July 10, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on Emily Adams ’14: The Beat Without

Emily Adams ’14: The Beat Without

In my last post, I promised I would talk more about The Beat Without letter project, a recent Beat Within program which I’ve been learning about over the past week. The Beat Without is a program designed to reach out to incarcerated adults and provide them with a space to both express themselves and to speak directly to the youth we serve. Prisoners send us poems, stories, essays, and artwork, and if their work is meaningful and appropriate, it gets published in the magazine alongside the writing from the weekly youth workshops. Letters come from all over the country and can discuss any topic.

When we receive a letter, the first thing we do is read it and determine if the writer wants to be published in the magazine or just wants a subscription. If they have included writing to be considered for publication, we review it and decide whether or not it’s appropriate for the magazine. If so, we type it up, edit it, and include it in the next issue. We also write up a small bio about the author, including their name, where they’re from, and where they’re incarcerated. Anyone who’s published in the magazine gets a free copy of that issue, so once it’s printed, we pack up an issue and send it to them.

I’ve actually spend the past year transcribing and responding to letters from prisoners for a different nonprofit, so The Beat Without feels very familiar to me. Every letter is different, but many of them convey the same messages: don’t give in to peer pressure; stay away from drugs and alcohol; treat yourself and the people around you with respect. Many of the writers are serving life sentences, and most of them have been in and out of prison since adolescence. The advice they impart to the youth reading the magazine, then, is extremely relevant. The youth we work with are at a very critical stage in their lives where they have the option to either turn their lives around or continue heading down the same path. It’s not too late for them to change, and it means a lot for them to hear that from someone who understands what they’re going through.

Reading these letters means quite a bit to me as well. I know all the statistics about the penal system in the United States, but it’s a very different experience to actually connect with the people who are living and dying within that system. It’s amazing to see how honest they are with us and with themselves, how much they regret their crimes, and how hard they’re working to turn their lives around. Many of them have turned to religion and adopted nonviolent lifestyles. Many are seeking help for addictions to drugs or alcohol. All of them are trying to educate themselves in some way, even those who know they will never be released. It’s incredible to see people who have grown up with nothing—no education, no family, no place to call home—so motivated to change themselves and their situation. In many ways, their stories have all become a part of my story, and every time I start to feel discouraged about penal reform, all I have to do is remember their voices, and my passion comes flooding right back.

July 8, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on Alicia Ramirez ’15: Trying to Find the Next Bestseller

Alicia Ramirez ’15: Trying to Find the Next Bestseller

A literary agent pitches a book proposal or manuscript to an editor at a publishing house in hopes that the book gets published (among other exciting things I will discuss at a later post). Before that can happen, someone has to find the query, or submission, that catches the agent’s attention. One of my responsibilities, an intern at the Doris S. Michaels Literary Agency, is to read queries from authors who wish to be represented by us.

Evaluating queries is one of my favorite things to do at the agency because it is the most challenging. DSM Agency specializes in self–help and business books. The agency is also interested in women’s issues, current events, and strong works of literary fiction.

However, there are writers who submit great proposals that, unfortunately, are not ideal for the agency. I have had to put my own taste aside and develop a keen eye for what best fits our agency and what is marketable. There are times where I am sure a query will not work for the agency but there are times where I am uncertain. When that happens, I let it sit and read it later or go over it with my supervisor. On the other hand, when I find a query that could be a great addition to the agency, I feel a rush of anticipation, hoping that everyone else will like it as much as I do. After reading all of the queries and forwarding the ones I felt had the most potential, I often wonder what I will be reading tomorrow.

