Category: WOW Fellowship

Hello, my name is Norah Khadraoui I am a rising junior majoring in Sociology and I am interning at the Legal Aid Society. The Legal Aid Society is one of the largest social justice law firms in New York City. The organization’s mission centers around the idea that no person should be denied the right to equal justice. The Legal Aid Society has specific teams that practice nearly every area of law that can impact New Yorkers and I am working in their Immigration Law Unit.

The Immigration Law Unit was created to provide urgent legal services to assist low-income immigrants to obtain lawful status, reunify families, apply for citizenship, and defend against deportation. Within the Immigration Law Unit, they have four current projects. The federal project uses litigation to ensure immigrants are able to get fair hearings in immigration court. The youth project has provided free, comprehensive screenings, advice and direct representation to undocumented immigrant

youth and unaccompanied minors in New York. The removal defense project represents immigrants in removal proceedings. The criminal immigration specialists support attorneys in the Criminal Defense Practice, advising them on the impact of criminal prosecutions on non-citizen clients.   

I have been floating between the various projects as well as assisting my supervising attorney in whatever he needs. For example, for the youth project, I participated in a screening event where I screened migrant minors to help determine what relief they were eligible for. This experience was really exciting and a little scary. My internship is mostly remote but I was able to come in person to conduct the interviews and I learned how to work with interpreters during an interview. It was also the first time I had screened potential clients by myself. After I finished speaking with the clients I discussed the information I gathered with my supervisor and then together we would talk to the client about possible next steps.

Besides screening, I became responsible for DACA renewals. I have been managing the DACA email, filling out client forms, and reviewing the forms with the clients before sending them to my supervisor for his review before they are submitted. I am really happy I am able to help a lot with DACA renewals, especially with the ongoing lawsuits with DACA it is very urgent to renew everyone’s DACA status. 

One of my academic goals this summer to learn more about a realistic experience of what it is like working as an immigration attorney in a non-profit organization. I want to be able to determine if I would be able to handle and enjoy the workload and everything that comes with it. I also want to network with other attorneys working at the Legal Aid Society because I am interested in pursuing a legal career at a non-profit organization in New York.  Another one of my goals for the summer is to become more familiar with different areas of immigration law. Prior to this internship I worked primarily in asylum law. During my internship, I have been able to work on various types of casework with my mentor including DACA, naturalization, and applying for work permits. I hope to be able to also work on Special Immigrant Juveniles and U-Visa cases soon! 

Interning at Emerge MA was one of the most impactful experiences in my life. While my work was not campaign-focused, as I originally thought it would be, the internship taught me a great deal about what I bring to the table as an intern. My supervisor and the Board of Directors cultivated an environment in which I was encouraged to propose and executive my initiatives as well as take credit for my ideas. For instance, when I proposed a new social media campaign to highlight Emerge MA’s alumni working as campaign managers, my supervisor loved it and encouraged me to see it to fruition. Though social media is not my strong suit, it was very empowering to see an initiative all the way through. 

In addition, Emerge MA showed me the beauty and rigors of public service. It is not every day that I have the opportunity to be surrounded by a group of politically empowered women ready to tackle the issues their communities face. Emerge MA imbues a culture of dedication, selflessness, and perseverance. The lesson of perseverance could not have come at a better time for me. The application process this summer was especially brutal, and after having been rejected from plenty of organizations, I had very little self-confidence in my abilities as an intern. Though I was fortunate enough to be accepted into several programs in May, I could not shake the feeling that I was not worthy enough. Emerge MA changed that. Public service, especially on the local and state level, is both rewarding and incredibly difficult. There are many sacrifices people must be willing to make to serve in elected office. My supervisor, the board of directors, and the alumnae have withstood a lot – including losing an election. However, no matter what, these powerful people continued to show up and serve their communities in any way they could. 

I now can recognize that rejections are not embarrassing but a part of life. So, instead of hiding from my rejections, I take them as an opportunity to learn. Whenever I get rejected from an internship or job, I take the time to ask for feedback. Feedback is a great way not only to learn how I can be a better applicant for next time but to get some closure. I would recommend asking for feedback – especially if you are interested in re-applying for the position because it shows maturity and personal strength. 

Another piece of advice I would give to future applicants is that it is okay not to know something. I began this summer with the quest of finding the key to my future success, a concrete roadmap, if you will, of my life. I am proud to end my summer internship at Emerge MA with more questions than answers. This may sound like I failed my mission, but in reality, I am doing myself a favor. I believe that by embracing the complexity of choosing a career path and the inevitably of change, I am setting myself up for greater success. 

My internship with Dr. Salmoirago-Blotcher and her research team has been such a wonderful and rewarding experience where I have gained invaluable skills that I will use in my future pursuit toward medical school and a career in medicine.  Through the guidance of WOW, I set goals for my internship which I have been able to achieve in a number of ways.  My first goal was to gain an understanding of the fundamentals of clinical research which I have achieved through weekly meetings with the research team and mentorship meetings with the PI.  I have also been trained in Good Clinical Practice and Basic Human Subjects Protection where I learned the importance of safety measures, standard operating procedures, and consent documents when working with human study participants.  My second goal was to gain an understanding of the principles of data abstraction and analysis which are crucial to know how to do in the field of research.  I have done so by learning data abstraction, how to use REDCap, and analyzing data for a retrospective analysis.  My final goal was to form lasting connections with the members of the research team and to stay connected even after my internship has ended.  I am proud to announce that I have been extended an offer to apply for the student research assistant position for their lab beginning in September.

My internship has opened my eyes to the field of clinical research and affirmed my interest in going into the field of medicine. I learned that I really enjoy problem-solving and I have also discovered that when I put my mind to it, I can accomplish most tasks that are thrown my way, even if I have not attempted them before. This internship has also solidified my interest in gaining clinical experience with patients, as I hope to begin working with participants in the study in the coming months as the research assistant.  Some advice that I would give to students interested in pursuing an internship in a similar environment to myself is to do your best to make those connections that will help you to stand out.  It is quite difficult to find internships in the medical field and so it is extremely important to make a good first impression.  In addition, it is good to try things that push you out of your comfort zone, as you will gain experiences that you may have never tried.  For example, I was worried about doing data analysis and abstraction, however, I now have experience working with data and can use that in future assignments.

Upon concluding my internship, I am proud of many achievements that I have accomplished working with the research team at the Center for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine.  However, if I had to choose, I would have to say that I am most proud of coauthoring an abstract submission investigating if the incidence of Takotsubo cases has increased during the pandemic period (March 2020 – February 2021) compared to the year prior (March 2019 – February 2020).  We will not know if the abstract is accepted until the end of August or the beginning of September, but I am hopeful that more research will come out of this exploration.

I am working as a marketing intern for The Commons XR. The company is located in San Diego, California but I am working remotely in Massachusetts. The company communicates via a Slack channel and email. I meet with the Product Development employees twice a week over Microsoft Teams, and there is a company-wide standup every week. Currently, the type of work I am doing is writing market research reports. This includes a marketing strategy plan, customer segment information, and focus group questions. The company’s mission is to build a VR learning platform that prevents students from falling behind in the classroom by giving instructors real-time analytics about students who are not engaged with the material. Below is the company logo:

I am responsible for a market research project where I input psychographic, demographic, and other information about each of the target customer segments. I researched this information using tools such as Google Scholar, Google Trends, etc. This work will impact the marketing strategy that the company uses in the future. The marketing channels, copy, images, etc. will be chosen based on the market segment details. This market research report also gives changes that need to be made to the company website in order to appeal to each market segment. 

In addition, I must write the questions for each market segment in the upcoming focus groups and product testing. I had to use and study the company’s product in order to brainstorm these questions and researched how to conduct focus groups using books and websites. These focus groups will give the company more insight into each customer segment and the pricing strategy. It will also give the company information needed to iterate and improve upon the existing product. The feedback loop from focus groups and customer interviews are very important for software startups such as The Commons XR.

I am also working on a marketing strategy plan which includes SWOT analysis, customer analysis, competitor analysis, and business initiatives (e.g. social media marketing plan, paid ads strategy, etc.). I used tools such as CrunchBase to research some of this information. This plan will give the company guidelines this summer to increase web traffic, social media engagement, web engagement, email list sign ups, and leads. 

One of my goals for this summer is to learn how to increase the follower count on each of the company’s social media platforms by one hundred followers. Later in the summer, the company will execute the social media marketing and branding strategy; I will learn to post engaging content specific for each platform and raise brand awareness. 

Another goal is to write ten statistical programs in R to analyze the website traffic in Google Analytics and/or the ad metrics in Google Adwords. R can be integrated with Google Analytics in order to forecast long-term value of marketing campaigns. 

My third goal is to have twenty video meetings with other company members in order to improve professional communication skills and streamline tasks.

Philip Bonmassar

Virtual Internships can be tough. Working from home can blur the lines of the work-life balance – causing employees and interns to work longer hours than expected. The disruption of the work-life balance has been a widespread issue for individuals working from home since the start of the pandemic. According to an article in The Conversation, individuals in the US working from home extended their workday by over two hours. I have definitely fallen into that trap. There have been many times when I caught myself doing work past my allotted hours. However, I am really lucky to intern for an organization that places emphasis on maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Being an organization of women who juggle multiple jobs, my supervisor has modeled the need to establish respectable work-life boundaries in order to minimize burnout and enjoy life outside the workplace. 

It is with this mindset that I have decided to take advantage of my virtual internship and travel during the summer. From my portable office (a.k.a. my laptop) I have conducted my internship from New York City; Boca Raton, Florida; Maryland; Pennsylvania; Cape Cod, and, as of recently, Madrid, Spain. Though I definitely miss interacting with my colleagues in an in-person setting, I admit that I have enjoyed being able to do my internship while also visiting friends and family who I have not seen in over a year. 

Due to the 6-hour time difference between Madrid and Boston, my supervisor and I have had to come up with creative ways to make sure that we have ample opportunities to connect. Every night, my supervisor uploads my work for the next day onto a Google TasksBoard.  I focus on the work she has assigned until we Zoom in the afternoon at a reasonable time for both of us. These Zoom meetings have helped alleviate the feelings of isolation which can be common when doing a virtual internship. While interning with a time difference may not be possible for every intern or organization, I am lucky to have a supervisor who has been extremely accommodating; going above and beyond to ensure that I can build my network and establish relationships with women who can provide guidance and assistance to my career. 

While my newfound graphic design, marketing, and communication skills will be useful as a club leader on campus, the idea of maintaining a work-life balance will likely be the most beneficial skill I have learned this summer, and the hardest one to adapt into my daily life back at Brandeis. Despite its importance, the practice of work-life balance goes out the window on college campuses. During the academic year, my struggle to find the balance between work and leisure has led to instances of burnout. One thing I hope to take away from this internship is to make space in my schedule for non-academic interests such as cooking, hiking, reading, or grabbing food at Sherman with friends. I implore other Brandeis students to follow my lead and begin to invest not only in their grades but also in themselves.

