My Internship

Presentation Link: LHSI Showcase[3103].pptx 

Elevator Pitch: Elevator pitch.pptx 

Learning and Skills

During this internship I intend to grow in my ability to communicate with an array of people either within a scientific setting or outside environment on complex scientific ideals and findings. I want to grow in my ability to work as a team with people who are well versed in their field and learn from them. I am most excited about the prospect of working in a lab setting and seeing innovations and investigations unfold though looking for correlations and clues in data. 

After a few months at my site, I am able to reflect and recognize areas where I have improved and those where I need to grow. I feel much more confident in having an overall understanding of the lab equipment and its uses as well as the importance of addressing questions and the importance of teamwork to achieve a common goal. I learned the important role observation in learning and then attempting to replicate what was seen as well as how to learn from each failed attempt by evaluating what factors contributed to such attempt.  

Through my internship I have gained a deeper understanding of immunology, while seeing it in a different light. Interning at a lab that does both clinicals and research has given me the opportunity to see how concepts I explored in my courses contribute to diagnosis on the clinical side and testing a hypothesis in research. I am able to reach a different level of learning because I am able to go beyond understanding and into application and analysis. 

After an interning for a semester, I have learned an array of lab skills in much more depth and seen beyond the surface of research. From seeing that sterile technique is more than washing your hands after handling biohazards to finding opportunities for advancement in what is thought of as a failure. I have seen that at the very least a less than ideal experiment shows us what not to do. There is an opportunity in every failure and proud moments in success as well as evaluation of how it was reached. I have seen that there is no perfect data sets or perfect curves, but real data can produce beautiful curves that gage how close we are to approving or disproving a hypothesis.  

I always learn something new at my internship site, so I have had a number of significant experiences.  These experiences accumulated and led me toward moments that were representative of much that I had learned and seen. The first time I had seen a clinical BAL fluid processed is distinctive to me in that I was entirely amazed at all that can be deduced or confirmed from a small pellet and a microscope. The first time I was able to accurately identify cells. The first time I pushed samples into a flow cytometer. The first time I saw blood processed. The first time I aliquoted BAL fluid, lysed red blood cells, centrifuged, pored supernatants did a wash, used a hemocytometer. The first time I was able to explain an entire procedure to measure cytokines. I remember each of these first experiences distinctly because frequently the success of each of these firsts was after several past attempts gone awry. 

The WorkPlace

I have seen colleagues aid one another and learn from each other as well as seeing experience passed on. As a professional and teammate, I see the importance of helping colleagues and passing on experience and knowledge in a manner that is humble and respectful. I have gotten the chance to see colleagues collaborate and help each other from learning to use a machine to giving a colleague some spare samples. I want to grow in these traits of always being receptive to the experience of others and open to aiding colleagues in their tasks. 

I have two collogues at the internship site who are very knowledgeable on all the facets pertaining to their current research. One of my collogues has been researching in pulmonology and running clinicals for decades. On the other hand, my first experience in a research site was of only a few months. The experiences my collogues share with me have proved invaluable in my growth through this internship as they pass on their knowledge from small tips and tricks to larger concepts and procedures. 

When I had first started interning, I was not sure what to anticipate. I knew was that I was passionate about research and eager to make the most of the internship. With time I learned that skills take practice and time to develop since one-part builds on another. 

Successes and Challenges

During this internship, I faced some challenges that helped me grow and improve. Among these challenges there was understanding a procedure in increased depth, and it took me a longer time than I thought to understand it to its fullest extent, but after time and several questions asked, I was able to explain it and I consider that one of the successes I am most proud of.