Category: Uncategorized

As my summer research internship comes to an end, I have been able to reflect on how challenging and rewarding the past ten weeks have been. Having the opportunity to work in a lab for the summer on my own research project has been very rewarding, because it has given me a feel for what a career in research might look like. While I have spent a lot of my time trying things and failing, I have been able to generate a lot of new ideas and learn a lot from scientific literature.

The most challenging part of my summer has been creating and keeping a schedule for myself for my research project. While I have the responsibility of communicating all my lab results to the Principal Investigators I am working with, the progression of my project is entirely up to me. I have made less progress than I hoped to this summer because some of the steps of my project have taken more time than I planned for, and this has been challenging for me.

While there have been both rewarding and challenging parts of my summer, overall my experience as a summer undergraduate research intern has been a positive one. Being able to spend a whole summer doing research has confirmed my  interest in a career in the field of research, and I find that pretty satisfying.

The Public Defender’s Office deals with a variety of criminal law cases that take place within Lackawanna County. Although I have already spent time in the office working with social services, I have really enjoyed my new assignment with the attorneys in the office. I hope that my time with the attorneys will allow me to better understand the role they play within the criminal justice system and get a more detailed look at what happens throughout their days. I have quickly learned that there is never a typical day within the office. With that being said, I am confident that following this internship I will leave with a vast amount of knowledge regarding hearings, petitions, files, and different stages of the criminal court process. In addition to the procedural side, I anticipate that I will be able to interact with clients and learn more about their lives. I have already spent some time with attorneys while they are interviewing clients and reading through Pre-Sentence Investigation reports that review their life history in great detail.  I chose to pursue a second internship in the office so that I would be more informed when making a career decision. I have been considering pursuing a law degree since developing an interest in the criminal justice system and am hoping that a more in depth look will be able to steer me in the right direction.

Delia Gavin
Counseling & Human Services

From this internship I would like to learn how to properly improve the SEO (search engine optimization) for the website I am creating. This website is a city guide for local restaurants, bars, and events in the Washington, DC area. I research the area and the most popular neighborhoods in order to provide the best content for future viewers. I have already learned the importance of increasing the SEO value in order to have the website be successful organically. I would like to learn the ins and outs of running a website and how to get a website to appear on the first page of any search engine, specifically Google. There seem to be many steps to achieving this goal, especially when starting from complete scratch. I hope that once this internship is completed, I will leave with the knowledge of how to efficiently rank a website on Google, the behind the scenes actions of running a website, and how to accurately track and analyze the data. Once this is achieved, I will have the knowledge to apply to other jobs or opportunities in my future in marketing.

Elizabeth Chostowski
Marketing

It feels like time has flown by so fast during my first month here in Singapore, but during this small period of time I was able to learn so much about the culture here, in addition to learning more about computer programming. In my internship, I have been learning how the language Python is used in web development, as well as gaining experience in dealing with clients directly, which I have never done before; I believe it is a perfect fit for me, as it corresponds heavily to my major and gives me a great opportunity to explore southeast Asia while learning more in the field of computer science. This experience will heavily impact my career path as well, as having the international experience has become increasingly important to employers, and it will also benefit me in my goal to go to one of the top graduate schools in the country to obtain my MBA. For the next two months, I hope to learn more about interacting with other companies as well as further develop my programming skills, while also learning more about the culture.

Nicholas Constantinou
Computer Engineering

One of the main reasons I wanted to apply for internships was to begin to figure out what job I wanted. Lucky enough, forensic chemistry has a broad range of job options. There’s only one problem with that- which opportunity should I pursue? I love crime scene investigations, but there isn’t just one entity that does the investigation. I need to narrow down what position I really want to delve into. There are so many doors to open, but I need to figure out which one to open and possess a future in. This internship can help me dive into the roles of a coroner and medical examiner. Today was just my first day, and I began to learn how many people are involved in a death. At a scene, fireman, policeman, coroners, and many more entities come. Once the body is retrieved from the scene, a medical examiner performs autopsies if necessary. Today, I went with a deputy coroner to the hospital to pronounce a man dead. The coroner must take pictures, declare if an autopsy is necessary, and retrieve the admitted blood (blood the hospital takes from the body when the patients are admitted). So many people come together to solve a crime scene investigation. In summary, I want to learn all of the career paths and personnel involved in a crime investigation to figure out which career path I want to pursue. The possibilities are fortunately endless!