Prior to the pandemic, my summers were filled with will long days in the sun, instructing and corralling small children, and were 99% offline.  Many things have changed from my time as a camp counselor to my position as an undergraduate research intern.  These changes include no longer working with children, but rather learning from a team of experienced and skilled researchers. However, as you may recognize, one of the largest changes this summer is I am working fully remote, inside, and on my screen for my position.  This change took some adjusting, as I was no longer assuming the camp counselor role, one that I enjoyed for many years.  However, to my surprise, it only took a little bit of time to get used to the new working environment as it was very similar to balancing my schedule during the semester with my courses.   Working virtually this summer has thankfully been quite easy, as all of the team members are respectful, engaging, and proficient at using zoom.   The virtual environment has its setbacks, as we are not able to be together in person for collaborations as we normally would.  However, this has created a working environment where I have been able to learn from my supervisors and colleagues and easily engage with members of the study team that I may not otherwise be able to talk to due to distance.

The World of Work has differed from my university and academic life as I am working with researchers who are devoted to their specific field of study.  Specifically, I am engaging with professionals that are extremely driven and care deeply about the work that they are studying.  Working with the research team has given me exposure to a specialty area of research that is different from that of my academic career thus far.  At Brandeis, we are exposed to a breadth of academics, and within the sciences, we are given the broad scope of a given topic i.e. genetics, epidemiology, biology laboratory, etc.  This being said, through my thorough academic background from Brandeis I felt prepared to engage in a level of work with the researchers where I am able to actively communicate about the research topics and aid the researchers.  Through this internship, I have and continue to gain a deeper understanding of cardiovascular research and Takotsubo Syndrome.

Through my internship this summer, I have gained certifications for Basic Human Protection as well as Good Clinical Practice useful for any future research aspirations.  Such certifications enable me to engage with the work that the research team is doing like data analysis, and patient records, and if I were to work with human participants, I am certified to do so.  In addition, to the certifications for good research practices, I have accumulated more experience reading and authoring scientific articles and data abstraction and analysis.  I have also gained an understanding of recruitment strategies and learned the importance of standard operating procedures when running a research study.  All of these skills will prove useful as I continue on my path to medicine.

https://mindandheartlab.org/research

This summer, I have the privilege of interning with Emerge MA, an organization dedicated to recruiting and training Democratic women to run for public office. Over the past couple of weeks, I have learned a great deal about sacrifice, dedication, and the realities of public service. Since its establishment in 2002, Emerge has trained over 4,000 women, and more than 700 of its alumni have been elected to public office – including 418 in 2018 alone. Emerge MA runs several intensive training programs targeting potential candidates and campaign managers. The signature program is a 70-hour training over six months that gives women critical knowledge of field operations, endorsements, fundraising, and communications. Through its programming, Emerge has created a network of successful and inspiring women, with which I have the pleasure of working.

My internship responsibilities include researching Emerge MA Alum, designing graphics, corresponding with Emerge MA members, engaging with the Emerge MA alum Facebook group, and drafting emails. One project I am working on right now is a graphic congratulating all of the Emerge MA alum who ran or are running for office in 2021. As I progress in the internship, I hope to gain more face time with some of the other women in Emerge MA’s network. 

Though my internship is virtual, Emerge MA has ensured that I still feel part of the community. For instance, the Executive Director has set up a virtual office space over Zoom so she and I can work together. Though Zoom fatigue is real, I have immensely enjoyed having a space that fosters communication and collaboration. As the only summer intern, I have had the privilege of building a strong bond with the Executive Director, my direct supervisor. During our Zoom sessions, the Executive Director, an elected official herself, has given great insight into being both young and a woman in local politics.   

I can tell that my summer internship at Emerge MA will be professionally and personally impactful. After reflecting on my past summer internships, I realized that I have only worked for male candidates. As a young woman passionate about civic engagement, I am desperate to see more women serving in elected office. As an Emerge MA intern, I feel like I am helping to create space for women to achieve in the realm of politics and government. Numerous studies have indicated that women are less likely to think they are qualified to hold political office, even if they are. I am thrilled to be part of an organization that empowers women to jump-start their campaigns by giving them the resources and training necessary.

My internship has also bolstered my own political ambitions. Since high school, I have toyed with running for office one day in order to create positive change in my community. However, serving in elected office can sometimes feel impossible – a coveted position reserved only for a select privileged few. Interning at Emerge MA has demystified elected office – showing me – through the success of its diverse alums – that anyone can run, including myself. I am excited for the rest of my summer and hope to continue to learn pertinent skills that will enhance my professional political career. 

This summer, I am grateful to be working as an Undergraduate Research Intern for the Mind and Heart Lab at The Center for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine at The Miriam Hospital located in Providence, Rhode Island.  I am working with the research team under the supervision of the Principal Investigator Elena Salmoirago-Blotcher, MD, Ph.D., FAHA.  The team consists of the Principal Investigator, Project Manager, Research Assistant, Data Systems Analyst, Study Psychologist, and one other Undergraduate Research Intern in addition to myself.  The research team is focused on studying the processes by which the mind can affect cardiovascular physiology and health.  In the past, they have focused on exploring the role of mindfulness training for medicine adherence for heart failure outpatients.

Currently, the team is working on the Broken Heart Study II which is focused on exploring the triggers responsible for Takotsubo syndrome.  Takotsubo syndrome (TS), also known as Broken Heart Syndrome, is characterized by acute, reversible systolic heart failure which affects primarily older, postmenopausal women.  Takotsubo is not particularly fatal, however, there can be long-term effects on the left ventricle function.  There are gaps in the information that is known about the causes and triggers of Takotsubo for many of the patients affected by this disease.  It is thought that emotional and physical triggers are likely causes of Takotsubo, but there is still much to be understood.  In addition to this study, I have been able to contribute to an abstract submission investigating if the incidence of Takotsubo cases has increased during the pandemic period (March 2020 – February 2021) compared to the year prior (March 2019 – February 2020).  We hypothesized that due to the increased stressors of the pandemic, the incidence of Takotsubo would be higher during the pandemic year compared to the non-pandemic year.  We discovered that there were increased cases of TS during the pandemic year even with a large decrease in all-cause admissions to the Rhode Island Hospital System. This trend is something that we wish to continue to explore across a larger area to see if these trends are similar along the East Coast.

My goals for this summer include gaining an understanding of the fundamentals of clinical research and experience working with a research team by taking part in meeting weekly with the entire research team as well as meeting biweekly for mentorship meetings (lab meetings) with Dr. Salmoirago-Blotcher.  I wish to gain invaluable research experience which I believe will prepare me for graduation, future work, and applying to medical school.  I hope to gain the basic principles of data abstraction and analysis which are crucial in epidemiology research.  In addition, I hope to become more confident in my statistics and epidemiology skills and become an impactful part of the research team.   I would like to form lasting connections with the members of the research team through our meetings and project partnerships. Finally, I will try to stay connected with the research team members even after my summer internship ends.

Through my work with Seaside Sustainability this summer, I met a lot of my goals, but not in the ways I imagined. I wanted to learn about non-profit work, which I imagined doing through event planning and development work. Instead, I got an interesting look at how this organization itself ran during this time, especially their internship program. It was interesting to me how autonomous this was and how well they have their remote infrastructure set up with their use of Trello and G-Suite.

I was hoping to get a better idea of what type of environmental work specifically I would most enjoy doing in a non-profit. However, I found it difficult to clarify my career interests in this internship, in part because I didn’t have the chance to work with many professionals in the field, since at Seaside I was working almost entirely with other interns. However, a major thing I did clarify about my career interest this summer is the type of organization I would most like to work for in the future. In the beginning of the summer, I also interned with an organization called Envision Frederick County, which is an organization that works on civic engagement and not just environmental issues, but I got to help them with some environmental programming. One reason I really enjoyed that experience was because their mission really aligned with my passions and worldview with regards to social activism. On the other hand, Seaside, although they are an environmental organization and they do a lot of great work, doesn’t have the social justice focus I feel really strongly about. Therefore, I learned that in the future I should search for any organization that has a mission I feel passionately about and a strategy that makes sense to me and that might benefit from my expertise, even if it’s not an environmental organization. 

For other students interested in environmental work who are looking for an internship, I would also recommend broadening your search to outside of environmental organizations. Depending on what specifically you want to do, lots of different organizations can help you gain skills that you can use in environmental work in the future. As for advice for future Seaside Sustainability interns specifically, I’d say don’t be afraid to ask questions. That advice goes for anything, but especially at Seaside, there is not a lot of orientation or explanation before you are given responsibilities, so if you get confused, ask the project manager or your intern manager if you don’t know who to ask.

Even though this summer didn’t go as I imagined, I am proud of what I accomplished. I advocated for myself when I didn’t have enough work and wasn’t getting enough out of my first work assignments. I’m also proud of the blog posts I wrote. I really enjoyed this project because I got to write about what I find important. However, I did face challenges throughout the summer and it was at times hard to stay motivated through all the turbulence happening around the world. Therefore, I am most proud of the resilience and grit I demonstrated to myself by finding ways to learn and grow though the difficult circumstances.

It has been a great 2 months working for Nobee and the journey is coming to an end. This makes a great time to look back and reflect on what I contributed and achieved with my internship.

My goals at the beginning were to learn real programming skills, build projects, and get hands on experience with the software development cycle. At Nobee, I built an actual Ruby on Rails project and adding/modifying various functionalities to an existing one. From that, I believe I got quite good hands-on technical experience with Ruby on Rails. Furthermore, by joining in with the discussion and brainstorm, I was exposed to the internal operations and the communication process of a fast-paced startup. Overall, I would say my defined learning goals were met.

This internship has given me a glimpse into the life of a software engineer. There were some stressful times around deliverable deadline but, in all generality, the job is really interesting and has a decent work balance (this source says most work 40 hours work week but sometimes software engineers have to work evenings and weekends to solve problems). I have been enjoying learning a new programming language and solving problems. Therefore, this internship has definitely confirmed my interest and career choice as a software engineer. Also, this year and the current pandemic situation also provided a prospect of a remote software engineer job. It is by no means perfect and definitely an adjustment than working on-site. However, it is shown that working remotely as a software engineer could totally be viable.