July 5, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on A Postcard From: Eri Arai ’16

A Postcard From: Eri Arai ’16

Eri Arai with Kenichiro Sasae, Japanese Ambassador to the United States

Eri Arai ’16 with Kenichiro Sasae, Japanese Ambassador to the United States

Name: Eri Arai

Class Year: 2016

Major: Undeclared

What’s happening? We’d love to hear how your internship is going: I am working at the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission, a small federal agency in Washington D.C. devoted to strengthening U.S.-Japan relations. Most of my time here is spent coordinating and publicizing the Friendship Blossoms Initiative — The Friendship Blossoms Initiative is a public-private gift of 3,000 dogwood trees to the people of Japan in reciprocation of Japan’s gift of 3,000 cherry blossoms to the people of the United States 100 years ago. The project started in April 2012, when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced this gift to then Prime Minister of Japan Yoshihiko Noda. Apart from my work in the office, such as evaluating applications for dogwoods from Japanese municipalities and revamping the agency’s social media presence, I have been able to immerse myself in the world of diplomacy by sitting in on congressional meetings on Capitol Hill, meeting the Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. at his residence, shadowing meetings with Japanese Ministers at the embassy, and working with Foreign Service officers. In a nutshell, my internship has been an amazing experience so far. Check out the Friendship Blossoms Facebook page that I started recently!

How I heard about my internship: I heard about my internship through the Bryn Mawr Career Development Office’s Internship postings online.

Why I applied for my internship: I applied for my internship because I have always been curious about U.S.-Japan relations. I was born in Japan, and moved to California a month before my 5th birthday. Even though I have spent most of my life in the U.S., I have always felt a strong connection to my Japanese heritage. In whatever career field I choose to pursue in the future, I have always wanted to be a bridge between U.S. and Japan. I thought this internship was a great opportunity for me to explore this type of work.

July 3, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on Ivana Wang ’15: Vectors Galore!

Ivana Wang ’15: Vectors Galore!

My project is going smoothly so far, and I’ve acquired a few new friends. There are three Russian students earning their PhDs in my lab. There is also another summer intern working on another project in my lab. All of the Russian students are my mentors and have helped me get through some rough training stages since I’m still pretty green at research having started late May. Perhaps the most important lesson I learned so far is experiments don’t work 90% of the time, and I’ve learned to accept that.

In the last couple of weeks, many PCR’s were done to obtain a good amount of the ERCC3 gene. Specific primers were designed to achieve this. The primers contained attb sites for Gateway cloning. The Gateway cloning system is relatively new and is a much faster and more reliable way to produce clones. The reaction also takes less time than traditional cloning.

After five gels I finally obtained the DNA band that I wanted. There are approximately 2400kbp in the ERCC3 gene. This gene contains a mutation in the base pairs coding for lysine in the majority of pancreatic cancer patients. The goal of my project overall is to get protein crystals of this gene after inducing the mutation by primer design and have E. coli overexpress this gene.

DNA bands of ERCC3 were cut out and then purified using a Qiagen kit, and the concentration of DNA was measured using nanodrop, which is sort of like a spectrophotometer, but instead of inserting a cuvet into the machine, a drop of liquid to be analyzed is put on a little stage the size of a tip of a ballpoint pen.

The concentration was about 26ng/uL, which is enough to proceed with the BP clonase reaction.

The BP clonase reaction involves taking the PCR product with attb sites and inserting these gene segments into another vector called pDNR. This vector was transformed by E. coli, and then the plasmid was purified.

Overall, everything is working so far but on the downside, one of my cell lines perished. Fortunately, all of the cell lines were lysed for DNA and lysates. They were all frozen for backup as well.

July 2, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on A Postcard From: Zoe Fox ’14

A Postcard From: Zoe Fox ’14

Name: Zoe Fox

Class Year: 2014

Major: Classical Languages

What’s happening? We’d love to hear how your internship is going: I’m working on an archaeological dig at Sant’Omobono, located in central Rome. The site was a religious sanctuary in the Archaic and Republican periods, was occupied throughout the Middle Ages, and was rediscovered and first excavated in the Fascist era. I have now completed four weeks of my seven-week field season, and have excavated everything from intact medieval clay vessels, to waterlogged archaic Roman material far below street level, to fascist orange juice bottles. It’s very exhausting, extremely hot, and I’ve pickaxed through more dirt than I thought possible, but it’s worth every second to discover so many amazing artifacts!

How I heard about my internship: The head of the excavation, whom I had already met on my first dig in Italy, gave a lecture at Bryn Mawr’s Classics Colloquium this past semester about the site. I was so enamored by his description that I immediately asked if I could join the excavation team.

