Goals

Internship goals

Perform Basic Sterile Techniques in the Lab

I need to work closely with my lab instructor and to watch her in order to first learn specific techniques. Then I need to actually apply those techniques in the lab myself and grow familiar with them. So far I have become fairly familiar with the sterile techniques in passing stocks which is what we are doing right now. Once we move onto the more complicated tasks, I plan to pay special attention to maintaining sterility.

Learn and Master plating cells and passing cells

Overall, I have learned how to pass cells efficiently and accurately. I come into the lab every other day and pass cells to create stocks for the next day. I have just begun working the plate cells and actually perform an experiment. Over this internship I need to stick to what I have been doing to plate cells all while maintaining sterility. I need to run more experiments and become more comfortable with plating cells.

Acquire a knowledge of basic cancer cell growth curves to better understand and study cancer cells

I have just created my first cancer cell growth curve, but it was not very good since it was my first experiment plating and passing cells. We can see the data but there is no correlation in the growth curve. Throughout the time of this internship, I would like to perform an accurate experiment and then create a growth curve. After creating an accurate growth curve, I would like to work closely with my supervisor to study this growth curve and learn from it so then we can continue with the next experiment.

Career goals

Overall, I would love to pursue a graduate degree in Chemistry, or Organic Chemistry. I thought about medical school for a while before taking organic chemistry and the lab associated with it and I really enjoyed working in the lab and getting results and analyzing them. I would love to pursue a PhD in Organic Chemistry and then hopefully pursue both research and teaching. I am currently a PLTL leader for general chemistry and I love the atmosphere and teaching my peers so I would love to teach one day. Also, this LHSI internship has sparked my passion for research because it is so much more than I thought that it was going to be. I want to do research in chemistry because there is so much to offer.

I thought long and hard about switching my major to chemistry, but what boiled down was that I enjoyed it and I am passionate about it. I think that those mostly go hand in hand but I had enjoyed every chemistry class I had taken up to that point, much more than the biology classes I was taking.

Overall though, the future can be scary and everything is still up in the air on what exactly I want to do. I am almost certain I would love to pursue a PhD in Chemistry so that I can do the two things I am very passionate about: teaching and research. Right now, I am working to get into an organic chemistry lab so that I can have that experience and I am working with Mrs. Nguyen to polish some teaching skills and chemistry skills along with figuring out the right path for me to take.

This Spring 2022 semester has been extremely tough and busy, but making sure to always keep my goals in mind and to look ahead to the future as helped me to be successful. This semester I need to work closely with my mentors in order to learn what I need to achieve to reach my goals. Working with my supervisor, my PLTL peers and leader, and my professor in my chemistry lab, I can learn to be resilient and to gain the skills I need to succeed.

My goals have changed a lot from the beginning of this experience, mostly my career change. My love for chemistry has grown so much and I have decided to switch from a biology and medical focus, to a more research and teaching based chemistry career.

My ultimate goal that I have for myself is to apply and get into a really great school for both my masters and my PhD. Breaking this up into little steps, the first step I need to take, and are currently taking, is to get experience in the chemistry department and to learn chemistry laboratory skills. This can take a while and I plan to work in the lab over the summer and mostly for the rest of my undergraduate career. Next, would be to update my resume to give schools to best information on me possible. Then, to make sure that I remain academically responsible and and strong and to continue to do well in my classes.

My goals have changed a lot while working at my internship site because I have learned more about the PhD and research side of academics vs the medical school side. I have learned that I have loved to conduct research even more than love working on the patient side. I have learned that there is a lot of collaboration among others within my field (if I were to get a PhD), and I have learned to love that.

I feel much more confident now that I did going into LHSI about my goals. LHSI has taught me more than I thought and my supervisor has played a role in that as well. Working in LHSI, I have learned more about what my work preference is, and I have also learned more about my ideal work environment. All of which I will take with myself into whatever I decide to pursue.