Learner Profile
Claudia Minutti

School

Universidad de las Americas Puebla, Mexico

HMX Course

Biochemistry

As an undergraduate biochemistry major at Universidad de las Americas Puebla in Mexico, Claudia Minutti has quickly developed a strong interest in clinical research. She took HMX Biochemistry during the summer to boost her knowledge and challenge herself to learn independently. As Claudia explains, she learned a lot about biochemistry – and about herself as a student and future health care professional.

I’m in third semester currently, and I have just recently started taking more subjects focused more directly on my career, and I have found them to be very interesting…I thought that [the course] would be a great start to continue reviewing what I had already learned, but also to learn more things that would help me in my other subjects later.

I found that it was a great experience…I learned a lot of things that I think I wouldn’t have learned otherwise, and it also interested me more in my field. I started reading more research topics, and I also tried reading a lot of scientific essays and clinical trials related to the diseases that were presented in the course, so I got really involved.

It was also a really good experience because I had never tried to study by myself before; I had always relied on teachers for my learning. Having to study on my own, answer questions by myself, review things, and prepare myself for the exam. The quizzes were also very hard and I think that’s the best part of the experience, because it’s not like any typical quiz, it actually makes you think and apply what you have learned [because] the questions are not very obvious. I found myself to be a very good thinker actually, so I discovered that about myself.

Some of the things in the course I had already seen before, but not in much depth. I think that it was very interesting because for me it was a combination of topics I had already seen but in different subjects, so it was more like a global approach to biochemistry, rather than just a separate subject. For example, I have a separate class for thermodynamics, and I also have a separate class for cell biology, and a separate class for biochemistry – so it was nice to see all of these topics put together in one, and really see the applications it can have in the real world and in real clinical practice.

I think that the part that makes you really try to understand and comprehend what you have been taught and trying to apply that by answering questions. That helped me a lot more than trying just to memorize metabolic routes or metabolic cycles. Having to apply something really makes it stick. I think that’s a very good approach to learning, and for me it worked very well. Now that I’m taking other subjects related to those topics, I think that it’s very easy for me to think what would happen next; even if I don’t know it, I can try to apply the knowledge that I’ve already learned and based on that, make some assumptions. For me it has worked very well; I think that it was a very good learning experience, mostly because it was very different from studying at regular school.

The [lesson] notepads were really useful for me. I have never taken notes like that before. Because I’m very used to just jotting down notes from the teachers’ presentations, but actually having to look at the videos and take down notes by myself and not having anyone give me notes, I think that was also very different. I learned to study by myself and look for information myself…The fact that there’s not a teacher right there to help you actually makes you more independent in looking for knowledge. I think that that’s very important for careers in the health field, because there’s no one to tell you what to do next, so you have to look for information yourself, and you have to take some risk and [make] decisions by yourself. It was very different from what I have been used to in my years of schooling, and I really enjoyed it. I would recommend it 100 percent.

[HMX] was a good kickstart for my career. It helped me to start this semester very motivated, and I found that I love my career very much. I found that I’m really more interested than I thought because of this.