“How I spent my summer vacation”…we all remember the first paper that school teachers would ask us to write each year as we return to school in the Fall. For some Binghamton students, Summer 2009 was all about research work; meaningful, intense, career-determining work. These are their stories – how they got the opportunity to do world-class research last summer, what they accomplished, and what it meant to them - as written by another student whose dream is to be a science writer. It is also the story of another student who, disappointed with her first internship, applied for another for this coming summer and received a scholarship as well. If you too are interested in arranging for your own summer research experience, the following links will give you a start.
| A “Hands-On” Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
Kenneth Baumann Brookhaven National Laboratories |
| Don’t Be Afraid to Make Mistakes . . . . . . . |
Stephanie DeLuca Montefiore Medical Center |
| It’s Time to Try Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
Adam Hill Dartmouth |
| Start Small, Start Early . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
Matthew Stevens Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories and Brookhaven National Laboratories |
| When it’s Not What You Expect . . . . . . . . . |
Genevieve Davis Animal Sanctuary in Florida and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |
Sarah Fecht has loved Biology since she was in the 7th grade, so choosing a major in college was a no-brainer for her. As an undergraduate she completed several research internships, including one in plant ecology and one in behavioral genetics, but determined that the only thing she loved more than doing research was talking about research. In her junior year she began an attempt to become a Science Journalist. A strong believer in experiential learning, she arranged a third internship, this time in science journalism, and began writing for several campus publications. She is grateful for the opportunity to write for the Biology Department at BU.
