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February 14, 2003
From
Primates to Pharmaceuticals: January Term Internships Offer Opportunities
to Explore Careers
With help from the
Career Development Center, fifty-three students secured January
Term internships that gave them hands-on experience and a taste
of future careers. They worked in a wide range of fields at sites
as close as Amherst, Massachusetts, and as far away as Accra,
Ghana. All took full advantage of their three-week assignments,
and some even discovered passions they plan to pursue after graduation.
In the following short pieces, J-Term interns reflect on their
work and what they learned from it.
Anna Allen ’04
University of North Carolina Division of Neurosurgery
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
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I shadowed Dr. Ann
Ritter, chief of pediatric neurosurgery at the University of North
Carolina Children’s Hospital in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
I observed Dr. Ritter and her resident physician, Dr. Cortez,
in surgery two days per week and in an outpatient clinic two days
per week. I also attended weekly meetings at which the Department
of Neurosurgery discussed interesting cases and the surgical schedules
of each physician for the following week. Observing surgery was
the most valuable experience of my internship. I was not only
able to observe the delicate procedures performed by the neurosurgeons,
but I was also able to see the work of anesthesiologists and craniofacial
surgeons. It was great to see the different physicians working
as a team. During the month, Dr. Ritter encouraged me to research
one particular topic within pediatric neurosurgery. I chose to
research craniosynostosis, the premature fusion of skull sutures
that results in abnormal head shape in infants and must be resolved
surgically in order to prevent hydrocephalus (increased pressure
on the brain or increased fluid in the brain). My research allowed
me to read the current primary literature as well as to gain a
basic understanding of the problem. Consulting primary sources
is a skill that I have mastered through my biology courses at
Mount Holyoke, and I was pleased to be able to apply this skill
during my internship. This internship—my second while a
student at Mount Holyoke—helped me to clarify my career
plans. I am more strongly considering attending medical school,
and I know that if I do become a physician, I am likely to go
into surgery.
Ayesha Attah ’05
The Ghana Food and Drugs Board
Accra, Ghana
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The Food and Drugs
Board (FDB) is the national regulatory body for food, drugs, and
cosmetics in Ghana. It is divided into several departments, including
the testing laboratory where I interned. I was part of a group
of people being trained to start work there. I had the opportunity
to see the technicians and technologists work on live projects
(drugs that were being tested for the first time) while working
on my own assigned projects. Our first week of training involved
going over lab procedures, practices, and equipment. The importance
of accuracy and precision was stressed, since the FDB has the
power to accept or turn down a product meant for the Ghanaian
market. Every day, regulatory officer Farouk Amaru would give
us a brief background in chemistry before giving us our assignments.
It was exciting to work with tablets and injections and to determine
whether they were acceptable or not. One product we worked on
was aspirin tablets, which we bought from different sources. If
a tablet’s weight was close to the weight stated on its
package, we tested how long it would take to break up in the stomach
and, finally, used chemical tests to see if it contained the right
amount of aspirin. This internship made me learn new concepts
and apply those I’d already learned, thereby strengthening
my knowledge in the fields of chemistry and biochemistry.
Katherine Blake ’03
Texas Snow Monkey Sanctuary
Dilley, Texas
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Katherine
Blake ’03 and friend |
I had the opportunity
of spending four weeks of my January Term with more than 350 monkeys!
As an environmental studies major with a concentration in wildlife/primate
conservation, I found that the Texas Snow Monkey Sanctuary (TSMS),
an affiliate of the Animal Protection Institute, was the perfect
experience for my interest in nonhuman primates. Situated among
the cacti and mesquite brush of Dilley, Texas, TSMS offers sanctuary
to Japanese macaques (snow monkeys) that have lost natural habitats
to human development, as well as to vervet monkeys and baboons
whose owners can no longer care for them. My main responsibilities
at TSMS were cleaning and feeding the monkeys in quarantine, where
all new arrivals are placed. I spent the rest of my time feeding
Japanese macaques in the main “semifree range” enclosure.
