Reflecting back on my summer at Penn, I am grateful for the opportunities that I were graciously given to enhance both my career and personal growth through the SNF Paideia Program. Yes, it was my second summer at Penn, and yet, the experience this summer allowed me to mature in ways I couldn’t have imagined back when I was “just a sophomore.” In a few months, I have grown more confident in my future trajectory and hope to steer my passions toward a focus in the upcoming school year.
This summer, I continued my research in neurology that I had done throughout the previous school year at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The SNF Paideia Program’s summer dialogue funding was used to support my work here. My research project, which aims to study the mechanism of seizure initiation by observing the activity of neurons at a cellular resolution, involves inducing a genetic mutation via a surgical process by injecting a virus into the brain of a mouse in order to induce a seizure. From this I observe the neurons in vivo under a two-photon microscope. It is a very technical and involved project, challenging but also exciting because each mouse surgery keeps me on my toes to see if it “worked.”
When I wasn’t in the lab, I was studying, playing music for patients at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), and, during the last few weeks of my summer experience, volunteering at a Spanish-speaking clinic, Puentes de Salud, in Center City. I was a lot busier than I was last summer. Although I wasn’t in the trenches quite like how I was during the semester, it was challenging to keep up with all of my responsibilities while also taking care of myself. I learned how to become more self-caring, helping me understand what it means to be kind to oneself on tough days when I don’t reach all of my goals. Wellness became an essential pillar in my summer SNF Paideia journey.
Beyond balancing my own wellness, my research experience allowed me to improve my dialogue skills as a scientist. During the last few weeks of summer in my lab, I was preparing for my end-of-summer research symposium where I had to present a one-minute flash talk about my research poster and prepare for a poster judging session. Not only that, but I also had to give a data presentation for my lab, summarizing all of the data that I had collected throughout my year in the lab. I got to practice presenting my research to a variety of audiences: to my lab (which consisted of a group of experts in the field), to my fellow engineering peers, and PhD students outside of the discipline. I became more attuned to the audience I was trying to reach through these opportunities to practice, and realized the importance of thinking about how to communicate the complex science I was doing to a lay audience AND also an expert audience. I learned that consideration of your audience is important–after all, what good is good science if you can’t communicate your research and ideas? The highlight of the research symposium was not just being able to garner a lot of interest from the audience with my one-minute flash talk, nor carry out a successful poster session. It was the “a-ha” moment and the excitement that I felt from seeing a chemical engineering PhD student understand my neuroscience project. They shared that they were able to follow my entire poster presentation, despite not knowing much about neuroscience. They appreciated my analogy to electrochemistry as a way to understand how neurons fire. This was extremely gratifying. I realized that all of the practice and hard work I had put in to communicate my research was worth it.
Through my service activities this summer—mainly playing the violin for hospital patients at HUP and volunteering at Puentes de Salud—I learned at a deeper level what it means to be a local and global citizen. Each volunteer session at HUP revealed to me the importance of connecting with people from all backgrounds, because music is truly a universal language that we can use to connect with others. I love not just the science side but also the human aspect of medicine. I can appreciate seeing firsthand when my music cheers up the care team or reminds a patient of their son’s piano performances. Relationships are what we are made for and I loved getting to know these patients even through a brief moment by sharing my love of music with them.
A more eye-opening (and frankly out-of-my-comfort-zone) experience was volunteering at Puentes where I got to (finally) practice my rusty Spanish in a healthcare context. This experience made me hungry for more—to know the language of a people is one way to love the people. It opens doors to building relationships you otherwise wouldn’t have on another level. As a global citizen, I want to help build these bridges (like the name “Puentes” which literally means “bridges”) by serving this community in the name of love and citizenship. Sometimes, all it takes is a word in someone’s native tongue to spark a new connection.
I have been inspired in many ways through the variety of my summer experiences—whether it’s through wellness, dialogue, citizenship, or service—SNF Paideia’s key pillars. It’s an interesting question I face, whether or not I want to continue the kind of research I am doing now as my career. I feel that I’ve had the opportunity to explore this field on a deeper level than most undergrads. My experience this summer has left me hungry to learn and experience more!
