Give the gift of service to honor the gift Mr. Terry gave you!
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Facebook Event https://www.facebook.com/events/107768723237253/ ​

Hello! My name is Jameson Dowell and I am a 2015 traditional Terry Scholar here at Texas Tech. I had the opportunity to study abroad this past summer in Europe and this trip provided me enough memories to last a lifetime, to say the least. By exploring parts of Spain, Italy, and Portugal, I was able to see new sights, experience new things, eat new foods, and even learn (a few) new words.
To kick start my study abroad experience, I went to Rome for a week before classes started in Spain so I could experience the monuments and sights the city provided. By staying in a hotel that was only a 5-minute walk from the Vatican, I was able to visit Vatican City every night while in Rome. Throughout these five or so days, I saw the Sistine Chapel, Trevi Fountain, Colosseum, and pretty much all the other important locations in Rome. I ended up walking a total of 50 miles in only 4 days.
For most of the remaining time while abroad, I was in Seville, Spain for classes. I stayed with a “host mom” in Seville which essentially means I lived in a Spaniard’s home for the duration of classes. My host mom, Maria, made us 3 authentic Spanish meals a day (if we weren’t out and about), did our laundry weekly, and provided a bed to sleep in.
During the week, we would have class at the TTU Seville center MTWR from 3-5pm and occasional excursions around the city for academic purposes. I only took 3 credit hours while in Seville so I had plenty of extra time to explore the city and I was even able to find a local gym and work out regularly. Weekends were my favorite part of my time abroad because this was when we could travel around the country and even to other countries. Over the span of a few weekends, my class went to Madrid, Cordoba, and Granada for field trips around Spain. We also had a few open weekends so some of my classmates and I went to the beach town of Malaga, Spain for one weekend and then Lagos, Portugal for another. (Pro Tip: Traveling between the United States and Europe is very, very expensive but once you’re in the European countries, the cost of travel goes down significantly. I paid over $1000 for my direct flight from DFW to Rome and only $50 for my airfare from Rome to Seville.) I highly recommend you make the most out of your time abroad because these weekend trips added so much value and fun to the trip that I wouldn’t have had by just staying in Seville those weekends.
Before this trip, I had never been out of the country, let alone stepped foot inside of an airport or airplane. After this trip, I had survived 10 hour flights over the Atlantic Ocean, European flights, bus rides across country borders, and train rides all over the country. I’m from the small town of Henrietta, TX and never would’ve thought I could become a world traveler. Now, I’ll never have trouble coming up with an interesting fact about myself when that dreaded first-day-of-class ice breaker comes around!




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Goals are the expectations that we set for ourselves and what we use to measure our success. I have always believed that it is important to “be real” with yourself when setting goals—you know yourself better than anyone else, so it is expected that you should understand your limitations, know your strengths and weaknesses, and have an idea of what you’re capable of achieving. This doesn’t mean that you should ever sell yourself short, but be realistic and set goals that are both measurable and attainable. For example, I understand that my schedule is very busy with academic, social, and other obligations, so it would be unreasonable for me to set a goal of shadowing 100 hours during a semester—I’d either be setting myself up for failure or would sacrifice doing well in other areas of my life to accommodate this goal. While a large number of shadowing hours would look nice on a medical school application, it’d be more reasonable for me to commit to shadowing once a week for a couple of hours at a time.
            Setting both short and long-term goals is also important to your success. Long-term goals serve as a sort of finish line, while short-term goals represent the hurdles you must overcome to make it there. For example, I have the personal goal of practicing emergency medicine one day. I have to do well in my undergraduate classes every semester, volunteer, and shadow just to get into medical school. Then, I have to succeed in medical school and do well on STEP and board exams to get a desirable residency program. Next, I have to survive my residency program and, finally, seek employment at a hospital with an emergency department. The long-term goal (becoming a doctor) requires that I first accomplish my short-term goals (everything in between now and then).
            Remind yourself of your goals often. Revisit and revise them. Write them down. It’s nice to think that you’ll do something simply because you say you will, but if you write them down, you’ll be able to remind yourself of the commitment you made. You can use a journal, a Word document, or whatever else works for you! Personally, I use a white board. Here, I write down all of my assignments for the week—I see these as short-term goals. At the bottom, I wrote “Do all of this, to earn this: Marcus Gonzalez, M.D.” It’s VERY corny, I know, but it really helps when I don’t feel like I’m capable. I glance over at my board to remind myself why I’m doing what I’m doing and that my efforts will pay off in about 6-8 years.
            Those who know me well will probably laugh when they read this, but DO NOT give up when the “going gets tough”. There have been several times during my three-ish years at Texas Tech that I have thought I can’t do something and that giving up or taking a different direction was the solution. Thankfully, I have some pretty amazing people in my life that have discouraged me from doing so. They know what I love and what I’m passionate about, and know that I’m doing exactly what I’m meant to do. Success doesn’t come easy. College isn’t supposed to be easy—if it were, everyone would be here. We’re all here because we have dreams and are more than capable of achieving them. Sometimes, we need to be reminded of that. I cannot stress the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people enough. Find friends who are not afraid to set you straight, tell you what you don’t want to hear, and support you in all your endeavors. Don’t be afraid to vent and ask for advice (Heather and Christy are great for this!). Understand that you’re not alone and don’t your let pride get in the way. We’re Tech Terry Scholars—we’re family and we’re in this together! 