All in all, I enjoyed my experience working for Nobee. The team comprises of smart and energetic young people and communication is dynamic and comfortable. My supervisor was super helpful, really devoted to help me solve my problems. My advice for future interns at Nobee as well as interns in general relates to communication. If you are running into a difficult problem or unclear instructions, the best thing to do is to discuss with your supervisor. The process of talking and explaining the problem to the supervisor is already the first step to tackle the problem. On top of that, sometimes a simple hint from the supervisor can connect that final dot in your thought process. My advice is not to hesitate to contact your supervisor/project manager and further discuss the problem while of course, making sure that they are available and happy to help.

As for goals, I wasn’t able to accomplish the major ones, however, that is only due to the virus. Because of the virus, we are not able to work within the actual office in the state capital. It would have been there that I would have been able to meet a lot of cool people and made a lot of connections. That aside, I would still call his summer a success simply because of the fact that I spent my time working to help the constituent of this state. I would not really say that my goals changed.

This internship did not so much clarify but reassure my career choice. The constituent work is not as close to legal work as I would like but it’s still within government and we still do great work. Therefore, I figure if I enjoy this, then when I get a step closer to working in the field of my career, I will be even happier to be there. That said, during my time in this workplace I have discovered that I am adaptable. In the beginning, there was some trouble with getting my account set up. On top of that, when I did get my email, I found that I was not able to access the app that the rest of the team was working on. However, I stuck with it working through Gmail with my supervisor. There were also various processes that I had to learn in order to help constituents such as creating a case and often times drafting responses myself to send out in emails. I also learned that I need to work a little more on my communication skills. In that, my experience was sort of similar to the last half of the spring semester. Working online is just a bit more inconvenient than being in the environment and actively participating in your work.

If I had to give advice to someone who wanted an internship here I would highly recommend it. First off, everyone in the office is so nice. Rory was always there to help me when I needed despite everything through the virus. Jamal gave me great advice when I went to the office over winter break for some training. Secondly, it was a great experience in the sense that you learn so much about local government. Everyone pays so much attention to national politics but in reality, they know little to none about who is running their immediate everyday life. On the flip side to that, you learn a lot about how the local government works in response to the constituents who do take advantage of their power.

This summer I am most proud that I put my foot in the door. This internship is the first that has anything to do with my career choice. That in itself makes it all worth it, even if I did not get the full effect. I also met some very nice people that I hope to continue connecting with over the years to come.

This is a picture of the number of emails I have to go through. http://www.ctcapitolreport.com is the website we use to stay updated about things happening around the state.

This summer working on the Ultrasound Elasticity Imaging Laboratory of Columbia University (UEIL) has been an amazing experience. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to make my summer during this strange time a productive one. I have certainly achieved a lot more things than I hoped for. Helping in the development of such an interesting research was truly an incredible way to invest my time and energy in, while at the same time improve myself as a scientist.

One of the reasons I wanted to pursue an internship this summer was that I wanted to experience working in a lab setting, in order to decide if that could be a viable career path for me. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I was not able to physically be in the lab. Consequently, I did not get the chance to perform experiments in person or practice using lab equipment. Despite these difficulties, I had the opportunity to study how to analyze data and I became proficient in MATLAB. I learned how to write my own algorithms, which most of the time is a rather creative job.

During this internship, I was required to work on my own, which taught me some crucial skills about working independently, but made me realize that I really enjoy being part of a team and collaborating with other people. This summer, I also cultivated my ability to set goals and manage my time accordingly in order to achieve them. Through this experience, I learned more about myself and my abilities, but I’m set on a course to challenge myself even more.

To anyone interested in pursuing an internship at the UIEL lab in the future, I would say that you should be ready to work hard and dedicate a lot of their time into this research.  Another piece of advice I would like to pass on is the importance of finding a balance between struggling by trying to work through the difficulties on your own and asking for help. By forcing yourself into a situation where you have to think a problem through by yourself, you’re enhancing your critical thinking skills and challenging yourself. That way you learn to research and think outside the box when it comes to finding solutions to your problems. Some more advice I would like to share, is that you should make sure you are interested in the research of the lab you choose to work with because researching and studying about the lab’s research will take most of your time as an intern.

I am beyond thrilled to have worked for the UEIL lab and I am proud of my accomplishments this summer. Contributing to the prestigious research of this lab was something I was not expecting to be able to achieve in such a short amount of time. All those months of preparation, learning MATLAB on my own, and studying research papers were worth every second of my time.

Over the last few months, I continuously worked to help move forward the research on the mysteries of space dust near the Andromeda Galaxy, with the additional goal of learning more astronomy and programming. Throughout the summer, I consistently accomplished new goals, both research-related and personal. As I progressed my goals evolved, allowing me to continue challenging myself while learning along the way. My communications with my supervisor helped me adapt and change course when needed in order to best meet my goals.

This internship gave me first-hand experience with the effort and challenges associated with conducting research full-time. As my supervisor explained to me several times, unlike assigned homework, there is not always a correct answer associated with the problem. Research requires an open mind and a willingness to explore every detail with intense concentration and focus. Completing this internship entirely remotely was an added challenge to this project, however I learned more about myself due to this situation. Although I enjoyed this internship and found this work very interesting, I learned that I work much better when working in a team. My productivity definitely increases when I’m able to work through issues and bounce ideas off of my peers.

If I could give advice to a future student looking into completing a similar internship, I would first ask them what they are interested in and why. It is very important to understand exactly what piques their curiosity in order for them to maintain passion for their work. Showing up to work every day with a desire to continue unlocking the mysteries associated with their project will allow them to push forward even when the going gets tough. When they are stumped and not sure how to continue, their interest in the subject will help them prevail and think critically about the proper ways in which to move forward. Additionally, it is very important that they have a willingness to accept constructive criticism and an ability to learn from their mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes during research, but those that can find and learn from them are the most successful. Finally, I would explain that being an open and reliable team member will help everyone accomplish more together, as they will create a successful give and take relationship.

Through all of the difficult and stressful parts of the internship, the most rewarding part was the recognition from my supervisor about my gradual, but huge increase in ability to work independently and produce quality results. The learning curve for this internship was very steep, but as I continued working each part began clicking more quickly. As a result of my perseverance my work and subsequently my confidence improved. Looking back at the beginning of my internship to now, the entire process of struggling and learning left me with a a feeling of gratification.

Interning with Ecomingling helped me achieve academic, career, and personal goals. Before the start of my internship, I outlined some of the goals I had hoped to accomplish throughout the course of the summer. These goals included enhancing my environmental knowledge, constructing a clearer understanding of the types of organizations and occupations that exist in the environmental sector, and honing my written and verbal communication skills. I feel proud and grateful to have satisfied each of these goals throughout the course of my internship!

My internship definitely allowed me to clarify my career interests. As previously stated, one of my pre-defined goals was to broaden my understanding of the environmental field as a whole. Ecomingling’s central project currently is the establishment and development of Israel’s first and only anti-plastic coalition, consisting of 10 Israeli NGOs, organizations, and businesses. Forming relationships with and learning about each of these members furthered my understanding of the environmental sector as a whole, and thus, helped me to clarify potential career interests. 

Each of these coalition members are vital to the well-being and growth of the coalition as a whole. Therefore, a lot of my internship duties required me to be in communication with each of these coalition members. Through this communication, I spoke with various environmental leaders in Israel and  was able to establish professional relationships with many interesting people and organizations. In addition to communicating with the coalition board members, I also connected with the various social media campaign managers of each coalition member organization. The relationships I formed with the other social media campaign managers taught me a lot- not only about social media management, but also about the different moving pieces of the entire environmental sector in Israel! 

Just a couple days ago, I was lucky enough to virtually meet with an incoming intern who will take over my role with Ecomingling. Speaking with him felt very significant because I conceptualized and verbalized everything that I learned this summer. After explaining the general internship duties, I also gave him a small piece of advice: ensure that you are genuinely interested in the “why” of Ecomingling. I explained to him that I believed my internship was so successful because I cared deeply about the “why” of Ecomingling- its mission to accelerate sustainability across the globe. I told him that being empowered by the larger picture propelled me in my work and motivated me to do it well. He agreed with me and explained that he felt the same way, which made me feel both comfortable and excited to leave my job in the hands of such a capable and enthusiastic newcomer. 

I am very proud of so much of the work I accomplished this summer: creating Facebook pages, drafting and publishing thoughtful and interesting posts, researching how differing national plastic policies affect those nations’ marine debris, researching where Ecomingling should expand internationally, communicating well and learning from various individuals in the environmental sector, establishing positive relationships with other Ecomingling employees, and so much more. However, I am most proud of one thing: working for an organization that helps make the world a better place. Ecomingling strives to make the earth sustainable and healthy for all living things and I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to contribute to their mission. 

Here is an image of a post I made to a Facebook group with over 270,000 people. It received 25 comments! 

Here is an image of the spreadsheet I use to plan out the posts I make to Facebook. 

Click here for a link to the Ecomingling facebook page!

Click here for a link to the Israeli Plastic Pollution Prevention Coalition Facebook page, which is the coalition created and developed by Ecomingling!

Before I knew that my internship was going to be virtual, I was looking forward to spending the summer in Gloucester. It’s somewhere I’ve never spent a lot of time and I was excited about being independent (I was planning on living alone in an AirBnB) and meeting new people. But I was also nervous about it. So when it was official that I would be staying home in California with my parents, I was disappointed to miss out on this opportunity to grow, but tried to stay positive by remembering that I’ll still have all the comforts of home this summer. I don’t have to worry about living alone or getting to know a new place, and I don’t have to cook myself dinner. I’ll have to look for growth in other ways! 

Working virtually has come with some challenges. The hardest thing about working virtually has been that I’m not in an office around co-workers, and it’s been hard to stay motivated in this work environment. I thought it would be more like school, since I mostly work independently on homework. However, this job doesn’t have many deadlines for work products, so I just have to get in my hours and try to finish my work as soon as I can. This is difficult when I’m at home alone. 

I also found that I didn’t have enough work to keep me busy with the two projects that my supervisor assigned me initially, so I asked to be put on another assignment. I will now be working on the marketing team as well. In this project, I am tasked with writing at least one blog post a week, which has been really helpful to have a specific assignment with a deadline, plus I can write more blog posts if I want and have extra time. The blogs will be published on the new Seaside Sustainability website which will be ready soon. I also will be helping another person with the monthly newsletter, which will be a great chance to work with other people. Here’s an example of last month’s newsletter.

This internship isn’t how I imagined, but I am meeting my goals in new ways and gaining skills I didn’t anticipate. I haven’t been able to work on events like I had hoped, but I am learning to be flexible and figure out how to make the most of the situation. One skill that I’ve been practicing that I didn’t expect is self-advocacy. In the first few weeks, I wasn’t getting what I needed from the first projects I was assigned. I spoke to my advisor about how I could do more work to help the organization and gain more of the skills I wanted. This practice of speaking up to negotiate better situations is an important skill anywhere, especially in future jobs.

