A Postcard From: Chloe Sheen ’19

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Name: Chloe Sheen
Class Year: 2019
Major: Computer Science
Hometown: La Crescenta, California

Internship Placement: Lemma, Inc.
Job Title: Software Developer
Location: Philadelphia

What’s happening at your internship?

Lemma ​is creating an online learning platform for math, and this summer’s focus has been to finalize the SAT/ACT test prep product. I have been mainly creating an open source library of mathematical figures and charts (using a Python library called Matplotlib). This new library of shapes would be essential in developing questions in not only the test prep modules but also the existing courses ranging from Algebra to Linear Algebra on Lemma.

Why did you apply for this internship?

The fact that this internship would be a drastic change from the jobs I had worked at before was a big decision factor for me. I wanted to experience how it is to work for a startup company, and it has definitely been a shift in environment and work flow. I also used the language Python extensively all summer and utilized Git much more frequently than I had been used to in classes during the semester.

What is something you have learned from your internship that you didn’t expect?

For the few days into the internship, I wished to figure out whether I like the startup work environment or not. Having worked at Bryn Mawr before (with the Educational Technology team) as a summer intern, I had expected a similar workload and environment as the job descriptions were similar in many ways. However, the system of work was drastically different; coming from a pretty structured work flow to a more spontaneous startup environment was a definite change and a positive experience that I did not expect to appreciate so much in the end.

Can you give us three adjectives and three nouns that describe your internship experience?

Rewarding experience, demanding tasks, supportive team

A Postcard From: Catherine Tsai ’20

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Name: Catherine Tsai
Class Year: 2020
Major: Biology
Hometown: Wayne, New Jersey

Internship Placement: Department of Biology
Job Title: Research Assistant
Location: Bryn Mawr College

What’s happening at your internship?

I am currently working in the lab of Dr. Gregory Davis to investigate the role of Juvenile Hormone in the reproductive polyphenism of the pea aphid, acyrthosiphon pisum. Aphid mothers are able to produce either sexual or asexual offspring in response to different environmental cues. We suspect that juvenile hormone (JH), a hormone found in several other insects, is involved in the switch from sexual to asexual fate. My goal is to block the synthesis of JH to observe the significance of its role in reproductive fate. Unfortunately, there are four versions of the enzyme that is responsible for JH synthesis. The functional version is still unknown, so I am hoping to find which version of the enzyme is the correct one before I can proceed with the knockdown of JH.

In regions where the photoperiod is relatively constant, one would expect that the aphids would not need to switch reproductive modes to accommodate a change in the environment. Previous work in the lab has shown that some aphid strains from the southern regions of the United States have evolved to only reproduce asexually instead of switching between sexual and asexual reproduction. My second goal is to compare levels of JH between different aphid strains as a step toward understanding the genetic differences that presumably underlie these evolved changes in plasticity.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I applied for this internship mainly for the experience of working in a lab. I am considering research as a career option after college, but I wasn’t exactly sure what a day in the life of a researcher entailed. I am hoping that this experience will help me decide what I’d like to do in the future. I believe this internship will allow me to gain useful technical and critical thinking skills as well.

Was there anything special about how you found this internship?

Participating in Bryn Mawr’s Summer Science Research Program has been my first research experience so far. I actually did not expect to get this position given that I’m only first year with no prior research experience. I am grateful that Bryn Mawr offers these types of opportunities with such great accessibility, and that the faculty are so willing to introduce lower classmen to higher forms of scientific research. I am not sure whether I would have been able to get an opportunity like this had I gone somewhere else.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

Working in the lab is an excellent opportunity to gain a broad range of skills. While conducting research, you definitely gain expertise within your particular part of the project, but research is also a collaborative effort. Everyone in the lab focuses on their own area of the project, but all of our areas relate to each other in many ways. Because our focus areas overlap, we tend to work together a lot. To help each other out, we often have to stay up to date on what each one of us is working on and learn how use a certain software program, or how to perform some type of procedure that is pertinent to someone else’s part of the project. As a result, you develop new skills that aren’t exactly particular to your area, but they are still useful. So far there hasn’t been a day where I haven’t learned something new whether it be related to my own topic or someone else’s. Developing such a broad range of skills over multiple areas of this project has been the most rewarding part of this experience.

A Postcard From: Catherine Bunza ’18

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Name: Catherine Bunza
Class Year: 2018
Major: Growth & Structure of Cities
Hometown: Ridgewood, N.J.

