My lab duties within the lab consisted of breeding the zebrafish, collecting the eggs, preparing petri dishes that contained viable embryos, making the desired amount of antibody needed to performing washes on the embryos, creating the needles that would later be utilized to perform the frug injections, perform the tail assays and finally mounting the embryos on slides and imaging the slides on a confocal microscope. The work that I performed was very important to the success of the project, if any mistakes were made it would potentially set back the progress of the project and ultimately skew the results of the project. Due to circumstances brought on by COVID-19 I was not able to complete the final portion of the project and analyze the data, therefore the data was analyzed by my supervisor.

I choose this internship because of my family's history with diabetes. My mom has diabetes and so do a couple of my other family members and I have seen my mom struggle with the disease over the years. I don't believe that the treatment options that she has been given are the best for her. I think the work that the lab is doing is so important and being able to say that I took part in something like this is amazing.

I believe that this internship allowed me to succeed in my understanding of lab work. I was able to understand the intricacies that go into completing a research project and all of the time that it takes in order to get the desired data. I also gained more in depth lab skills and also learn technical skills about how to properly utilize the microscopes, how to make needles within the lab, and also the importance of washing the embryos within the experiment. The skills that I have learned from the lab can be used my current biology and chemistry lab courses and the skills can potentially be utilized in my future career.

During my time at my internship I was able to personally observe a lot of the work was completed independently, but the work contributed to the overall success of the project. There were not often tasks that were completed collectively, the majority of the work was completed independently.However there were often meetings held to check on the personal and overall progress of the project and to provide feedback My supervisor made sure that I was properly trained on how to work the equipment, collect the zebrafish embryos, image the data and properly format the poster. The environment of my internship is very helping and hands-on when it comes to any questions that I have. I knew that if I ever had a question about a task that I was assigned or if a mistake was made I knew that I could ask for help and guidance on the correct way to do things would be provided.

I would describe my ideal workplace as a friendly and energetic environment where I am constantly learning new things and interacting with new people. Also a place where I am able to develop and grow professionally and financially. I enjoyed that my internship site was an open place for questions which allowed me to learn without fear of looking bad in front of my supervisor for not knowing all the answers. I definitely want to make sure that my future workplace is the same, in that people within the workplace are not afraid to ask questions or ask for help because it will be a understanding and compassionate environment.