This internship has been a great experience during a very challenging time. I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to contribute to the prestigious research of the Ultrasound Elasticity Imaging Laboratory (UEIL) of Columbia University. I am thankful that I was able to pursue an online internship this summer, especially considering that most internships were cancelled because of the COVID-19 outbreak. So far, this experience was drastically different than I had imagined. It taught me how to think like a researcher and it gave me an idea of what it’s really like to work in a lab. Additionally, this online experience enhanced independent work, which was something I wanted to get more comfortable with, since I never had the opportunity to work outside of a team setting.

Real life problems (especially in science) don’t always have solutions and it usually takes years to discover a method or a drug that works the desired way. Being part of an overall research but doing something very specific was an interesting experience for me. In college, the knowledge we acquire is organized and packaged within a well thought out curriculum. The questions that we encounter, for the most part, have been already answered.  In research, there is an infinite amount of unanswered questions for scientists to explore. One of the things I found hard was to select which question I was going to investigate as well as working towards this goal, while at the same time being on track with everyone else in the lab.

While working, I had the opportunity to observe the lab meetings and listen to the progress of various individual projects from people with a higher education level than mine, something that really opened up my mind. Even without being able to physically be in the lab, I have learned many valuable things the past four weeks. Most importantly, I acquired programming skills, which are a fundamental knowledge for every science field. For example, programming (Matlab and R) will surely be a useful skill to have for future internships and jobs, or master and PhD programs. Pretty early on, I realized that in a lab setting, while trying to answer the bigger question, secondary questions will arise, and you are expected to come up with your own answers through your research. This was something that I found very challenging, but it helped me be more independent, the importance of which I cannot emphasize enough. I was also asked to present my work weekly, which helped me develop my presentation skills, taught me how to organize and convey my thoughts, and how to use feedback and constructive criticism to progress. Those meetings also kept me on track with my goals for the summer.  So far, I have gained very useful skills from this experience, which I hope I will further improve in the remaining time in the lab. I am looking forward to continue exploring my abilities and learning throughout this summer.

First off, I have to say I’m very disappointed I did not get a chance to work in the state capital this summer. Working in the building was one of the main highlights of the job being as that I could have met so much people and began to network. The days that I did go (over winter break for training) I started to get a sense of what its like and everyone was so nice. I was looking forward to working with and getting to know these people. Not to mention the random masses of protestors coming in and out before and after session. Now it feels no different than when we were doing classes online. I was more okay with that change but I find it hard being home and having to do work. However, on the other hand, I still feel as though we are doing good work, which is fine with me. I go through hundreds of emails a week trying to help constituents with their problems and at least that feels good. I just don’t feel as though I’m getting the experience I signed up for.

I believe this isn’t that different from university life. Im expected to turn in some said amount of work by a certain time. The only differences are the obvious ones: Im working for my boss not my professor, the work I’m doing is to help others and not myself.

One good skill I’m gaining or honing in on out of this is responsibility. Honestly, the only other professional setting I have worked in besides maybe campus is my job at CVS. Obviously my responsibilities at CVS are dramatically different than working at the governors office, so I feel as though I have gained a whole new aspect of responsibility. Im no longer the kid who sits at the register all day but now I am one of the workers in the office and I share nearly equal responsibility with everyone, with the exception of my supervisor of course. However, we ALL sort emails and etc., he is just better trained so a lot of my decisions have to go through him. Another skill I have learned is another form of code switching. In my neighborhood we use a lot of slang and it does tend to carry over places, however, there is no room for it here. The language required to address constituents has to be very specific given that we are representing the governor himself, which can be difficult some times because as I mentioned before, I have to run everything by my supervisor first. However, he has mentioned to me before that my email drafts are getting better and that I should be able to work on my own at some point.

http://www.ctcapitolreport.com

The hyper link above is the website we use to stay updated about events going on around the state, as it is our job to know these things if a constituent was to come asking.

Over the last eight weeks, I learned so much not only about the topic of my project, but also how to best manage my time and succeed while working remotely. Almost every day, simple questions arise that could easily and quickly be answered in person. Yet in this remote setting, the challenges of ascertaining answers take extra time away from moving forward with the project. As an example, towards the beginning of this internship I had a question about how to use a certain feature on SAOImage DS9, an astronomical imaging and data visualization application. Instead of receiving an immediate answer from a collaborator in my group as I would in an in-person setting, I needed to wait two days to get a reply from the help desk. The constant back and forth with my supervisor and several help desks results in slowed progress, however it also pushes me to search and learn more about these topics. Although at times working remotely can prove to be frustrating, I have learned that patience and perseverance go a long way towards helping me achieve my goals.

As a result of the World of Work Fellowship, I am able to participate in this fascinating astronomical research. This position is my first time working as part of a research team, which has been unlike any experience, school or work, that I have had before. During the school year, so much time is focused on attending classes, finishing assignments on time, studying for exams, and getting extra help when needed that the whole process becomes monotonous and predictable. On the other hand, working as a researcher on an entirely new project provides unique experiences and allows room for exploration. Instead of reading from a textbook to learn assigned material, I need to find many different sources to piece together enough valuable information for my specific topic so that I can proceed with certainty and know that I’m doing each step correctly. This interesting process ensures that every day I learn about new concepts and accomplish new pieces of the project.

At the start of this internship I set out with several goals intended to help me academically and towards future career plans. One of the most important skills I built during this project is my ability to continue searching for solutions to a question until I reach a suitable answer. Developing this skill is invaluable towards future successes. Additionally, I have learned a lot about astronomy and data analysis skills. Furthermore, throughout this internship I exclusively coded in Python, enhancing my programming abilities as well as expanding my knowledge of programming languages. As I continue in my studies at Brandeis the experience I gained will help me in my pursuit of science, scientific research, and the learning process. Additionally, learning to forge my own way using resources that I also need to identify has expanded the way I think and will influence all that I do in the future both academically and in extra-curricular activities.

The global pandemic is affecting everyone’s lives in deep and personal ways. One of the many ways in which COVID-19 has influenced my life is through my summer internship, which was originally set to be in person. However, along with so many other facets of life, virtual became the new normal and my new expectation. 

Overall, I am really enjoying my internship with Ecomingling. I have learned integral personal, communicative, and environmental skills, I have (virtually) met some very inspiring people, and I have furthered my understanding and relationship to the environmental sector as a whole. On top of all of that, I feel very grateful that I have a summer internship at all, given today’s current climate. 

That being said, there is something missing from a fully remote experience. There is something so distinct and human and gratifying about sitting side-by-side, making eye contact, and conversing with people who are in the same physical room as you. This is something that is missing from my internship. This is something that is missing from so much of our daily lives today. 

However, given that this aspect of our lives is currently non-negotiable, I am so happy to have the opportunity to intern with Ecomingling this summer! Being a part of the World of Work is quite different from typical university life. One particular difference I have noticed between the two is the expectations that exist surrounding work. In typical academic life, there is a predetermined number and type of assignments, often made clear and accessible to me and the other students at the start of the semester. Often, these assignments come with detailed instructions, expected deadlines are set, and grades are given by the professor once the work has been submitted. 

However, my internship work is much more flexible than this. It bends and shifts based on Ecomingling’s constantly and rapidly changing needs. I was not given a list at the start of my internship with all the assignments to complete by the end of the three months. Also, I am not given a letter grade based off of my work; rather, my supervisor provides me with tailored, constant feedback. The shifting work of my internship reflects the busy and complex nature of existing in the “real world” with “real people”. 

My internship with Ecomingling has helped me build many skills that will be transferable to other aspects of my life. For instance, my internship has given me a taste of what the “real world” looks like. By gaining experience with this start-up, I have learned about the necessity to have a drive and a passion for whatever you are involved with. I have learned that although teamwork and collaboration are sometimes challenging, the overall output is much higher when working with others. I have learned that running a start-up is messy and complicated, but that is precisely what makes it exciting and worthwhile.

Furthermore, I have enhanced my written and verbal communication skills, I have bolstered my social media and digital marketing literacy, I have increased my ability to do meaningful research, and most importantly, I have furthered my environmental awareness, knowledge, and passion. I am learning all of these skills and more with Ecomingling. I know these skills will be valuable to me throughout the rest of my life- in the academic world, in my future career(s), and beyond. 

Click here to view the Israeli Plastic Pollution Prevention Coalition Facebook page I created and have been managing (a coalition created and managed by Ecomingling)!

Click here to view the Ecomingling Facebook page I have been managing!

Here is an example of an image I used as the graphic for a Facebook post, in which I provided a link to download a brochure about plastic!

On July 1st I started interning with Seaside Sustainability, a small environmental nonprofit based in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Their mission is to “passionately create sustainable oceans & communities by educating through action.” They accomplish this through work in environmental education, legislation, and technology. 

So far I’m working on two projects. The first is a data collection project that is a requirement for all Seaside interns. I am collecting contact information for teachers and administrators for every elementary, middle, and high school in the country, as well as information about their STEM programs. This will help Seaside expand the National Stem Honors Society program, which “is a chapter-based program that supports academic achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.”

I’ve also been working on the sustainability calculator project. The final goal for the project is to produce a web page on which people can answer a quiz about their lifestyle and a calculator outputs their CO2 emissions, waste production, and water consumption. A similar calculator can be found on footprintnetwork.org. However, the footprintnetwork calculator only calculates your CO2 production, while the Seaside calculator will have additional measures. So far I’ve been helping to formulate questions and do research mostly for the water section of the project. I chose to work on this project because my academic goal for the summer is to improve and practice my analytical and research skills. 

I have only been working for a week and I hope to be able to work on additional projects soon. At Seaside Sustainability, interns are encouraged to take on new roles and projects throughout the program. This will be a great opportunity for me to adapt quickly and gain confidence in changing circumstances. A personal goal of mine for this summer is to become more comfortable in new roles and environments.

One of my career goals is to learn more about nonprofit management and organization, such as how nonprofits fund their work, organize internally, and engage their constituencies to accomplish their mission. I still want to get involved in more event planning, development, and fundraising, but so far I have gotten a look at some of the internal structure of the organization. Seaside uses Trello to organize work in the internship program, which is an online project management tool that allows people to work on projects in teams, and have lots of instructions available virtually. In addition, the projects are managed by interns. It seems the internship program is able to run pretty autonomously. Here’s a picture of my personal Trello board, which was all set up for me when I started my internship, and made my onboarding process quite independent.

I’m meeting with my internship manager for the second time tomorrow to discuss what other projects I could get involved with. I’m looking forward to seeing what I’ll be able to learn and accomplish this summer!