Brittany Ruch
Forensic Chemistry

My internship thus far has given me initial exposure to the complex, developing world of physical therapy. By the conclusion of this summer, I hope to gain a complete understanding of the necessary requirements to pursue a career in the field as well as the daily responsibilities of a physical therapist. My supervisor and her staff have been an integral part in helping me learn the basics, which has led them to give me the duty of conducting a single-patient case study through monitoring the patient’s exercise program and tracking their rehabilitation progress. Furthermore, my interest has been sparked in a faction of physical therapy that I had never thought of. While proper biomechanics are heavily stressed at the sports and orthopedic clinic where I am interning, one of the therapists here had stressed the importance of the neuromuscular aspect of rehabilitation on multiple occasions. This inspired me to research neurologic physical therapy and has resulted in a shift in my career aspirations. The fulfillment that I envision to inherit from practicing neurologic physical therapy outweighs that of working with athletes. The idea of restoring function to the life of someone with Parkinson’s disease, vertigo, or any other type of neurodegenerative brain disorder would provide the reward that I seek in my future career. Thus, I plan to shadow a neurologic physical therapist while I am taking a summer course this July and am currently in the application process of being a student volunteer at the Brain Injury Rehab Program at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.

Everett Minchew
Exercise Science

An internship with the Biopsychology lab here at The University of Scranton is an amazing opportunity to develop and advance lab techniques. I have been a part of this lab for over two years now, and I have grown so much already. This internship will allow me to understand what it would be like to have research as a full time job and hopefully, in the future, a career. I will be able to learn things that I would not have the opportunity to learn during the school semester. I am excited to expand my knowledge and interests in my field, and hopefully I will be able to apply these to future studies done by the Biopsychology Summer Internship. In the first three weeks of my internship experience I have learned many useful skills including cutting, mounting, and staining brains. I am excited to see how all the things I have learned and practiced will come together in the near future. These skills also perfectly align with the requirements of future internship applications which would allow me to continue to grow toward my ultimate career goals. My career path would require me to receive a PhD, and having these internship experiences is a vital point in beginning that process. I am excited to see what is in my near and distant future due to this internship.

Kerry Buckhaults
Psychology/Neuroscience

As an intern at Barwis Methods in Port St. Lucie, Florida I have already learned more about physical therapy and personal training in my three weeks than I ever could have imagined. Barwis Methods is a professional training center that focuses on holistic human performance with four locations across the nation. Athletes and PT patients travel to these facilities from all over to experience training and care you can get nowhere else.

Through my time at Barwis Methods I hope to continue learning from my coworkers and gaining hands on experience by coaching athletes through their training regimen. Not only am I seeing the different ways physical therapy can be provided, but also the strength and conditioning side that is needed for every athlete to fulfill their potential and the science behind it all. This will help with my career path because I hope to be working in a gym or facility like Barwis Methods; I want to work to help athletes and patients alike become the best they can possibly be.

There is a quote on the wall in the gym that states “If the people we work with today mean more to us than ourselves, we will be good at our jobs”. I hope to learn everything I can at Barwis Methods to live out this quote wherever my career and education takes me.

Julia Giaimo
Exercise Science

It’s already been three weeks into my internship, and I have learned a plethora of interesting and insightful information about the sales field and what it takes to be successful. My first week was an intro into the life of an account manager at Presidio and what their daily routines are. At 8:00am on Monday mornings, there’s a meeting to discuss each account manager’s sales forecast for the upcoming week/month. This is the most important part of the week because it sets the scene for the rest of the days to come. This helped me understand that although you’re given a lot of autonomy as a sales person, you’re responsible for getting the numbers you forecast in the Monday meeting. I noticed that the meetings were laid back and the account managers were enjoying each other’s company. This is reassuring because I want to work in an industry that expects a lot but isn’t always micromanaging its workers.

After the Monday meeting, the week is set and the sales team has to begin working for their clients. I was lucky enough to sit in on various client meetings and experience what it’s like to own your own account. Although it can be stressful at times, working with people is always something I have wanted to do with my career. Hopefully this internship opportunity will equip me with the necessary tools to become a good sales person in the future. I want this internship to give me valuable experience in the sales field so I know whether or not I want to pursue a career in this field.

John McDowell
Business Administration