Bonnie Ronnish
Graduation Year: 2009
Major(s): Biology
Campus activities: TCFI (All-girls a capella), volleyball club, work in a research lab on campus
Where are you interning now (or have interned in the past)?
I intern at the National Veterinary Institute (SVA) in Uppsala, Sweden. It is a large research facility for animal health. I work in the virology department on veterinary diagnostics. Much of the work done at the SVA comes from being a reference laboratory, responsible for the main testing when an outbreak of an animal disease occurs.
How did you find your internship?
I work in a research lab on campus (Larry Wangh's lab). We are trying to collaborate with various institutes, and the project I am working on is being studied by two main international research laboratories: Pirbright in England and the SVA in Sweden. My boss in the US gave presentations at both and determined Sweden to be the best option.
What resources did you utilize to help you prepare for the search?
My boss found the connection and his assistant, Sarah Romain, set up all of my living arrangements. I went through the Brandeis Travel Agency to buy my plane ticket. I prepared for the trip by researching online the area in which I would be living.
What ways did you explore to fund your internship?
Funding was a huge problem, because my boss wanted to give me a stipend and I needed a lot of money up front to pay my apartment rent, but Brandeis has no system set up to give students stipends. Sarah and I both spent weeks on the phone and running around trying to figure out the best system. I talked to a Physics professor who sends students to work in Austria every year. He told me about the system to make me a temporary "consultant" (i.e., I was hired as a temp worker instead of on the student rate). I also applied for the Brandeis Global Fund, which is a grant to fund projects that establish a relationship between Brandeis and other companies and countries, but I didn't get the grant.
What are the two most important things you learned through your internship?
1. Everyone doing scientific research has their own way of doing things, and there's no "right" way to do it. Some ways are more efficient or logical, but you have to adapt if you want to survive. Methods change dramatically from lab to lab and country to country, and you have to learn to adapt quickly to avoid being discouraged.
2. Something that I may find easy or second nature is not necessarily easy to understand for someone who has never learned it. Part of my job was to help teach about a new method my lab developed. I learned the method very quickly but found that some people learned much more slowly than I did. Also, because my lab in Sweden is so international, there is often a language barrier that further adds to the confusion and prevents understanding. The main thing I learned was to be more patient when I teach, because everyone understands in their own time.
What advice would you give other students looking for internships?
Find an internship that you really really want to do (not just one someone else wants you to do). If your internship is in another country, and you are indifferent to it, you will find it hard to adjust. Internships also give you the chance to be independent and creative. It is easy to sit back and let others tell you how to do your internship, but you will get much farther if you take advantage of the situation to start implementing your own ideas.
How are you connecting this internship to your academic, personal, and career future?
All science is related in some way. I am currently on the pre-med track and was intending to go to medical school after undergrad. Working in the lab at Brandeis and working at the SVA made me realize that, though I still want to practice medicine, I also want to continue doing research. Being able to do both opens more doors for a career. I also realized that, by knowing the research and science behind medicine, I can be far more effective as a doctor. This internship also sparked an interest in a new field of medicine, one that I had only vaguely considered. My personal connection is just my love of science. I am happiest as a student because I learn something new everyday. Science as a career will allow me to continue learning, while providing an outlet to be creative. Medicine will allow me to help people who can't help themselves.