UROP Student Profile - Tobias Lerke
Tobias is a second year student with UROP. In his time with UROP, he has worked on three projects including work exploring lifelong learning in later years, a project examining and promoting various health care services in the state of Michigan, and currently focusing his efforts on a project investigating the exposure of virtualization and cloud computing systems in information technology services used primarily in academia.
Meet Tobias:
| Please describe your UROP project. |
| In my project, I am summarizing the routine health care access for women with physical disabilities in Michigan. Our particular areas of focus are Medicaid coverage, Accessible Equipment/Facilities, Transportation, & Local Resources for women with physical disabilities. My faculty sponsor is Dr. Rie Suzuki. |
| How did you get involved in research? |
| When I first heard that there was an undergraduate research program at U of M-Flint I immediately followed up and it lead me to Andre Louis, the research project manager. The first class of Gerontology my professor, Rie Suzuki, said she had a research project and she was looking for assistance. From there everything fell into place. So my first professional research began fall semester 08. |
| How has participating in research impacted your education? |
| I have learned much about the community and the utilizations of medical resources by the community in Genesee County because of my research. I learned more on how to talk to people, especially when I needed information. |
| What has been the most satisfying aspect of your research experience? |
| I get to talk to and meet with people that I would otherwise have not. I’ve had to visit and/or contact all the major hospitals and clinics in Genesee County. If it was not for this project I would have never met Zachary Tomlinson, the accessibility services coordinator for U of M-Flint or Tamika January, the resource program analyst for Michigan. |
| What are your future plans? How has participating in research helped you in preparing for those future plans? |
| My future plans involve possibly researching the processes of aging. This research project has greatly increased my charisma and my familiarity with the whole process of research. I learned who to contact, how to contact them, and how to record information learned. |