Internship Placement: New York Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center
Job Title: Data Analyst Intern, Population Oral Health
Location: New York, N.Y.

What’s happening at your internship?

At NYPH and CUMC, I am extremely excited to have jumped on board with staff in Population Oral Health in conducting research in finding a correlation between the growth of hookah lounges and stores in Northern Manhattan with the recent influx of gentrifying populations in those neighborhoods. Hookah, also known as shisha, nargile, hubble-bubble, or waterpipe, is an alternative tobacco product that is commonly flavored and smoked socially. It remains largely unregulated by the Food and Drug Administration despite recent federal efforts to ban flavored tobacco. Hookah use is on the rise within younger populations, as using hookah has nearly 36 times more nicotine and higher concentrations of heavy metals than cigarettes. Although smoking of cigarettes has been steadily decreasing within younger populations, in recent years, there has been a surprising increase in the purchasing and utilizing of hookah and hookah paraphernalia within the population of young Dominican men in Northern Manhattan, especially in the Inwood, Washington Heights, and Central Harlem neighborhoods. In my internship, I have also had the opportunity to learn how to use GIS (Geographic Spatial Information) for analyzing relevant data sets. By using and transforming data in GIS, I have been able to establish relationships with this growth in hookah use and hookah stores in specific neighborhoods in Northern Manhattan.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I am interested in evaluating how the health of populations are influenced by other factors, particularly social determinants of health, within urban environments. This position at NYPH and CUMC has given me the opportunity to expand my knowledge of how social determinants of health influence urban populations, especially when evaluating new trends in these populations. I have also never had the opportunity to engage with this topic of smoking and alternative smoking trends in previous courses at Bryn Mawr and within the consortiums, so to be able to obtain hands-on experience in this field has been immensely valuable to my future studies in public health.

What is something you have learned from your internship that you didn’t expect?

When starting this internship, I did not expect the severity of hookah use within younger populations and the severity of infiltration of hookah use in Northern Manhattan neighborhoods. It is important to understand the shift in smoking trends, as hookah and alternative tobacco use will become an increasing problem for youths as most people do not understand the health effects of hookah. In fact, nearly 72 percent of teens do not understand the damaging health effects of hookah use and many teens believe it is socially acceptable to smoke it.

Can you talk about the skills you are learning and why they are important to you?

During my summer internship, I have gained invaluable skills within this field of public health, particularly in how to compartmentalize my work and how to become more attentive to detail, as I am working with specific data sets of populations and neighborhoods. Additionally, I had the opportunity to learn GIS, where I was able to learn the operating system and how to apply the mapping of hookah and alternative tobacco use stores within this system for analysis.

A Postcard From: Carolyn Cannizzaro ’19

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Name: Carolyn Cannizzaro
Class Year: 2019
Major: English
Hometown: Staten Island, N.Y.

Internship Placement: NYC Criminal Court
Job Title: Drug Treatment Court Intern
Location: New York, N.Y.

What’s happening at your internship?

I work in Manhattan Drug Treatment Court, which is a judicial divergent program created in 1998 to assist those in the criminal justice system who suffer from substance abuse addiction. The program aims to get addicts out of the “revolving door” of crime caused by their dependence on narcotics by offering them an alternative to serving time. With the court’s support, each defendant is given the opportunity to get clean, acquire housing, pursue higher education, and find full-time employment—ultimately with the hope that they can reestablish stability in their lives and move past their addiction. If the defendant successfully completes their mandate, their case is dismissed. The program currently has more clients than ever as it works to help combat the opioid epidemic. I assist the attorneys and case managers assigned to this court with a lot of organizational work to cope with the heavily increased case volume.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I previously interned with an assistant district attorney in Staten Island, who recommended that I take a look at other opportunities in the New York City criminal justice system. I came across this program, which not only assigned interns to work in a court for the summer, but also gave us the opportunity to visit every branch of the NYC criminal court system and meet the various judges, court attorneys, and so on who work there. It sounded like a great opportunity that would provide me with plenty of legal exposure.

Can you talk about the skills you are learning and why they are important to you?