Marcus Gonzales 


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When I was asked to do this blog post, I was not too sure what I was going to write about; in fact, this blog is sort of REALLY late . . . From what I had seen, people had already covered the process of getting abroad and how all of it was life changing. I was a little worried about what I could bring to the table. Then, I remembered how my experience had a hiccup that no one else can really cover. The medical side of studying abroad.
                  For my study abroad trip, I decided to spend my time in Italy. The class was based around ancient and modern Italian culture and art so my “classroom” was the cities of Italy. The professor wanted us to gain the “Italian experience” and understand the divide between the north and the south of Italy. Much like the United States, the north is more urban while the south can be more blue-collar. I honestly was always on the move and living out of backpack; basically, I was an American gypsy discovering Italy. However, my gypsy luck did not hold out for all that long.
                  During our class excursion to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, I was my overly cocky self just showing off and striking “poses” for the camera. I ended up striking a pose that led to me dislocating my right knee cap. It was a whirlwind of emotion. My professor’s wife, who was a nurse practitioner, popped it back into place, and I was given some Advil for the pain. I then had to make the 45-minute walk back to the train station, and another hour walk to the hospital in Florence. When I walked into those hospital doors, I had no idea that I was going to experience the longest night of my young life.
                  Despite my professor knowing Italian, he was not versed in medical Italian, so we were not able to fully communicate the situation to the doctors at the hospital. Eventually, we were able to string together Italian and Latin for the phrase “dislocare patella” which translates very very roughly to dislocated kneecap. That phrase was the only form of communication I had with any of the hospital staff. If you think hospital are scary when you know the language, I cannot describe the fear when you have no real form of communication with the staff.
                  To make things worse, there is no private rooms in Italian medical care, so I shared a room with four people that night. Two of them were in there for alcohol poisoning, one for a severely broken arm, and the final one was a woman who died that night. I do not know how to express the terror of watching the hospital staff attempt to save her life while yelling in a foreign language. It still haunts me.
                  Eventually, the hospital staff put together a plan of action for my injury. It had been determined to re-dislocate the knee cap and ensure it was put back into place properly then a cast for three days. Without a doubt, the American gypsy life is much harder on crutches than your own two feet. I was able to finish trip though and the Tech insurance covered nearly all of the expenses abroad. I really am thankful.
                  Everything being said, my trip abroad was definitely different from your average trip you overhear at the local Starbucks. I would do it all again in a heartbeat. I do not want this story to be a reason you decide not to go abroad, because it is life changing in so many fashions! If I am willing to redo that entire trip again, injury and all, then I see no reason why should not want to go abroad too.
                 
                 
 Ryan Conner 



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College is a time where you and all your friends really go separate ways and have different experiences and different encounters. No matter who we are or where we come from, we will all experience one thing, and that thing is STRESS.
For many of us, high school was a walk in the park with the occasional high school drama, which we now realize was ridiculous and we laugh about it. I don’t think I ever experienced legitimate stress over something school related until I got to college.
My very first semester in college was still not a huge challenge. My biggest challenges have come my second year. I failed my first test. That was the beginning of the stress for me. I failed my first test and didn’t know what to do. After something like that, you begin to feel like the universe is on a mission to make everything as complicated as it can be for you. Every little thing begins to feel like it is piling up on you and it won’t stop. It can take an emotional, mental and physical toll on you.
Knowing how to deal with your stress is a very important thing. Everyone deals with their stress a different way. I, personally like to do a few things when I am having a stressful time. For example, at the end of one of my most stressful weeks, I had a long phone call with my mother and was completely honest with her. I told her I had a frustrating week and things weren’t going too well and all she did was say it was going to be okay and I felt instantly better. My mom can’t come here from Dallas and help me do my homework and take my tests, but she can tell me that everything will be okay and that was good enough for me.
Another thing I like to do is go to the driving range and hit some golf balls. That is a huge stress reliever for me. Exerting a lot of force into something like hitting golf balls helps me get out a lot of stress that I had built up. Indulging in physical activity is a great way to relieve stress.
Finding the best way to relieve stress for you, personally, is key to surviving in college. Some good ways for people to manage stress levels are getting more sleep, trying to relax, just talking to someone, or even managing your time. These are all good ways to ease the load of pressure you feel like you have on you. Everyone will have this issue throughout college, it’s just a matter of finding the best way for you to deal with it.
 
Angel Cruz 


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