My Internship

This experience will help to build new strengths and refine those that I already have. I am a hard working and detail oriented individual, and these qualities help me to learn to new skills. I know various lab techniques including microscopy and spectrophotometry. My time during this internship will help me to develop more lab and professional skills that will be useful to me in the future.

Throughout this internship, I want to learn more about neurological research on neurodegenerative diseases. So far, I have learned the neuroanatomy and the functions of specific parts of the brain. I hope to also learn more about analyzing the brain under a microscope, and other lab skills that are important in neurological research. Learning these lab techniques and also being comfortable and skilled in them will help prepare me for future lab work.

The topics that I am learning through my internship are extremely applicable to my classwork. Since I am a neuroscience major, working at a neuroscience lab will help me to learn more about my major and expose me to complex topics in my field.

So far, I have learned more about neuroanatomy, genetics, and details about specific neurodegenerative diseases. My favorite experience so far has been observing brain cuttings. I learn a lot from these experiences because identifying specific parts of any organ in real life is much different than looking at labelled parts in a textbook. It also helps me to learn more about neurodegenerative diseases and their symptoms. Through observing these, I've learned a lot more about what I need to study, as well as the different types of work my supervisors do in their lab. Soon, we are going to start analyzing slides under a microscope, which I am also looking forward to.

Observing slides of brain tissue under a microscope can be overwhelming, as there is a lot to understand. Important things to notice are cell type and density, pigmentation, staining results, and neuropathologic factors of disease. With all of this to take into account, it can be challenging to learn how to analyze these slides. On top of this, neuroanatomy is also a key factor to know what cell types to expect in different regions of the brain, and how microscopic results can influence the suspected disease. I am still working on this with my supervisors by looking at stains of different diseases together under a microscope.

Since I am working on an individual project rather than helping my mentor with theirs, my job does not really affect my mentors' projects. Of course, my mentors have helped me so much on my projects and have done a great job of leading me through their knowledge and skills, which I greatly appreciate. I have enjoyed working on my own project because I can have something to show once it is complete, and it has allowed me to truly see the whole process of doing research and writing scientific work. I have learned so much throughout this, so I am thankful for this valuable experience

Final Reflection:

This experience has helped to to refine my writing skills and has taught me so much about neuroanatomy and the research being conducted in this lab. I have also learned a lot about analyzing slides of brain tissue under a microscope, which includes identifying specific cells and abnormalities of the tissue. I am still in the process of learning this skill, but I will continue working with my mentors to improve. I also have become much more confident with the material that we are studying and I know I will become more knowledgeable with more time spent working on it. I am excited to continue working with my mentors to strengthen my skills and learn more about the research in this lab.

Starting a research experience like this one is challenging, especially because I had no prior research experience. I needed to learn a lot of information in a small amount of time just to be able to work at the level that my supervisors expect me to. Learning the new and complex information is an ongoing challenge, as there is always more to learn. However, I am grateful for this because I have learned so much throughout my time as an intern so far.

One success in this internship is being able to recognize structures within the brain. When I first started, I had never seen a brain in real life, so identifying structures within it was very challenging. However, I have learned a lot and am able to identify different aspects of neuroanatomy that I had never heard of when I started. Looking back on this progress reminds me of how much I have and will continue to learn.

After identifying and working on these successes and challenges, I can say that I have had improvements in both my successes and my challenges. I do continue to learn a lot everyday and although it can be overwhelming, I am grateful to be learning as much as I am. I am also still improving my neuroanatomy by being able to identify different parts of the brain and understand the functions of that part. One new challenge I have faced is interpreting the microscope data and efficiently explaining it. I have learned that it is much harder to explain what is under the microscope, as it takes a lot of detail and precision when writing about this. I am continuing to work on this challenge by asking my mentors for help and using their advice to better explain the image.

Final Reflection:

The most challenging obstacles throughout this internship has been learning neuroanatomy and improving my writing to the scientific level. Describing complex scientific topics can be very difficult, especially as someone with little professional writing experience. A recent success has been finishing the presentation for the LHSI showcase. This took a lot of work and reviews from my mentors, but I am very happy with the finished product. I am usually pretty afraid to make mistakes in my life, however this experience has shown me that my mistakes give me so much to learn from and I have grown because of them.

I aspire to have the vast knowledge and ability to evaluate scientific problems with the ease that my supervisors do. As someone who wants to pursue neuroscience research, watching my supervisors explain the lab techniques and their understanding is very valuable to me. I would love to be at the level that they are in my future career.

Going into my internship, I was not sure what to expect. I did not expect to interact with the the brains in their labs, and although I knew I'd learn a lot, I have learned so much more than I thought I would. I am excited to continue to learn about the brain and begin more projects with my supervisors.

I have not been surprised about anything throughout my internship because my mentor gave me an explanation of what to expect on my first day. Although every day varies, most of the time my work is pretty steady. That being said, I originally thought my duties would include more wet lab techniques. I mostly work in an office setting, which I was not expecting, however I have still been able to learn a lot and apply lab techniques to my work, one significant example being microscopy.

The people that I work with are different from me in many ways. There are many people who are not originally from Indiana, so they all have different backgrounds and experience, which I find to be helpful to learn from. In general, I think working with a diverse group of people is important to be exposed to different ideas and personalities, which everyone can learn from.

At my internship site I am expected to stay up to date on current publications, do preparation or some work outside of my time in the building, and to know a vast amount of knowledge. I would probably expect any lab or research job to be like this, so I am not surprised by this culture. I do like research, and I am interested in my field of work so doing extra reading or preparing for a presentation outside of my time in the lab does not bother me. My ideal work culture would include flexibility, accountability, and teamwork. Right now I work primarily independently, with help from my mentors. I would enjoy more in person interaction, but with the structure of my internship it isn't that accessible. I do enjoy my internship and the work that I am doing.

Working from people different from myself has allowed me to grow and learn. It is helpful to me to meet and work with people different from myself to get new perspectives or better skills. When working with someone, I can usually find something that they do well, and I try to implement that into what I am currently working on. An example of this is asking more questions. Sometimes asking questions is difficult for me because of worries that it isn't a good question or it will show I am confused, however I have been working on this and have been trying to ask more questions during my own work and when observing others.