Have you ever looked up at the sky during a very clear night and wondered what is really out there? The expansiveness of the universe continually boggles my mind. In the hopes of learning more about the star dust from whence we all came I decided to search for an astronomy internship for the summer. I was fortunate enough to land a research project under Professor Daniel Wang in the Astronomy Department at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

For this internship I am studying the dust attenuation curve, which determines the amount of interstellar absorption and scattering of light as a function of wavelength, in the central region of the nearby Andromeda galaxy. The determination of the attenuation curve is critical for astronomers to probe the intrinsic properties of galaxies, as well as interstellar dust. Existing studies have shown evidence that the attenuation curve is steeper in this galaxy than in the Milky Way. Additionally, the strong 2175 Angstrom attenuation bump appears to vary among different dusty clumps in the region. In order to better understand these important characteristics of the attenuation properties and their spatial variation, we have obtained spectroscopic data from the Hubble Space Telescope STIS observations of two prominent dusty clumps. Results from this study compared with previous multi-wavelength data will further our knowledge with regard to what causes the steep slope of the attenuation curve in the region, and how the variation of the curve depends on the properties and environments of the clumps. This research is important for us to use the central region as a laboratory to explore how high-energy activity in a galactic nucleus affects its environment.

Thus far, I started processing the Hubble Space Telescope data to extract spectra, and soon I hope to confront them with models to better understand the dust properties in the extreme nuclear environment of the galaxy. My work focuses on the dusty clumps within the blue box, as seen in the figure above. While working on this project I have learned a great deal about astronomy, data analysis, programming, and the patience required for conducting research. Every day my goal is to accomplish a few small things so that over time these successes will add up towards a significant result.

Ultrasound Elasticity Imaging Laboratory (UEIL) is part of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University and it is also one of the biggest labs in its field of ultrasound. https://ueil.bme.columbia.edu/ It has approximately 30 people from different educational levels in its employ. The UEIL works on developing novel, ultrasound-based techniques for both imaging and therapeutic applications. The main areas of focus at the time include drug delivery to the brain by opening the blood-brain barrier (BBB) using focused ultrasound, mapping the mechanical and electromechanical properties of the heart, harmonic motion imaging, pulse wave imaging, and neuromodulation.

During this internship, I will start by processing images of the skull microstructure. Figure 1 is a binary image of the skull microstructure that I created. This internship requires me to become proficient in Matlab, read research papers in order to understand preexisting information and form questions that are relevant to the goal of this research. The goal of my project is to extract valuable information for the skull microstructure such as its porosity, the number of pores and their size, and its density.

When we are dealing with Focused Ultrasound in the brain either for imaging or therapeutic purposes, the biggest obstacle we have to overcome is the skull. The reason is that it makes it difficult to pass the ultrasonic wave through. Studying the skull microstructure will enable us to see how it impacts the wave propagation. This information helps the focused ultrasound work more precisely, something crucial in terms of BBB opening or ultrasound therapy in the brain.

This internship will help me to achieve the goals I have set for myself. In the world of science, programming is the most essential tool to conduct research. An important goal for me is to learn how to analyze data in Matlab. In order to do that, I will have to also learn the different methods of collecting data and the use of appropriate controls. Another reason I decided to do an internship in a research lab is that I believe it will help me decide if I want to pursue this career. Two months might be a short time period, but it will certainly get me a bit closer in setting my future goals even through this online interaction. 

Lastly, working on a team has always been a way for me to be more productive and to gain inspiration. However, this internship will require me to work independently, solve challenging questions, while also coming up with new questions to solve. Through weekly progress meetings, the other interns and I will have the opportunity to learn details about each other’s projects, gain a better understanding of the bigger picture, and have all the support we need. Overall, this internship will help me achieve my main goal which is allowing myself to struggle and find ways to overcome those challenges on my own.

This summer I am working in the Office of Governor Ned Lamont in Constituent Services and External Affairs.

I started my internship about 2-3 weeks ago. Since we are not allowed in the building the experience is a little less than what I was expecting to get. Normally, we would have physical letters to go through, and proclamations to create, however, there is nowhere for anyone to mail in to and no machines to print proclamations. Therefore, we just sort emails all day.

A lot of people have many concerns during this time, ranging from COVID to police brutality. So far I’ve learned to respond to several types of emails on my own, one of them being people who have yet to receive their unemployment checks. I get about 100 emails to go through a week and if there are any I feel like I can’t respond to, my supervisor and I go over them together and he gives me further instructions. I’m actually getting to a point where he wants me to start drafting responses for myself and having him look over it. I just have to get used to the language used by the office and learn a lot more solutions.

One example of that is creating a “case”. This is when a constituent has emailed us with a problem significant enough for a course of action. I then would have to go online and create this case where I’m sending the email directly to a person who can solve this constituent’s problem. That said, our mission is to get through as many emails as possible so that we can help people with their problems in these rough times. Here is a website we send constituents for updates.

My goal by the end of this summer program is to familiarize myself with the different components of local government. When I went for my training back in December, the people in the office taught me so much about the local government it was crazy. I had no idea how oblivious I was to what my local government does due to the fact that everyone always has an eye on federal politics. However, I believe that if people want the machine that is the government to start working in their favor, they must master local politics. When I say master I mean become educated about its components and then utilizing them: emailing the governor, going to open sessions, protesting in the lobby, etc.

I chose to look for an internship in my city because, hopefully, when I become a lawyer, I want to work back home where I can help my people. This internship will not only get my foot in the door but it will give me a lot of the knowledge I need to eventually be able to make a change in my community. My supervisor is also pretty nice, he gives me a lot of room to ask questions and he works with me a lot to make sure I’m situated.

Eco:Mingling, the non-profit start-up organization I am interning for this summer, is a Sustainability Accelerator. This means that the organization both creates and cultivates environmentally-focused coalitions. These coalitions are formed by uniting environmentally-driven businesses, organizations, grass-roots movements, educational facilities, municipalities, and academics by focusing them all on one collective sustainable initiative. By uniting stakeholders from different backgrounds, Ecomingling is able to create the right conditions for sustainable change. Located in Tel Aviv, Israel, but rapidly expanding to the rest of the country, Ecomingling encourages connection and interactivity in a way that makes Israel’s sustainability sector much greater than the sum of its parts. Click here to visit the Ecomingling website!

Ecomingling’s current project is the creation and maintenance of Israel’s first and only anti-plastic coalition, called the Israeli Plastic Pollution Prevention Coalition (IPPPC). Because Ecomingling is a start-up and the establishment of this coalition is Ecomingling’s first major project, there is endless work that needs to be done. My principal responsibility has been creating and upholding all social media for both Ecomingling and the coalition itself. Click here to visit the Israeli Plastic Pollution Prevention Coalition website!

My largest project thus far has been creating and working on two separate Facebook pages: one for Ecomingling and the other for the Israeli Plastic Pollution Prevention Coalition. One aspect of this task is organizing the layouts of each page. This aspect of the job includes, but is not limited to, the creation and publication of cover photos and profile pictures, choosing which tabs to display and filling in the relevant information, drafting and posting the “About” sections, linking “Call to Action” buttons on each pages’ home screens, and much more. 

Another responsibility of managing the social media campaigns for both Ecomingling and the coalition is researching, drafting, and posting all content that is published on both pages. One aspect of this job is choosing the correct graphic to include in each post. Here are some images that I have included in the posts/ have helped to create:

I have created many Excel Spreadsheets to organize the schedules and information regarding both pages. For instance, I have a spreadsheet schedule for each Facebook page that includes the date, time, text (in Hebrew and in English), and hashtags for every post. I have another schedule spreadsheet that contains all the research I have compiled of various Facebook groups and pages that Ecomingling or the IPPPC can post in to promote their page visibilities. I have another spreadsheet that contains a list of all of the coalition member organizations, along with the contact information (name, email address, and phone number) for each of their social media coordinators. I use other spreadsheets to track when coalition members post on behalf of the coalition and to schedule the coalition’s “Spotlight” posts, in which we highlight the particularly unique or beneficial work being done by a coalition member. Overall, this job includes a lot of planning ahead and endless communication with various individuals involved with either Ecomingling or the IPPPC.

I know that my work on establishing, sustaining and enhancing the social media presence of both Ecomingling and the IPPPC will significantly impact both groups in a positive way. We live in a time where businesses must use social media to build their reputation, remain accessible to their clients, and showcase everything they have to offer. 

One of my goals this summer is to hone my written communication skills. Operating two social media campaigns has forced me to challenge my typical writing habits and thus enhance my writing skills in a new way. Another goal I have is to learn more about environmental start-up organizations. I have already witnessed and learned so much about the various aspects and challenges of running a start-up organization and I look forward to learning even more. I am also particularly interested in the environmental aspect of this organization, and I hope to learn more about what it means to be a true environmentalist throughout the course of this internship. 

I have been working at Ms. (Ms. Magazine) for three weeks now, and I’ve been really enjoying the opportunities the internship has presented thus far. Ms. is based in Los Angeles, but of course, my internship is remote. It’s been interesting to work on the East Coast but with an organization in Pacific time; I’ve had to learn how to restructure my day to make sure that I am online during relevant hours. While doing that, I am still trying to maintain home life with my family and non-work activities. 

Ms. is a national publication founded by Gloria Steinem in 1972. In 2001, ownership of the publication was transferred to the Feminist Majority Foundation. The Ms. Classroom program makes Ms. a prominent resource on college campuses, and the online and print magazine strives to provide in-depth reporting on feminist issues and information. 

My work consists primarily of writing and editing for the online publication. Since starting the internship, two articles of mine have been published. The first was titled “100 Years of Women Voting Means Defending the Right to Vote for All.” In the course of writing and researching for it, I was able to explore both historical and current issues, and my academics in American studies and journalism really helped me in writing and researching the piece. My second piece was the first issue of a bi-weekly column I’m co-writing with another intern. The column is called “Tools of the Patriarchy,” and the first issue was on naming (how women traditionally take their husband’s last names after marriage). Co-writing has been a great experience so far and writing this column has allowed me to do some in-depth research on patriarchal systems/tools while learning about cooperative teamwork in a really hands-on way. 

In addition to writing my own pieces (and co-writing pieces), a large part of my responsibilities involve editing pieces for the online publication. I really enjoying editing tasks; as editing others’ work helps me improve my own writing skills. It’s also helpful to act as a contributor to the larger team effort of putting a publication together. As the internship progresses, my work will also involve fact-checking for the print magazine, working on Ms. social media, learning more about journalism in general and gaining professional skills to that end. 

My academic goal for the internship is to gain hands-on experience in American journalism to apply to my studies as an American studies major and a journalism minor. My career goal for the internship is to gain experience in a professional journalistic environment, something I already feel that I am experiencing only a few weeks in.

