June 25, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on A Postcard From: Ivana Wang

A Postcard From: Ivana Wang

Name: Ivana Wang

Class Year: 2015

Major: Biology

What’s happening? We’d love to hear how your internship is going: I am working on a pancreatic cancer research project at Fox Chase Cancer Research Center. I am currently working on obtaining DNA from five patient cell lines, and also running PCRs of bacterial DNA, (ERCC3).

How I heard about my internship: My academic advisor, Dr. Davis, suggested completing my summer internship at FCCC.

Why I applied for my internship: My interests in medicine motivated me to seek other ways to help people. I had already raised money for Deworm the World, and I thought conducting research in medicine over the summer would be yet another way for me to give back to the community.

Scenes from an internship: Ivana Wang ’15.

June 21, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on Want to Share Your Summer Story? Here’s How!

Want to Share Your Summer Story? Here’s How!

We hope you’re enjoying the posts on our Summer at BMC blog, so far! If you’d like to appear on the blog to share your research and/or internship experience this summer, please consider dropping us a line.

The Drop Us a Line form asks a few basic questions about your summer experience and allows you to upload a photo of yourself to accompany your post.

You can choose to fill out the form only or check the box to indicate your interest in writing weekly or bi-weekly blog posts updating the readers of this blog on your work.

We look forward to hearing from you!

June 20, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on Meet the Blogger: Emily Adams ’14

Meet the Blogger: Emily Adams ’14

Name: Emily Adams

Class Year: 2014

Major: English (Russian/Spanish minors)

What’s happening? We’d love to hear how your internship is going: I’m interning at The Beat Within in San Francisco. The Beat Within is an organization which offers writing workshops to incarcerated teens and then publishes their writing in a bi-weekly magazine. I’ve been typing up and editing the handwritten pieces from the workshops, as well as assisting with the printing and distribution of the magazine and helping out with office tasks. I can’t help out with the workshops until I’m 21, so I’m eagerly looking forward to my 21st birthday in July!

How I heard about my internship: Extensive Google searching!

Why I applied for my internship: I’ve always been interested in writing and prison issues. Working as a tutor at the Writing Center and volunteering as a writing mentor for incarcerated adults have allowed me to develop those interests, and I really wanted a summer internship which would allow me to continue pursuing both of those passions. I also spent last summer in San Francisco and really wanted to be here again. With all that in mind, The Beat Within was the perfect fit!

June 18, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on Mikah Farbo ’15: The Classroom

Mikah Farbo ’15: The Classroom

The classroom that I’m in has a lead teacher, three Therapeutic Staff Supports (TSS’s), and five Personal Care Assistants (PCA’s) to teach eight children with autism ranging in age from kindergarten (six years old) to sixth grade (twelve years old). All of the children are at different points on the spectrum—some have verbal ability, some only sign, and some go to typical classrooms for certain subjects. Rather than desks, each student has their own cubicle with a table, a chair for them, and a chair for the teacher/PCA. At each student’s cubicle is a set of three drawers to hold cards for ABA, data sheets, the program outline, and reinforcers.

The front of the classroom has a white board that is used as the schedule. Across the top are the PCAs’ names along with the teacher’s name and down the side are the time slots. Most of the time slots are twenty minutes and each student has a specific color paper with their name on a magnet which is placed under a specific PCA or the teacher with another magnet that says what they’ll be doing at that time—manding, tacting, peer-to-peer manding, play skills, ITT (Intensive Table Teaching), speech language pathology, occupational therapy, inclusion, fluency, or a specific subject area. Every morning the whole class goes to special—art, music, library, physical education, or computer for forty minutes.

Routine is very important for children with autism which is why the schedule is on the board and organized. One of the students in the class comes in every morning and memorizes the schedule and if something changes during the day, he gets upset. The classroom is very structured for the sensitivities that the students have which is part of why it is so efficient. Another reason why the classroom is so efficient is the dedication of the staff—they are caring, understanding, intuitive, smart, creative, and innovative.

Now is a very pivotal time for autism because the DSM-V came out a few weeks ago and they have changed the definition of the psychological disorder and its conditions. One term for autism will be used—Autism Spectrum Disorder which will then be broken into three levels: one, two, and three. Asperger’s Syndrome and PDD-NOS have been eliminated. It will be interesting to see how this change affects the services children can receive.