I’ve learned a lot about legal writing and research, which is something I find valuable as a pre-law student. Reading through decisions and case law, as well as taking case notes in court, has given me a good amount of exposure to the reality of the legal profession and has reinforced the fact that this is a career path that I definitely want to pursue. I’ve also become more accustomed to multitasking in a high-stress environment, which will certainly prove helpful during my remaining time at Bryn Mawr.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

Nothing brightens up my day more than seeing that we have a defendant who successfully completed the treatment program coming in to court to receive their last certificate. Overcoming addiction is an immensely difficult task, so to see how far some of these defendants have come and to hear them talk about how much their lives have improved since they began treatment is very moving. Their smiles as they shake hands with the judge remind me of how important criminal justice reform and the work we do in support of rehabilitation is, and make my summer internship experience feel all the  more fulfilling.

A Postcard From: Emily Kampmeyer ’18

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Name: Emily Kampmeyer
Class Year: 2018
Major: Geology
Concentration: Geochemistry
Hometown: Harleysville, Pa.

Internship Placement: Bryn Mawr Summer Science Research
Job Title: Research Assistant
Location: Bryn Mawr College

Ferrihydrite synthesis, pre- and post-filtration. The vial is full of ferrihydrite — the culmination of this summer and last summer’s synthesis efforts

What’s happening at your internship?

Hello from the exotic, far-away land of Park Science’s Geology wing! This summer I have been working on a few projects. One is synthesizing ferrihydrite and goethite in the lab, in order to mimic minerals on Mars. It is in the plans to submit different ratios of the minerals to study under X-ray Diffraction (XRD). Another deals with digitizing the mapped points of samples of Bryn Mawr’s Rock and Mineral Collection. The maps themselves are up to century old, sometimes ripped and taped up. This side project categorizes them all into a single Google Earth file to ensure that the sample locations and information outlive their deteriorating physical counterparts. The third project is still in the preliminary research stages — synthesizing ultramarine blue paint pigment with coal fly ash (a waste byproduct of coal-fired power plants). I’m currently amassing a methodology and figuring out what materials I need in order to perform the experiment. Luckily, through the magic of networking in academia, I’ve been able to get in touch with a governmental employee who deals with regulating the ash!

Why did you apply for this internship?

Out of the three projects, the pigment synthesis is the one I am spearheading on my own. This internship gives me the opportunity to pursue my own brand of research. In this specific instance, it allows me to bridge the gap between science and art (to an extent), which is a topic I am very passionate about. As someone who is still debating whether or not to move on to graduate school, I felt it would be practical to test out whether or not research was what I wanted to do with my life. Regardless of that outcome, the experience is invaluable.

What is something you have learned from your internship that you didn’t expect?

I’ve learned to be patient, and to not expect results immediately. From the photo, you can see that even with the combined efforts of the current and last summer’s research, there has been a very slow accumulation of product. There’s only 23 grams, so far (5 of which have been my contribution). It’s completely possible that we will not be able to reach all of our research goals this summer. It’s been a process learning that while that fact is frustrating, it’s OK! Good science is not rushed science. Sometimes you just have to take what you get.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced at your internship?

The biggest challenge has been working independently, which is something I hadn’t realized would be an issue. Last year I worked on mostly the same projects, but within a group. This summer, it’s slightly more difficult because I have to make my own deadlines and stick to them or else I’ll fall apart. There was a sort of power in the group-held accountability that I had not realized was very important to my work ethic. But it’s something I can work with.

A Postcard From: Huiyu Li

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Name: Huiyu (Eileen) Li
Class Year: 2019
Major: Psychology; Mathematics
Hometown: Shanghai, China

Internship Placement: Bryn Mawr College Aging and Cognition Lab
Job Title: Research Assistant
Location: Bryn Mawr College

What’s happening at your internship?

As a research assistant, my job consists of three parts: data collection, data analysis, and discussion of relevant literature with my professor. Working time is usually 9 to 5 but rather flexible, depending on how much work there is to be done every day. This summer. the main focus of the lab is to study how emotional stimuli, as compared to neutral stimuli, are processed differently for younger and older adults. Thus, for the data collection part, my tasks include recruiting participants, scheduling experiment sessions, and assisting participants to complete tasks on paper and computers. For the electrophysiological data we have collected, we process and analyze the data using EEGLab and ERPLab, both plugins under the Matlab environment.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I have volunteered in the Aging and Cognition Lab since my freshman year because I found its research topics intriguing to me. Hence I applied for this summer science research opportunity to deepen my knowledge in this field and to gain some more hands-on experience.

What has been your favorite part of this internship?

My favorite part of this research opportunity is that it is a perfect combination of interactions with people and computers so that one can never get bored. At work, we are able to not only get to meet different people but also to examine what their cognitive processing of the stimuli we provided are like (participation in the study is completely anonymous though), and I think this is really exciting.