Even remote, the internship is a serious endeavor (in the best way possible). I have been able to imagine what a full-time career in journalism would look like and it makes me excited to pursue a career in this field. Finally, my personal goal for this internship is to improve my own journalistic and non-fiction writing and to gain experience writing with an activist lens. Already, I am making great strides towards this goal with the editing work I am doing and the feedback I have received. I’m also learning so much about feminism and how to appropriately incorporate that into my writing. 

As my internship comes to a close, I feel like my time here has really been coming together. I am currently working on one last project that I hope will leave a lasting impression on the islands after I am gone. I have co-developed a project called Bivalve Quest with a co-worker of mine that would allow visitors to participate in the collection of scientific data. There is little existing data about the distribution and abundance of shellfish (such as clams and oysters) on the Boston Harbor Islands’ shores, so we want to get a better picture of the marine ecology. This project allows us to educate and engage guests in marine science while also generating useful scientific data. I am particularly proud of this achievement, as my work will go on to make a difference in studying the diversity of Boston Harbor’s shellfish.

As for the research project documenting marine species on and around the Harbor Islands, this is also going swimmingly. With the PhD candidate from UMass Boston that I have been working closely with, we have been doing in depth exploration of the subtidal areas around the islands – literally! Donning snorkeling gear, we headed out into the chilly waters to search for crabs, algae, and other marine species. A highlight was finding an eelgrass bed, which provide a safe haven for many juvenile fish but are threatened by destructive fishing and boating practices. I spotted a small baby flounder only about 2 inches long, but it darted away before I could manage to get a photograph.

I have been able to bond with my co-workers here at the Natural Resource team as well as the recurring volunteers that I work with nearly every week. Together with five seasonal staff and another intern, I have made a new group of friends that I can rely on and have gotten close to. I will miss the Natural Resource team once I am gone.

With only a couple of weeks left before I complete my internship, it has been quite a ride. I’ve gotten a real taste of what it is like to be an employee of the National Park Service. I’ve been involved in many different projects and felt like the work I have done over the past three months is meaningful and actually making a difference. Overall, this has given me some great insight into what to look for in the future. I have gained invaluable experience in the field this summer and know that I want to continue to work hands-on with nature. My work on the shores and in the water has only strengthened my love for the oceans and marine species, and I have learned so much about the ecology of our local harbor. I have even gained some leadership skills while working with teens from the Live Blue Ambassadors program at the aquarium, assisting and teaching them about marine invasive species. Overall, this is a summer that I will never forget and has helped light up my path for my life after graduation.

As my internship with the Irving Medical Center at Columbia University comes to a close, I have many positive reflections to look back on. In a very tangible way, I can see how much I learned. In a short time, I was able to begin to understand the details of Kidney transplant rejection research, when prior to this summer, I had extremely limited knowledge in the field. My goals for the summer were to take advantage of the opportunity and to learn as much as possible. I understood and did the procedure of staining tissue biopsies with antibodies to analyze the tissue. I learned the intricate anatomy of the kidney, the glomeruli, tubules, interstitium, nephrons, cytokeratin, and was able to recognize them under a microscope. I went to different conferences and seminars to learn about cutting edge biotechnology machines. I went to a seminar about the history and current regulations within medical research morality and standards (which was fascinating). I also heard the department head of the Harvard nephrology department give a talk on kidney function.

One thing that I am most proud of is that I developed the skill of being quite fearless about asking questions. In my work environment, I could have easily been embarrassed by the fact that I didn’t know a lot of things. I could have been bashful in asking questions, knowing that the doctors I was surrounded by have delved into their specialized sections of pathological study for years, and felt way out of my league. I certainly did recognize my newness to the field of study. It was very humbling, and I actually saw it as a perfect opportunity to be completely unembarrassed, ask any question I wanted, even knowing if they were more introductory questions in an expert’s eyes. There was always more I could ask and more I could learn, so I tried to take advantage of that in the best way possible. One day in the last few weeks, I actually sat in my supervisor’s office for a few hours, just me and her, and we got into a long detailed discussion about her research, writing all over her whiteboard, discussing it (as you can see in the picture here). It was totally wonderful.

I learned something about my medical aspirations and desires this summer as well. I had a very positive experience in the pathology department and learned so much, but I did discover that I am drawn to patient interaction. I kept finding myself going from the science (cross sections of tissue) and asking ‘how exactly does this translate to the patient’? ‘How can we best treat the patient?’ and ‘How did the patient respond?’. I am a ‘people’ person and I think that my career in medicine will somehow be intricately connected to seeing patients throughout the day, rather than only doing research or only looking at the tissues of patients.

Along with my internship work experience, I also had a nice time on evenings and weekends, seeing friends and family and exploring NYC. This summer internship has been a wonderful experience of learning and fun, and I am so grateful to the World of Work (WOW) Brandeis internship fellowship for making the experience possible.

This internship has definitely helped clarify my career interests as I now know that I really enjoy working in a think tank environment (especially AEI) because the notion of coming to work every day just to think about researching, analyzing or solving big problems in the world is a pretty appealing job description. I also learned that with limited guidance, as long as I take the proper time to reframe things in my own words, I can be very successful in the long run.

Case in point, I had little to no guidance at the beginning of my internship (which also happened to be when I saw the most of my scholar). In other words, for the first two weeks (before he left for his three-week trip), most of our interactions revolved around him critiquing the Daily Packets of political analysis that I was handing in, which continued to be subpar, because I had no idea what I was doing at that point in time. But, improving at anything is an iterative process, and this experience was exactly that. While he was away, I took his criticism to heart and used it to shape the rest of my work going forward, being mindful of where I had messed up earlier. To cap this process off, I wrote a 30-page intern on-boarding manual which I presented to him upon his return from his travels. I would definitely say I am most proud of the manual because it was the result of several iterations of synthesizing my scholar’s comments into one comprehensive guide for future interns.

My learning goals definitely changed from what I had originally set out to achieve since I did not end up speaking nearly as much Russian at work as I would have hoped since my scholar was seldom in the office and the Research Assistant who supervised me was equally busy.  Luckily, I was able to practice in the evenings since there was a girl from Moscow living at the International Student’s House, so while I did not meet my language practice goals head on, at least they were not neglected completely. Case in point, midway through the summer, I refocused my efforts on honing my reading comprehension skills in Russian.

For students interested in an internship at AEI be prepared to be thrust into an extremely intellectual environment. You will join a cohort of bright and talented peers from some of the best colleges and universities in the US, each person impressive in their own right. If you are willing to work hard, accept criticism and learn from it, you’ll be golden. As far as advice goes for those in my field, to the select few who would like to follow in my footsteps, if you can acquire a good command of the Russian language and familiarize yourself with the major American and Russian writers and thinkers who are writing about Russia, you will put yourself on the path to success.

Germany has officially hosted me for a month now and the memories, times, work, and friends have been incredible. Despite having a few doubts before embarking on this internship – looking back this experience is becoming immensely more important for me personally and professionally each day.

Above all, Köln has surprised me in how multicultural and open it is – with festivals almost every weekend. Highlights of the past two weeks have included the Cologne Pride (CSD day) where 1.2 million people attended, and the Kölner Lichter Fireworks show. The investment that the city is putting into making these majestic events such a success is truly remarkable and have made my weekly schedule filled with fun social opportunities. Weekends have been reserved for seeing more of Germany, traveling to other cities including Bonn, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Berlin, and more to come. Although sometimes exhausting, traveling is fueling me with new power and energy that makes work-life balance so much more efficient. I’ve learned the importance of letting myself fully immersed in the freedom of exploring, not knowing where exactly my path will take me or what the plans are for the day, while also always embracing the local culture and trying new things. This mindset is something that I really want to take back with me to the United States.

Another important aspect of the German experience for me has been the openness to shared learning. Not only in terms of cultural events, Köln is similarly dedicated to encouraging this shared space in the more professional realm. An example can be the Nacht der Technik hosted at the end of June. Open to the public and attracting both young and old, the night was an incredible opportunity to travel around the city and see the showcasing of underground tunnels, aerospace engineer work, university research, and hospital technology in action. In addition to being inspired, it was also a nice time for our lab to showcase our virtual reality retail work and for me and another intern to see the city from a technical perspective.

Work-wise the internship has been proceeding well and fully challenging. We are adapting our timeline to holiday breaks, student exam schedules, and coding progress, but overall it is heading towards halfway completion. Coding for me in a new language has been a lot harder than what I had anticipated and I am struggling to be as optimistic as I usually am about bearing through hardship to recognize the full potential of figuring it out. Because computer programming, in general, is new for me and it’s a must to design code that is at the level necessary for professional research, the pressure has been pushing me further than I had expected. Although at this stage it is unclear how much we can achieve within a month’s time, I am already feeling the reward of doing things that I would have never been able to do if not for this lab and the opportunities the internship is providing me.

And this feeling, the unique reward from the extreme challenge, is what makes the internship experience so different and powerful compared to at the academic setting. As a student, there are always other motives such as grades, time management, and future employment that steer the focus from the goal of learning and challenging oneself. If school is easy, you say thank you and continue with another subject, if it is hard you accept a bad grade and try better next time. In the actual work environment, you are trying to achieve something that can be done in multiple ways and you must navigate your own path within pushing yourself, doing the best work, and maintaining relationships. The learning process is so much more focused and freeing than a college setting, but it is also more demanding. I hope that I will be able to incorporate, maintain, and grow this while finishing my studies at Brandeis University.

– Shai Dinnar ’20

After just two more weeks at the Hariri Imaging Lab, I feel as though I am getting used to the way the lab works and research that they do. At first, I was doing small tasks and was astonished by how important those tiny tasks are to the overall research process. I’ve realized that here, everything builds on itself and that it is amazing to begin to see tiny progression in such long term work. One of my goals for this internship was to get a better understanding of research and to experience its process. Now that I am familiar with their work, I have been given my own tasks to do, which makes me feel like I am a part of the research process and team.

I think the biggest difference for me between Brandeis academic life and the World of Work in a laboratory setting is structure. At Brandeis, my academic life is very structured. I have due dates that are planned ahead of time and each science class has the same basic structure and I know how to plan for it and I know what I will be learning and how I will be studying each day. The World of Work at the lab is very different. The structure is a lot more laid back, even though everyone is constantly doing work. There is a loose schedule, but each day that schedule changes many times because each component of the research depends on each member and their own work. This looser structure is vital to the lab because it ensures that work will get done in a way that allows for changes to occur frequently. Alternatively, at Brandeis, most of the academic work is personal, and only few projects require the dependence of others getting their tasks done.