June 17, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on Alicia Makepeace ’14: A Summer of Chemistry

Alicia Makepeace ’14: A Summer of Chemistry

When summer is mentioned, images of beaches, cold drinks and friends commonly fill one’s head. So what would motivate working eight-hour workdays, five days a week for ten weeks during the summer months? For me, the rationale is this: summer science research with the chemistry department. I am currently continuing my research from the school year during this summer; however, I am now surrounded all day long by amazing labmates (Chloe Baumann, Janielle Vidal and Summer Baker Dockrey), my research mentor (Jason Schmink) and more extensive research.

During the past school year, my research focused on the synthesis of starting material, arylacylsilanes with varied substituents on the silane. Although organic synthesis is interesting and offers many learning opportunities as well as occasions to exercise creativity, I am excited to put my starting material to good use. This summer, my research will be focused on the cross-coupling via palladium catalysis of arylacylsilanes (my starting material) with bromobenzene to form benzophenones (Rxn 1). In fewer scientific terms, a small amount of palladium will be used, in the presence of water, to bring two compounds together and make new carbon-carbon bonds. An interesting complication arises with the presence of water: water is necessary for the palladium catalysis, but it also aids in an unwanted competitive reaction where the arylacylsilane is converted back to benzaldehyde (Rxn 2). It is my goal to monitor the desired and competitive reactions using kinetic studies to determine which arylacylsilane affords the greatest conversion to product with the least conversion to benzaldehyde.

By doing summer research, I am able to spend hours thinking of nothing other than chemistry, which is exciting; however, the benefits do not end there. This uninterrupted work also presents an opportunity to begin collecting data and writing for my senior thesis. Organic chemistry incorporating the use of metals describes my academic interests. Therefore, this research has helped expand my content knowledge, encourage me to do an organometallic independent study, and helped narrow my search for potential graduate schools.

June 14, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on A Postcard From: Lianna Reed ’14

A Postcard From: Lianna Reed ’14

Name: Lianna Reed

Class Year: 2014

Major: Political Science and French

What’s happening? We’d love to hear how your internship is going: I’m in Atlanta (Hotlanta), Georgia working as a Human Rights Program Intern at The Carter Center. I am mainly working on the project The Carter Center has in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on mining governance, but we are also hosting a conference in two weeks known as the Human Rights Defenders’ Forum and I have been exchanging rapid emails with our Congolese, Senegalese, and South Sudanese delegates.

How I heard about my internship: I heard about The Carter Center during my search for internships in the human rights field, which I began during my first year at Bryn Mawr.

Why I applied for my internship: I applied to The Carter Center because of their specific work on human rights and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Carter Center is committed to civil society organization participation for their field work and it was important for me to work with an organization that understood who and what they were working for.

June 10, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
1 Comment

Delving into a History of Diversity: meet the Pensby Center interns

The Pensby Center (formerly The Office of Intercultural Affairs) implements programs and activities that address issues of diversity, power and privilege, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, country of origin, class, gender, sexual orientation, religious affiliation and disability, with a goal of improving the campus climate and enhancing community life at Bryn Mawr College.

In this introductory post, Pensby intern Alexis De La Rosa ’15 discusses the work she and fellow intern Lauren Footman ’14 will focus on this summer.

This summer I have the amazing opportunity to delve into the history of diversity at Bryn Mawr. Lauren Footman and I began our time together this last week by listening to an interview of Bryn Mawr alum Evelyn Jones Rich ’54, one of the

Alexis De La Rosa ’15 (left) with fellow intern Lauren Footman ’14.

first black students to attend Bryn Mawr. I could think of no better way to begin my internship. A true Bryn Mawr woman, Rich would not stand for the oppressive power structure of society, and realized she needed to gain access to that structure in order to change it. With that decided, she fully immersed herself in life at Bryn Mawr; Rich never missed a class and made sure to attend every extracurricular event possible. Each experience during her time at Bryn Mawr helped Rich excel later in life. After learning to interact with people of different cultures, accepting occasional defeat, and overcoming her fair share of adversity, Evelyn Rich dedicated her life to creating opportunities for those otherwise overlooked.