Can you talk about the skills you are learning and why they are important to you?

Thanks to the behavioral data collection task, I have the opportunity to practice my communication skills through interacting with the participants. Now I am more confident with talking to and getting to know people of different ages and different backgrounds, and I think this is an essential skill not only in the lab setting but also in the real world. In addition, the analysis of the event-related potentials (ERP) data via Matlab has introduced me to some basic scripting skills and offered me some insights into how computer science and computational mathematics can be integrated into research in psychology. As I am learning more about it, I am able to gain a better understanding of how psychology is not an isolated subject but is related to other fields, and now I am able to appreciate the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to education more.

A Postcard From: Ashvika Dhir ’18

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Name: Ashvika Dhir
Class Year: 2018
Major: International Studies
Hometown: Yardley, Pa.

Internship Placement: Luthra & Luthra Law Offices
Job Title: Legal Intern
Location: New Delhi, India

What’s happening at your internship?

Currently, I am assisting a senior partner with research on the first biosimilar case in India. So far I have familiarized myself with the specific case by reading all the case files that were prepared previous to my arrival. Now, I am researching international case laws, so that I can understand how these cases have been handled abroad outside of India. This might provide certain insight for the case at hand.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I have always been interested in law after reading about major cases in learning about some of the most accomplished lawyers in the field. Unfortunately, I had never had any first-hand exposure to the field besides what I had read about it. During my semester abroad, I had taken a class called “Law from a European Perspective.” I found that course to be very interesting and I wanted to learn about what law is like from an Asian perspective. My aunt is a practicing lawyer in Delhi and she introduced me to this opportunity. I thought that applying for this internship would allow me to learn about law while simultaneously working in the field. That is why I chose to apply for this internship!

Living in a new city? What has that experience been like for you?

During my childhood, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel back-and-forth between the United States and India to visit my family. In elementary school and middle school, my brother and I used to stay with my grandmother for 2 to 3 months at a time during our summer vacations. Usually, we stayed in Chandigarh and then we travelled to Delhi for short periods of time. This year has been much different since I am staying in Delhi for the entirety of my time in India. It took me a week or two to readjust to living here, but now I have found stability in a daily routine. Also, work keeps me occupied for majority of the week, so time has flown by quicker than I was expecting. After a month here, I could not be happier that I made the decision to take up this incredible opportunity.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced at your internship?

So far, I think the biggest challenge has been adjusting to small differences in the workplace. Until now, I have only worked in the United States, so certain nuances in the workplace did not occur to me. Even though I was given a crash course on conducting business abroad, the only way I could learn about particular differences was by actually experiencing them for myself. For example, it did not occur to me that your superiors are called sir and ma’am here, despite whatever the age difference may be. I was also surprised to learn that most Indian employers expect interns to be able to start working independently on new assignments from the first day on the job. Although these slight differences were challenging at first, I think they have opened my eyes to expectations of working abroad. I feel that this will be a great advantage in the future.

A Postcard From: Ami Okazaki ’18

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Name: Ami Okazaki
Class Year: 2018
Major: Chemistry
Hometown: San Jose, Calif.

Internship Placement: Bryn Mawr College Chemistry Department
Job Title: Student Researcher
Location: Bryn Mawr College

What’s happening at your internship?

I’m working in an organic chemistry lab that focuses on the development of new and efficient methodologies used to synthesize larger compounds out of simple molecules. Our field of research looks into processes called palladium cross-coupling and mono-gamma-arylation, which are unique methods used to attach a small molecule (an aryl group) to a specific location (gamma position) of another molecule (vinylogous ester or ketone). The challenges we face in this project involve controlling the regioselectivity (where the aryl group binds) and reactivity of the chemistry. I work on optimizing the conditions used to run these reactions so that we and other researchers in the field can synthesize the target products while forming minimal side products. So far, I’ve been probing the scope and limitations of our reaction conditions using a wide range of substrates with electron donating and electron withdrawing groups on the aryl substrate. The products of the reactions are first detected using gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy, and then I isolate the products using extraction, thin-layer chromatography, column chromatography, and rotary evaporation. Lastly, I characterize the purified products through melting point, proton and carbon NMR, and FTIR spectroscopy. By the end of the summer, we hope to have a better understanding of the optimal palladium-catalyzed reaction conditions that can be used for our specific method of creating new molecules.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I enjoyed working in the same lab the previous summer. I also wanted to live on campus because it’s so quiet and serene, and the city is just a train ride away.

