May 18th 2010
This internship was my first hand on lab experience. I had
the chance to design experiments and make PCR reactions. The first few days at
the internship at The New York State Museum in Albany were a bit hard and
confusing; I didn’t know a lot about the topic my mentor was researching very
well. I asked a lot of questions about the relationship between the topics I
already knew and how they were related to Lepidoptera Mitochondrial DNA
sequencing.
In the beginning I had two mentors, Mr. Adams and Ms. Urban;
they both had other on going researching aside from the one they worked with
me, but they devoted a lot of time teaching me about how to use materials in
the lab and guiding me as I made mistakes in the process of learning.
Unfortunately, in the middle of my internship, Ms. Urban had to transfer to
another state; leaving me with one mentor Mr. Adams. Both Mr. Adams and I
worked hard continued to make experiments as Julie instructed me to. And
occasionally, we would email her for help with things we otherwise couldn’t
figure out.
This experience has not only given me a chance to work in
the lab, something I had never done before coming to Emma; it also taught me
how to interact with other people towards a goal. I learned how to be independent,
trust my decisions in the lab and out, make connections based on data, learn
from mistakes and above all made me realize just how much science is a part of
me. Because of this internship, I have talked to my soon to be college professor
about an internship on a similar research this fall.
For anyone interested in Interning: take a chance and try
it, it will soon prove to be the best decision you have ever made. The
experience is edifying in both an academic sense and life as a whole.