Although Rich noticed a greater presence of students of color on campus since her time as a student, she indicated that there was still progress to be made. She hoped there would be more support for and amongst students of color at Bryn Mawr— a hope that is still as relevant as it was 34 years ago. In her interview Rich said, “don’t hold onto something just because we’ve always done it that way.” Bryn Mawr has made many changes since Rich’s time here, and continues to evolve each day. This internship is an important step the college is taking to recognize and celebrate diversity. Lauren and I both have individual projects we are working on this summer, in addition to our joint project of compiling Evelyn Rich’s collection. I am excited to see what our work will produce!

June 5, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on Mikah Farbo ’15: Pediatric Autism and ABA

Mikah Farbo ’15: Pediatric Autism and ABA

In August 2012, I was notified of the opportunity to apply to be an Alumnae Regional Scholar. Eleven sophomores are selected each year who have at least a 3.3 GPA, receive some form of financial aid, and have Bryn Mawr academic and community accomplishments to complete an 8-10 week, full-time internship over the summer following their sophomore year. I searched online to find a program that interested me in my hometown—Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Because I am a psychology major, I looked for psychologists and I emailed a few explaining the opportunity to be an Alumnae Regional Scholar. Of the ones who got back to me, I chose Mike Miklos: an educational consultant, statewide lead for the PATTAN Autism Initiative, Board Certified Behavior Analyst, and Pennsylvania Certified School Psychologist. I applied by November and found out that I was chosen to be an Alumnae Regional Scholar in January.

I chose Mike because his focus is on children with autism, using techniques to help them learn, and finding effective ways to help teachers learn to teach children with autism better. I took a psychology class in the fall that focused on autism (Autism Spectrum Disorders) and loved it. Autism is relatively new and an evolving diagnosis so there’s always something new to learn. I’m also an education minor and interested on the policies that surround education. Children who have autism fall under the special education umbrella of education which is strongly affected by federal, state, and district funding. Through working with Mike, I get to experience two of the things I’m passionate and interested in—psychology, particularly autism, and education.

Before summer started, I met with Mike twice to discuss my role, determine what I would be expected to do, and have some preliminarily trainings. We decided that it would be best to start out in a classroom, help in an extended school year classroom, assist teacher trainings, and attend the National Autism Conference at the end of July.

For the past few weeks, I have been in an Autism Support Classroom that uses Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) techniques. These procedures focus on having the student learn how to ask for things they want or need, learn basic skills, and improve on the skills they already know. Using a variety of teaching tools—pictures, verbal cues, echoic cues, tacts, and mands, students master new words and phrases. I’m very grateful for this opportunity and have already learned so much!

June 5, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on Meet the Blogger: Mikah Farbo ’15

Meet the Blogger: Mikah Farbo ’15

Name: Mikah Farbo

Class Year: 2015

Major: Psychology

What’s happening? We’d love to hear about how your internship is going: This summer, I have the opportunity through an Alumnae Regional Scholarship to work with a psychologist who specializes in autism. Currently, I am working in an autism support classroom and using ABA (applied behavior analysis) to teach the children how to ask for things they need or may want. So far, I have been learning so much and having lots of fun!

How I heard about my internship: Alumnae Regional Scholarship contacted me and asked me to apply and in order to apply, I had to have an internship in mind, I wanted to stay local to home [Lancaster County, PA] while learning something I was interested in and found my internship.

Why I applied for my internship: I wanted exposure to the field of psychology and experience working with children with autism.

Look for blog posts from Mikah throughout the summer!

May 31, 2013
by Alyssa Banotai
Comments Off on Welcome Summer!

Welcome Summer!

Welcome to the Summer at Bryn Mawr College blog!

This blog, edited by the College Communications Office, will offer a glance at the College and its students during summer break. We’ll be checking in with students conducting science research in the Park Science labs and featuring “postcards” and snapshots of students completing summer internships.

Summer at Bryn Mawr will also offer a peek at the campus in summer — what goes on when students aren’t here? What is Facilities up to? What kind of construction or growth projects are underway? And, most importantly, what kind of delicious vegetables are sprouting in Bryn Mawr’s student gardens?

If you are a current Bryn Mawr student and would like to “Drop Us A Line” about your activities this summer, we encourage you to get in touch with us via this short questionnaire. Enjoy your summer and this Summer at Bryn Mawr blog!