What has been your favorite part of this internship?

The good balance between work, study, and fun. I’m enjoying my summer by being around a familiar campus, lab, and people here at Bryn Mawr while also tackling unfamiliar challenges and techniques in the labwork. It’s really rewarding looking back and seeing how much I’ve grown as a student researcher and individual compared to the previous summer, and acknowledging that the journey wouldn’t have been possible without the resources and support from the college and mentors, both old and new.

Can you give us three adjectives and three nouns that describe your internship experience?

challenging, uncertain, persistent

optimization, application, spectroscopy

A Postcard From: Alex Berndt ’19

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Name: Alex Berndt
Class Year: 2019
Major: Sociology
Hometown: Houston, Texas

Internship Placement: The Franklin Institute
Job Title: Classroom Support Intern
Location: Philadelphia

What’s happening at your internship?

I’m convinced I have the best internship any college student could have for the summer. I work with the Mini Molecules (Pre-K to second grade) They’re at the best age and are all so curious and have such passion toward the science that they learn.

As a classroom support intern at the Franklin Institute, I get to spend a lot of one on one time with campers at their discovery camp. I work with campers who have learning differences such as autism or ADHD among a few learning differences, and some weeks I just stick around and offer campers support when they are feeling homesick. It may not seem like much, but every week I get to watch these children grow and learn and feel excited about science.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I applied for this internship because I plan on becoming a licensed clinical social worker when I am older, specifically focusing on children’s therapy. There are not a lot of internships that are available for undergraduate students in clinical settings, so in my search for internships I felt as if this was the best fit. It has given me the opportunity to confirm that I am indeed interested in working with children, and I am very glad for that.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced at your internship?

Believe it or not my job is really hard; it has been a struggle adjusting to constantly talking to peers and adults to always talking with small children. My job description as a classroom support intern is to provide one on one care and support to campers who may need extra help in the classroom — this can be hard, there are times when campers are just not having a good day and that can be especially hard if they also happen to have autism, a sensory processing disorder, or other learning difference.

A lot of what I do is making sure they are comfortable in the environment and that we are able to change the environment if it becomes too stressful and overwhelming. It is hard to anticipate what exactly could be a trigger for some campers, and what is for others. It is not always the same and I am not a fortune teller. Though this may be a hard job it has also helped me learn a lot about myself. I am autistic and have sensory processing disorder and have had a really hard time dealing with everyday struggles and coping as an adult. If anything, working with these kids at the Franklin Institute has helped me become more patient with myself.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

The most rewarding thing about my internship is watching the campers grow; it is truly incredible to see them struggle and then overcome their problems. They are so young and learning and growing with them has been incredible. There is one camper who I worked with in the past who didn’t want to participate in an activity about bird nests Instead, we spent the time together learning about bat nests, to only find out that they were actually called “roosts.” He spent the remainder of the day telling everyone that bat nests were actually called roosts and having an overall good day. I enjoy teaching these campers at the Franklin Institute and watching them be so excited about learning; it continually makes my day. I would highly recommend this internship to anyone, especially if they enjoy working with children.

A Postcard From: Akosua-Asamoabea Ampofo ’19

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Name: Akosua-Asamoabea Ampofo
Year: 2019
Major: Film



What’s happening?

This summer, I am interning at KSL, a TV news station in Salt Lake City, Utah. As a news intern, I primarily shadow journalists and write reports for newscasters. Every morning, we meet and discuss the potential stories for the day and everyone, including the interns, are given the opportunity to pitch stories. If the producer likes it, you work with a team, usually a reporter and a photog, to make that story come to life. On these shoots, I get to ask questions during interviews and or man the camera. As one of the bigger media voices in the Utah area, KSL likes to focus on local news and it has been interesting to get to see the surrounding areas as I work.

How I heard about my internship

As summer was approaching, I looked for internships around the country that had something to do with film. I applied to many places and sent my resume and cover letter to all these places. KSL were one of the few people that got back to me.

Why I applied for my internship

I am currently studying film here at Bryn Mawr and was looking for places where I could learn about production work in particular. I am aware there is a lot one can do with a film degree and I’m very interested in telling untold stories, and sharing new knowledge, so journalism is something that I am currently exploring. As such, I thought it wise to work in this environment and gain insight into how the industry works.