As a result of this internship I have learned many new skills that will assist me with academics and future career plans. I have learned that Matlab is very useful in the research world. As a result, I have begun to learn Matlab and familiarize myself with the basics. I think Matlab is an important skill for my future if I decide to go into research, and, even if I decide not to, it will allow me to be able to have a greater understanding of how things are accomplished in science and medicine. Another important skill that I am building on is patience and determination. A lot of the information and topics that are worked on and discussed here in the lab are very complex and specific. At first I found it very intimidating that I did not really understand the technology and the physics behind the machines that are being used. As a result, I realized I needed to be patient and slowly repeat the readings and ask many more questions so that I could begin to understand the complexity of the material. I think this patience and determination to learn when things are tough to understand will be a useful skill in all aspects in my life, especially next year in my classes. In addition, being flexible and able to work in different work environments is an important skill to possess.

• Ashley Bass

As I enter my third month with the National Park Service, I have been reflecting a lot on how my three years at Brandeis have prepared me for this line of work. My work in the field has taught me a lot about what it means to be an environmental scientist. First and foremost, I have learned how different research is in the field as opposed to in a laboratory setting. Through my coursework at Brandeis, I have gained significant experience in a lab. A full year of lab work each for general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biology gave me lots of experience for the scientific work I am doing this summer and I plan on doing as a career. However, it did not prepare me for field work in some of the ways that I thought that it would.

For my work on the coasts of the Boston Harbor Islands to document wildlife, I am working closely with a PhD candidate from UMass Boston. Last week, she gave me an important piece of advice. She told me that field work is really nothing at all like lab work. In the lab, everything must be done with precision to ensure the best results. This sort of accuracy is much more difficult to achieve in the field, as a range of other factors can vary widely.

When going from the specificity of a sterile lab to climbing over rocks on a beach as the tide comes in, a lot of rules simply no longer apply. Laying out a straight line to best measure the shoreline is difficult when it is dotted with boulders. Certain species of encrusting algae growing on rocks look really similar to cyanobacteria, a type of marine bacteria. When time is of the essence, you often have to make do with the best you can before your entire work space is submerged again under the incoming tide.

This all being said, while I was not expecting a lot of these differences, they give my work more meaning.  My work at the National Park Service has been an amazing experience and has only strengthened my interest in field work and environmental research. I have been working for a cause that I strongly believe in and wish to continue work like this into the future. I am grateful to the National Park Service for this summer-long learning opportunity among dedicated and hard-working people who are also dedicated to environmental science and change. It has given me a renewed desire to study and fight the effects of climate change, and it has given me some experience that I could not get almost anywhere else.

– Isaiah Freedman

A bilingual radio show, urban farming, and community organizing collectively summarize the first few weeks of my internship with the environmental justice organization, GreenRoots. Located in Chelsea, MA (a city just north of Boston), GreenRoots is a non-profit organization that utilizes the power of community organizing to mobilize local residents of Chelsea and East Boston around issues of environmental injustice that directly impact residents. GreenRoots engages in environmental justice work through initiatives including waterfront access on the Chelsea Creek, youth leadership development (particularly with a team of six teen leaders from Chelsea known as Environmental Chelsea Organizers), transit justice, and food justice.

Over the course of this summer, I am working collaboratively with a team of four other interns to support the GreenRoots staff across a wide range of ongoing programs. With each intern offering support for specific projects, I am involved with the food justice work and the East Boston waterfront initiative.

Before starting my work with GreenRoots, I knew that I wanted to learn more about food justice and how it is put into practice, and so I have greatly appreciated the very hands-on approach here. This involves devoting a certain number of hours each day to help out at either the Chelsea urban farm or the youth community garden by weeding, watering, planting, harvesting, and distributing food to the local residents that live in the neighborhood. These two projects (the urban farm and youth community garden) represent a very grassroots approach to working to address food insecurity through direct distribution (all the food is free) while additional events such as open community work/harvest days invite people to bring their families to the farm and learn how to grow their own food. Both of these forms of community building are an important part of the overall movement towards food sovereignty, in which members of the community feel empowered through knowledge about/access to healthy food in their neighborhood.

The East Boston waterfront initiative is an equally ambitious and wide ranging project of GreenRoots, which at its core seeks to organize community members of East Boston to address issues of environmental concern taking place along the Chelsea Creek (a body of water running in between East Boston and Chelsea), which directly impact the health and lives of residents. The major current campaign aims to oppose the proposed construction of an Eversource electrical substation on the East Boston side of the creek, as this substation would be constructed in a flood risk zone that is also a mere 100 meters away from an eight million gallon tank of jet fuel. Concerned with the potential of an explosion that could occur with this proposed site as well as alternative uses of the site that would better serve the community while not being a public health risk (such as creating a soccer field), organizers at GreenRoots are currently working to build community awareness and engagement around this project.

Lastly, one relatively new project that I have been given the opportunity to work on is a weekly radio show called GreenRoots/Raices Verdes, which is a bilingual (English and Spanish) radio show that provides space for discussions on topics relevant to East Boston and Chelsea residents by interviewing guests from a variety of local organizations who share their stories and experiences around themes such as immigration and housing. Although through a different medium, Raices Verdes is yet another way that GreenRoots seeks to build community networks and power.

Over the last few weeks, I have become a lot more comfortable with the environment inside and outside my workplace. Blueport Commerce has an open space environment which creates a collaborative atmosphere. I like this because it allows me to easily ask questions to my supervisor and other people in my team. Along with this, there are pair programming desks and many conference rooms which people can use to collaborate together. My co-workers have been great and four Northeastern interns just joined last week as well. It’s nice to also have a few people my age go through the same process and learn together. In terms of outside the workplace, it has been really nice living in the city and being close to so many places. Living alone and cooking has also been a great experience.

I have felt that the world of work is different from university life in many ways; like differences in the social environment and the practical use of what we have learned in our courses. In university, we are mainly told what to do in terms of assignments and projects which differs from an internship or job where we have to use the concepts we have learned and apply them to real-world problems. This has taught me a lot because it has forced me to learn and explore programming languages and software tools that I would probably not have explored. Recently at work, I had to learn PowerShell which is a scripting language to edit a Powershell script to make it more efficient. This made me feel accomplished because I learned something new and made something that will be useful for other people in my team. Another instance is having to learn C# and Selenium which is a web browser automation tool. It’s interesting to learn all the different things you can automate and test the websites. 

Through this summer internship, I am learning, not only programming skills but also interpersonal skills which will help me in many different areas. Last week I had to demo a PowerShell script to the rest of the team and showcase what I have been working on and how it will be useful to us. This was a nice experience to have to demo your work and also see what other people have been working on. Blueport uses the agile work environment in which we work on specific tasks for 2 weeks at a time (called a sprint) and at the end of the 2 weeks, we reflect how that sprint went and what areas we need to improve on. I feel that this is a great technique because we create goals and reflect every sprint and I think this can be used even at college. Overall, the last four weeks have taught me a lot and I am excited to see what the rest of the summer holds for me!

This summer I am working as a research intern for Dr. Hariri at the Hariri Imaging Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The Hariri Imaging Lab focuses on the development and clinical application of high-resolution optical imaging for early detection and diagnosis of pulmonary diseases, such as fibrotic lung disease and lung cancer. The Hariri Imaging Lab also aims to increase diagnostic yield through real-time lung tumor biopsy guidance as well as the integration of in vivo optical microscopy into the practice of clinical medicine and pathology. This would create a form of virtual microscopy so that tissue removal would not be needed.

Currently, the Hariri Imaging Lab is performing clinical studies to evaluate how well in vivo imaging can detect disease in the lungs. In addition, there are translational studies which aim to create imaging criteria for in vivo imaging based on excised human tissue. The Hariri Imaging lab is developing new technology to enhance imaging modalities to identify disease.

Before the start of the internship, I had no prior experience with lung pathology or Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). Therefore, I spent a week before I went to the lab reading many research papers Dr. Hariri’s lab published as well as research papers on the physics and purpose of  OCT in pathology, which is the technology that is primarily used in this lab.

Once I officially started working at the lab, the research team gave me a tour of the lab and showed me one of the OCT machines, which helped me better understand the technicalities of the papers I had previously read. For the first three days, I was introduced to the more clinical and medical side of lung pathology by observing clinical procedures and surgeries. I gained an understanding of the medical process of diagnosis and treatment by watching a resident resect a lung and then observing how Dr. Hariri diagnoses the biopsy and creates a treatment plan.

Currently, I am assisting with the research aspect of the Hariri Imaging Lab. I am working directly with the research technician to figure out a way to streamline the diagnostic process of fibrotic lung disease. I have been working on the digital manipulation of histopathological tissue samples by classifying different tissue regions. I also have been segmenting the histology slides so that the computer is able to process the histology more easily. These steps are necessary to digitalize this process. We are hoping that this digitalization of the diagnostic process will assist pathologists in determining the progression of fibrotic disease.

To date, I have already increased my knowledge of lung anatomy and the progression of disease in a formal setting. I am challenged and enjoy learning the research lab methodology that incorporates both science and medicine and with many different people in the process. I am excited to better understand the research that the Hariri Imaging Lab is focusing on each day and to learn the magnitude of impact this research has on a global scale and the importance of translational and clinical research in medicine.

Ashley Bass

Dupont Circle is, in my opinion (and I am sure that the local lease rates would support this), arguably one of the best places to live in the city because it has the perfect balance of a residential neighborhood that is just a block or two away from a commercial district packed with bars, shops, eateries and more. Walking around is especially nice because the area is filled with an even mix of nice apartments and beautiful, lavish buildings which often serve as the embassy or ambassadorial residence for dozens of countries—case in point, I am a stone’s throw away from the embassies of Sierra Leone, Argentina and Georgia. Living in Dupont Circle this summer has definitely increased my affinity and desire to move to a similar sort of neighborhood when I start working full time in the near future, wherever that may be. Some metropolises in the world never sleep, and DC may have its rush hour times, but I have come to appreciate the natural ebb and flow of human traffic in the city. Also, I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to live at the International Students House in DC since in addition to being a six-minute walk from work, I made several friendships there that I am sure will last a lifetime.

At work, I have really enjoyed the process of familiarizing myself with the various writers, thinkers and biases present in the Russian media and I definitely feel like my understanding of Russia has deepened considerably since the start of my internship. I should also mention that I am a huge fan of the two highly nutritious “five-star meals” that AEI serves each day (I basically won the lottery when it comes to saving food on meals during the week). I also really love the overall ambiance and overall character of the think tank world.

The “World of Work” is a different universe altogether when compared to university life. It is much easier to settle into a consistent rhythm when you have the same 9-5 schedule five days a week as opposed to a variety of different classes interspersed throughout the week, with gaps in between for additional work. I think another major difference between university and real world life is that in a classroom setting, you are given a set of standards to meet—the technical term for that is a syllabus. In the real world, you have to make your own syllabus because after the initial training period is over, you’re on your own and people expect results regardless. This position has been far from easy, but ultimately, it has significantly enhanced my Russian reading comprehension skills, as well as my general understanding of Russian society and politics. Finally, the networking potential that I have gained just by being here for the summer is unbelievable, and I have already begun meeting with relevant connected people in the field while also cultivating a list of possible future employers.

