Author: Alyssa L. Charney

My most rewarding experience at Manhattan Justice Opportunities this summer was shadowing intakes twice a week. During intakes, case managers gauge the mental state of participants and brainstorm ways to help them throughout their time at the center. From there, participants are given a variety of activities to help fulfill their mandates to complete their time at the organization. I received one-on-one experience with participants during this process, which I found extremely enjoyable. Being a part of a non-judgmental environment solely concerned with helping a marginalized community that is often criticized was immensely rewarding. Within the first week of shadowing, it was glaringly apparent how hesitant participants were to ask for help due to fear of judgment. I realized how quickly society criticizes those who have been incarcerated and the detrimental effects the judgment has on recidivism rates in the country. The fear of judgment often prevents those who may need help from asking for it which often further perpetuates the cycle of arrests and incarceration. I hope that as a lawyer, I will remember this experience and refrain from judgment for the betterment of my clients.

The most difficult, but most meaningful task I was given at MJO was to complete an annotated bibliography that described every mental health court and diversion program devoted to felony charges in the United States. To complete this project, I devoted a few hours a day to researching and calling different programs to find out their eligibility criteria and which communities they served. While I didn’t expect it to be difficult, many organizations were not available to speak with me and their websites were not updated. Those inconveniences made the research process take much longer than expected. I had to be very organized to ensure that I called organizations back during the times that were most feasible to them, in addition to checking newspaper articles for information that might have been left out on their website. During this process, I viewed a variety of different programs and read about how important restorative justice was to their participants and the way their methods differed from MJO’s methods. I realized while there are many practices of alternatives to incarceration, the overall goal is the same: to lower recidivism rates and produce a more humane and effective justice system.

Tiannah Adams ’22
Psychology

The most rewarding part of my summer research experience is learning that I do want to go to graduate school and pursue a career in research. At the start of the summer, I was teetering back and forth on whether I should get a job following graduation, but now I am fully focused on applying to Ph.D. programs. I’ve also met some amazing people this summer. I don’t think I would have enjoyed summer research as much if it weren’t for them making everyday fun. The most challenging part of this summer was realizing the things I didn’t know that I didn’t know. Surprisingly, though I have great time management during the school year, I didn’t know that I didn’t know how to properly manage my time. Balancing lab and personal things like socializing, cooking, exercising, or even just relaxing was extremely difficult for me and it came as a huge shock. I also didn’t know that I’d have as tough a time organizing all my work and data. I’ve always considered myself a highly organized person, but with multiple test tubes of the same thing but made for different purposes, it was easy to get very confused. I’m very glad I’m learning all of this before graduate school.

Christina Alfano ’22
Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology

Throughout my experience working with the Jafri Capital team and interns I have valued all that I have learned and witnessed over the summer. After creating the blogs I have been working on this summer I came across the most rewarding part of my internship. After writing various different blog posts, the team and I wanted to designate a more prominent section of their site and company to posting these blogs. We structured the website and updated all social media platforms to announce the coming of the new Jafri Journal. Seeing the great responses from individuals outside of the company was very rewarding and fulfilling to me. I am very grateful for having such a great intern team; they helped me create the name and visual for The Jafri Journal.

The most challenging part of my internship was the very start of writing a new blog topic. After having our team meeting, we would choose a new topic for me to create a post on. Since my background is not in real estate capital markets, I would have to research the topic as well as relating it to what I have learned from the team for instance, focusing on the asset classes. Starting from nothing and creating something knowledgeable and insightful is challenging in itself but also having to ask thought provoking questions to stir conversation and engagement was definitely the most challenging part of my internship.

Brianna Murawski
Marketing

As I reflect on my summer as a research assistant, I recognize that despite both personal and scientific challenges, these have been some of the most rewarding and enlightening months of my professional and academic life.

Initially, I felt overwhelmed by the literature and laboratory protocols. I jumped in on a project that has been going on for several years, so it was challenging to discern where what I was doing fit into the grand scheme of things. However, as the summer progressed and I’ve gained hands on experience, I’ve developed a deeper understanding of the research and I feel much more confident in performing various laboratory tasks. Throughout this time, I have grown more comfortable with reading scientific literature and have learned a wide variety of laboratory techniques, both of which will serve me well in my future endeavors.

Overall, this internship at Upstate Medical University was a priceless experience. Going into this position, one of my primary goals was to determine whether I was interested in research. As I realize how sad I am to leave, it has solidified my interest in pursuing lab research as part of my career as a physician. I am so grateful for this experience, and I am so excited to see where my academic and professional journey takes me!

Ellyn Prusinowski
Philosophy, Biochem Cell Molecular Biology

The most rewarding part of my summer internship is still being connected to the lab even when I’m not on campus. One of the hardest adjustments that the switch to remote learning brought me was the inability to work on experiments and be in lab. Through the Royal Summer Experience, I’ve been able to reserve time for research and learning new research techniques. I think the fact that I’m still able to pursue meaningful research even when I’m not on campus is one of the most exciting aspects of this internship. I’m excited to finish data analysis of my short-term high-fat diet study and see what my results yield!

The toughest part of this internship has definitely been teaching myself the basics of Python syntax, text/image/video content analysis, and different data science research techniques. Although I want to jump right into the experiment and analyze political ads for my second project this summer, I know that I need a solid grasp on the basics before I can complete this experiment elegantly.

Jithin V. George
Neuroscience, Biomathematics