This was one of the most amazing parts of my experience. We would
drive in on the back of a pickup truck and throw food out to more
than 200 snow monkeys. The truck would often be taken over by
swarms of juveniles looking to get the food themselves! Some of
my other responsibilities included assisting with medical procedures,
captures, and releases and giving the extra TLC that the monkeys
needed and deserved, such as grooming or baby-sitting a sick monkey.
My brief stay at TSMS showed me that running a sanctuary requires
a great deal of responsibility and inspired me to pursue the field
of veterinary medicine.
Elena Keydel ’05
Office of Senator John Kerry
Washington, D.C.
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Elena
Keydel ’05 in Washington |
During January Term,
I was fortunate to have an internship in the Washington office
of Massachusetts Democratic Senator John Kerry, where I got to
see how a senator’s office operates on a day-to-day basis.
My duties included everything from answering phones and sorting
constituent mail, to running errands between offices for various
staffers, to researching current education issues for legislative
assistants. My projects included collecting statistics on Pell
grants and researching states’ complaints about the No Child
Left Behind Act, now one year into its implementation. I was also
able to spend time in the Capitol and in the Senate gallery observing
the happenings on the Senate floor, such as roll call votes and
Hilary Clinton speaking about unemployment benefits. My time in
Senator Kerry’s office has confirmed for me that I want
a career in politics, most likely on Capitol Hill. In addition
to all I learned, I worked with colleagues of many nationalities
and backgrounds, thereby broadening my perspective on various
world political issues.
Rachel Joan
Levene ’06
Bellevue Hospital Center
New York, New York
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I worked with two
programs in the inpatient ward and outpatient clinic of New York
University/Bellevue Hospital Center’s Department of Pediatrics:
Reach Out and Read, a program to develop literacy skills long
before children start learning to read; and Child Life, a program
designed to meet the psychoeducational needs of children in the
outpatient clinic or hospital. I witnessed an array of medical
conditions, from severe obesity in an eleven-year-old patient
to AIDS in a three-year-old, and I learned what it takes to develop
good patient-doctor rapport, an essential part of becoming a successful
doctor. One morning each week, I participated in a meeting of
adolescent mothers, and at the age of eighteen, I was the oldest
woman there. The struggles, courage, and responsibility of these
young women were remarkable. One of the most exciting parts of
the internship was the opportunity to shadow doctors in both the
pediatric clinic and ward. I was able to observe psychobiological
concepts that I had learned during the fall semester. The challenges
of a city hospital were eye-opening. After spending my life receiving
treatment from a private practice and the past two years shadowing
a private doctor, I was shocked to see public hospital bureaucracy
in action. The experience was emotionally rewarding and has only
furthered my aspirations to become a member of the medical force.
Taoran Sun
’05
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
Boston, Massachusetts
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Taoran
Sun ’05 in her office at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter |
I spent five weeks
as an intern at Morgan Stanley’s Boston office. My responsibility
mainly involved assisting my sponsor, Richard Turcotte, with a
major marketing campaign directed to more than 40,000 people.
I performed all computer and technical assistance such as research,
data processing, printing, sorting, and mailing. I also helped
with monitoring financial advisers’ performance in the firm,
coordinating business seminars, and other general administrative
responsibilities. I was glad that the internship let me get a
sense of the job and life in the real business world, which was
part of my goal. The experience showed me that a job at such a
leading financial group could have significant meaning to the
clients and the firm in terms of the amount of dollars involved,
but the job could also be very intense, repetitive, and tedious
at times. What I liked about this internship was that my sponsor
gave me full freedom to work on my own and assist him. He treated
me like a colleague, and he strongly encouraged me to give him
suggestions and advice that might enhance efficiency. I plan to
declare a double major in economics and mathematics, and I am
thinking about a career in finance. This was a great opportunity
for me to get experience in a top financial group.
Don’t
Keep Your Internship a Secret!
Students who register their internships with the Career Development
Center, complete at least thirteen days, conduct an informational
interview, and complete a final evaluation receive transcript
notation. Unofficial internships—those not registered with
the CDC—do not receive transcript notation. Students are
encouraged to take advantage of the CDC’s support and register
their internships.
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