Why I applied for my internship: Although I’m a Classical Languages major, I do a lot of work in the field of archaeology as well, and I want my studies to remain as interdisciplinary as possible. Although I have previously excavated in the suburbs of Rome, I wanted to dig right in the city center, because the archaeology within Rome itself is so unique. Some people ask me why I would want to dig in the dirt all day in the Mediterranean summer heat, but I think excavating is incredibly addictive- there’s nothing like coming upon an amazing artifact, and pulling it out of the ground with your own hands!

Click the photo for an expanded view of the dig site.

July 1, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on Mikah Farbo ’14: Training

Mikah Farbo ’14: Training

Last week, I participated in an intensive training session that covered applied behavior analysis for teachers, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, paraeducators, and other professionals involved in teams who support children with autism. Over the course of three days, I learned the basics of applied behavior analysis and how those components can be used in the classroom.

Topics covered included: antecedents, behavior, consequences, verbal operants, reinforcement, extinction, punishment, errorless teaching, two second time delay procedure, error correction, variable ratio, card sort organization, and how to collect/analyze data. All of the topics covered are tested in what are called “check outs.” During a check out, a PaTTAN consultant ensures a participant’s understanding of the concepts covered by having them explain and also demonstrate how to apply these terms in the classroom.

This week, I’m attending the training not as a participant but as a trainer. I’m in charge of a table of participants—I answer their questions, further their understanding of the applied behavior analysis terms/techniques, and ensure their understanding with the check outs.

Being surrounded by such great people has highlighted how special these educators are in the lives of children with autism. They are taking time out of their summers to attend trainings to improve their classrooms and students because they want to, not because they have to. Every day they deal with challenging and difficult children but they go back and keep learning because they know the potential of the children they’re teaching. It’s incredible to be a part of their training!

June 28, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on A Postcard From: Alicia Ramirez ’15

A Postcard From: Alicia Ramirez ’15

Name: Alicia Ramirez

Class Year: 2015

Major: English and Creative Writing

What’s happening? We’d love to hear how your internship is going: I am working at the Doris S. Michaels Literary Agency in New York City. DSM Agency specializes in self–help and business books. The agency is also interested in women’s issues, current events, and strong works of literary fiction. I get to evaluate queries and manuscripts, post content on the agency’s Twitter and Facebook pages, and handle general office work.

How I heard about my internship: I learned about DSM Agency online. I devoted last summer to researching literary agencies that have internship programs.

Why I applied for my internship: I was intrigued by the agency’s mission statement: “to represent high quality books that make a difference in people’s lives.” DSM Agency also seemed like a tight-knit community of professionals, and I am drawn to that kind of environment.

June 27, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on Emily Adams ’14: A Day in the Life of a Beat Intern

Emily Adams ’14: A Day in the Life of a Beat Intern

I arrive at work at 10 a.m., sign in, and get settled at my computer. The Beat Within is a very small organization, but we work in the offices of a large ethnic news agency, so there are always plenty of people around. I greet some of the full-time employees who work at the computers near mine and check in with the other Beat intern. We usually spend the mornings typing, editing, and responding to the handwritten pieces from the workshops. Typing is pretty straightforward—the hardest part is deciphering the handwriting (most of the youth we work with are teenage boys, after all), and I often end up wandering over to the other intern’s desk to get a second opinion on a scrawled word or sentence.

Editing and responding are a little more difficult. It’s crucial to make sure the pieces are appropriate for all audiences without censoring the author’s voice, since the program is intended to provide a safe outlet for self-expression. We change profanity, but don’t delete it, and we have a long list of gang references which must be removed or modified (all numbers, for example, must be written out in words). We don’t, however, take out references to violence, drugs, alcohol, or abuse. We then respond briefly to each piece so that the authors know their writing is being read and appreciated. Responses are meant to encourage further reflection, so we try to include a thoughtful question or two in each one.