One of the core values of the work environment at GreenRoots that has left the biggest impression on me is how the organization and those in it put language justice into practice. In a society that very often prioritizes English over other languages, the matter of translation is also often assumed to mean simply translating English into other languages, and not as much the other way around. Since GreenRoots is a bilingual organization using both Spanish and English, one way that language justice informs how the organization operates is that staff meetings are typically conducted in Spanish and then translated into English only as needed. This routine practice is an example of what it looks like to try shifting the dynamic that often places unequal burden on non-English speakers in order for those people to be able to access information, resources, and conversations relating to the work of community organizations.

I have observed that it is equally as important for this to be the case not just in communication within the organization among staff, but also throughout community engagement such as at events. While it is one step to provide materials such as event flyers in multiple languages, or even to use a Spanish script when door-knocking/canvassing, using only these methods can limit the opportunity for meaningful conversations with community members, which are crucial for those representing an organization to use as opportunities to listen to the hopes and concerns of local residents.  

For instance, the majority of conversations that take place at events such as the free canoeing/kayaking days on the Chelsea Creek take place in Spanish. This is highly important because it is in these conversations with individuals in which we contextualize the canoeing/kayaking event with its multiple purposes – to improve open and free access to the waterfront for the community, and also to raise awareness around the proposed construction of the electrical sub-station (the no to Eversource campaign mentioned in blog post #1) because people can literally canoe/kayak right up to the potential construction site.  

Working with GreenRoots differs from academic life mainly in that connecting with people and building relationships with community members takes a longer time and happens on a slower timeline than when living on a campus where other students, faculty, and other administrators you may want to get in contact with can all be found in very close proximity to you and each other. I do not think that this is a negative comparison, it simply means that it takes more creativity in order to engage people outside of a confined university context.

Helping out with community events like the canoeing/kayaking days on Chelsea Creek has been just one example of such creativity that simultaneously puts language justice in practice.  

Over the last few weeks I have become comfortable and familiar with my work environment in the Columbia Irving Medical Center. It is now a routine each morning to walk 20 blocks from my apartment in New York, go into the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons building, go up to the 15th floor and begin with my work, looking at kidney transplant rejection in the department of pathology and cell biology. My mentor is kind and helpful and wants very much for me to learn as much as I can while being helpful to her. This has created a very positive experience for me in the lab, and has enabled me to explore many opportunities to learn more.

In the pathology lab, I have learned a great deal about tissue staining and cellular imaging, both of which I knew very little about prior to my internship. While preparing for my internship, I read about kidney anatomy and function, but I now understand the microscopic level of biopsy samples and how to properly decipher cellular images. Just recently, my week was spent doing a multi-day staining lab procedure. The lab process was a three day process of intubation, buffer washings, and rinsing of different chemicals. The goal of the process was to do a multiplex “stain” where antibodies were used to stain particular cell tissue, so that the different dyes could identify different cell types clearly under a microscope. For example, if there can be 6 different dyes on one kidney biopsy tissue cross section, then we stained with an antibody for different types of T-cells, B-cells (both lymphocyte immune cells), macrophages, nuclear stain (DAPI). In simple terms: we want to see if the kidney was attacked by the immune system. When having the antibody bind to the antigen on different immune cells, it allows us to see under a microscope if immune cells are all over a kidney.

Normally, if the body has a foreign body, it is great for the immune system to attack the pathogen or cancerous cell and try to destroy it, but in the case of a kidney transplant, it is actually terrible. We want a patient’s body to accept the kidney transplant as something that’s trying to help. After the staining, the slide can then be looked at under a microscope, images are taken and then these images are analyzed further on advanced biotechnological software to count cell types electronically. By looking at the types of immune cells, their spatial orientation and the quantitative amount in certain areas, it is possible to determine how to better prevent kidney transplant rejection.

My work at the Irving Medical Center with the help of “World of Work”, is different from university life in an exciting way. In my course study at school, it’s easy to get lost in a book and lose sight of the larger purpose and real benefit to serving the medical field. In other words, potentially lose sight of how you can impact the health of people in the real world. This experience is making the connection of scientific study to improving the health of patients very clear. It is strengthening my motivation to work in the medical field and to continue to pursue studies in science. I have now seen the direct impact that medical professions have on individual people’s lives. Our analysis is directly helping current patients as well as helping to further the study of successful kidney transplantation.

My work at Columbia is certainly going to help to improve my skills and confidence in the laboratories at Brandeis. It has also helped to strengthen my analytical and reasoning skills over the summer. So far, I’ve had a lot of fun and learning along the way!

Arielle Leeman, 2022

This blog marks 5 weeks into my internship journey where I have fully immersed myself into the experience as a New York University Medical School employee. Throughout my experience thus far, I have learned an abundance of crucial skills important in a work environment. Moreover, I have learned insights into the process of hospital medical school operations. 

We have many weekly meetings at my internship and during these meetings I learn about how research and operations in a medical school works. I have always been aware that medical school is a hard journey; however throughout this experience I have concluded that running a medical school may be quite harder. There are various teams and leaders from diverse backgrounds required to come together to ensure a medical school and hospital runs smoothly. Running a big operation like a hospital requires everyone to pay attention to the small details.

As for my specific role, the intern team has different skills and assets, therefore we are assigned different projects. My projects specifically are correlated with research and data analysis. I conduct a lot of data cleaning and statistical analysis on large datasets using R, SPSS, and STATA. I always work efficiently and quickly to provide my results at every meeting and to demonstrate my strong work ethic. 

As an intern and part of this team, I am often jumping around to various locations. I usually work at Bellevue Hospital Center or NYU Langone Tisch Hospital. Since the majority of my work requires me to be on a computer coding I am often sitting at a cubicle or out on the balcony at a desk. 

As someone who has been working since I was 16 years old, I have always had a strong work ethic. However, since my internship has been a 5 days a week 9:00am-5:00pm job, I have begun to understand the lifestyle of a full-time working adult. I enjoy having a routine schedule where I work efficiently for 8 hours a day and then I have my evening to relax or catch up on other responsibilities. 

One of the best aspects of my internship is that every week we meet different members of different teams in the hospital to understand their role. We witness people from different backgrounds working on completely different projects in the hospital; however, they are all an important part of helping the hospital run efficiently. I believe these events allow the interns to make connections with people working in different fields. Personally, I have enjoyed meeting all these people and making connections. I learn about so many different careers essential in a hospital. 

During the remainder time at my internship, I will continue to work diligently to complete all of my projects and be prepared to present the results of my projects in the end. Moreover, I will continue to make great friendships and connections during my time at NYU Medical School and in New York City. 

I have always felt like I was being treated like an equal, as opposed to being simply an intern, which I have greatly enjoyed.  The sense that I am being helpful and that that help is valued is wonderful.  I’ve enjoyed getting to know the people that I’m working with, both as colleagues and friends outside of working (and getting introduced to some wonderful new foods from the restaurants nearby).  It feels like I’m doing something useful with my time, especially because I get to read the thank you notes that departments send after we’ve done a simulation for them.

The type of work that I’m doing is very different from what I do in school.  So much of college is spent doing input-type work: reading, memorizing, trying to retain as much information as possible, with a little bit of time spent doing output/mental work in the form of assignments and papers.  Interning has had bits of these, but interspersed with social work (coordinating with people), physical work (prepping simulations and moving the training supplies to different rooms in the hospital), and routine work (making individualized schedules for a class, going through post-training survey answers).  The balance of tasks between different parts of my brain makes this type of work much more sustainable for me, whereas the constant input that school requires tends to wear me down.  Seeing that not all jobs are as energy draining as school makes me much more optimistic about what post-college life will be like.

I am learning a lot about how to best phrase things.  Part of running simulations means convincing department heads that it would be worth it spend money out of their budget to pay for the training.  During the training themselves, and during the routine classes the center runs, the way feedback is given to participants makes a big difference in what they take away from the training.  I am seeing how different departments structure their teams and how that changes the ways people work together.  In addition, my EMT skills are improving, as I get to see what happens to patients after they leave the care of EMS and transfer to the hospital. 

I am also seeing how long it takes to bring a project from start to finish.  From a department head requesting a simulation, to the discussion on what the scenario for the simulation should be, clarifying learning goals, putting together the supplies for the simulation, and doing the paperwork afterwards, all for an hour training session.

I’m interning at UVa’s Life Support Learning Center this summer.  UVa Hospital is a 600 bed Level 1 Trauma Center and tertiary academic medical center with multiple outpatient treatment centers.  The Life Support Learning Center provides simulation training and education in medical emergencies for the hospital staff, which includes everyone from the doctors to the administrative staff.

So far, I’ve helped run an AdvancedEMT class with the Prehospital Program (our sister department) as a patient during their final practical exam, and helping to set up the skill stations the day before.  I also helped with ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support), a required class for the new doctors that we run every June, a logistically challenging class to organize.

I help run Intern Bootcamp for all the first year residents at UVa (doctors who just finished medical school and have never been in charge of a patient before).  We take groups of five residents, one at a time give them a basic patient scenario, where the patient isn’t dying, but something is not going right.  At the end of 5-10 minutes, the group(the residents, their chief – people who finished their third year of residency and are in charge of orienting the first years) sits down and talk about what went well and what could be done better next time.  It gives the first year residents a chance to be the one making the decisions about a patient in a place where they can’t really mess up, so that when they first deal with an actual patient, they have something to fall back on.

One of the bigger projects I’ve been a part of is running a board game type simulation for the Emergency Department (ED) management staff.  UVa just finished building a new wing of the hospital, which the ED will be moving into soon.  Along with a new layout comes new challenges for where to place patients to make sure no one nurse or doctor has too many, or has two on opposite sides of the department.  We got a large map of the new department, creating fake patients (cards with made-up patient information on them), and ran a simulated Monday.  Every half hour some patients come in, some go out, and people can be moved around within the ED.  This simulation has shown the pros and cons of the new floor plan, places where things tend to get difficult, and has allowed the ED staff to play with different techniques for dealing with these difficulties.  This way, when the new ED opens, they’ll already know how to handle it.

This summer, I wanted to improve my time management skills, which I think is happening slowly but consistently.  I wanted to see if I enjoy being in an organizational or teaching role, both of which I have decided I definitely enjoy.  I wanted to be able to take a project from start to finish.  All of the simulations that I’ve worked on so far have either been routine simulations that were already put together or new simulations that were already in progress when I arrived.  However, as the summer continues there are some simulations that have been scheduled but work has not begun on, and I am excited to work on those.