Around one, I grab lunch with the other intern. We’re both English majors and in the same year, so we usually end up talking about the classes we’ve taken, the books we’ve read, and what we hope to do after graduation. After lunch, our supervisor will usually assign us a few projects to work on, ranging from making copies of the topics for the next workshop to printing and folding the most recent issues of the magazine. Since I speak Spanish, I’m occasionally called on to edit pieces written in Spanish or translate a piece from one language to the other. We also recently learned how to process letters for The Beat Without, a recent program which I’ll discuss further in a later post. At five, we finish up whatever we’ve been working on, sign out, and head home for the day. Working at a small nonprofit means every day brings its own surprises (like free ice cream!), but in general, this is my daily routine.

June 25, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on Mikah Farbo ’14: Little Anecdotes

Mikah Farbo ’14: Little Anecdotes

As my time in the classroom comes to an end, I’m going to reflect on some of the greatest lessons I’ve learned:

It matters how you motivate and engage students in order to teach them. One of the students in the classroom, Ryan*, loves game shows and a lot of what he does is equated to a game show. He plays “Fluency Minute to Win It” where he has to say as many numbers, words, sounds, etc. as he can in a minute. There are commercial breaks, grand prizes (usually cheese balls), the teacher is the host, fake cameras, and a buzzer. He loves being the winner and behaves correctly in order to be called a winner.

Be creative and innovative, if the first idea doesn’t work, try another way. Brad took off his shoes and would lose instructional time having them put back on by the teacher. One day one of the teachers left them off. He took off one of his socks, but the teacher made sure he left the other one on and made him realize how uneven he felt. After he worked for a little, she put his sock back on as reinforcement. After he worked a little bit more, she put on one shoe. Once both shoes were back on, they didn’t come off for the rest of the session. Rather than continue losing time by putting them on, she left them off and discovered putting the shoes back on was an effective reinforcer.

It is important to note that positive and negative reinforcement are not equivalent to good and bad reinforcement. Reinforcement is situation specific. Positive is adding and negative is taking away but certain situations need things to be removed rather than added.

Working with kids who have autism is tough but there are moments when you’ll know why you’re doing it. For me, it was the day that Karly hugged me. I help her eat lunch every day and one day after she was finished eating, she just hugged me. It was a really special moment and I was smiling for the rest of the day!

*pseudonyms will be used to protect the privacy of the students

June 25, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on Alicia Makepeace ’14: The Beauty of the Dry Box

Alicia Makepeace ’14: The Beauty of the Dry Box

With the official start of summer research, we jumped right in and synthesis started the second day. The first step in the reaction pathway is the addition of a dithiol to synthesize a substitutated dithiane. The dithiane acts as a protecting group through the next step and is finally removed during the final reaction. In other words, we work with sulfur, a lot. This means that our lab and clothes commonly smell like sulfur all day and an extra shower is essential. It may be gross, but it is a necessary step that allows us to do fun chemistry.

More recently, we have been focusing on the palladium catalysis reactions. For these time monitoring reactions of the synthesis of benzophenones, the sample is prepared in a dry box. Since I work for a relatively new lab, we are often privileged to have the latest equipment. However, as the glovebox was new and not one hundred percent set up, we encountered a few hiccups. After it was finally set up, we noticed that one of the bolts did not fit properly. Therefore, a few days had to go by before it could be shipped, received and attached. None-the-less, the dry box is now functional and a beautiful piece of equipment, in both looks and function. When the lights in the room are off and the glovebox lights are on, it glows with pristine cleanness. With regards to function, it allows chemistry to be done without exposure to air, meaning no water and limited O₂.

For the past few days, I have been excited to be working in the dry box. With my arms encased in thick plastic gloves, I resemble a robot and often get weird stares from the hallway. Perhaps they are intrigued or maybe they are just confused. As one can imagine, plastic gloves are not always pleasant in the hot summer months; however, I was thrilled to start monitoring reactions. In order to properly monitor these reactions, an internal standard must be introduced prior to the start of the reaction. This allows for calibration and for the amount of starting material and product present to be compared among many time points. With my first reaction, I forgot to add biphenyl (the internal standard). Mistakes make great lessons though and I am certain it will not happen again. This little accident has made me more meticulous in making sure everything is within the microwave vial before removing it from the dry box. Now, the goal is to complete and repeat, multiple times.

Summer at BMC

Sun-soaked postcards from Bryn Mawr College