Though many students may have spent the summer months relaxing in the sun, two students from the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences spent time overseas preparing for careers as surgeons.
Reena Parikh and Catalina Rodriguez, biology majors in the college, participated in the Summer 2011 Biology Student Internship Program. The students spent six weeks working with doctors, nurses, and patients in Graz, Vienna. The students’ daily tasks, which began at 7:00 a.m., included drawing blood samples and administering intravenous therapy to patients. They also observed many surgeries including a heart transplant, liver transplant, and a Cesarean section.
Parikh and Rodriguez traveled and worked under the guidance of faculty adviser Robin Sherman, Ph.D., associate professor and associate director of the college’s Division of Math, Science, and Technology.
The summer internship program in Graz was developed four years ago by college alumnus Carlos Haderspock and Mark Jaffe, D.P.M., associate professor in the college. Jaffe worked with Haderspock’s mentor in Austria, Philipp Stiegler, M.D., who insisted on continuing the program each year with two undergraduate students from the college.
The Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences will host an information session on how to apply for the Summer 2012 Biology Student Internship Program on Monday, Oct. 31, 2011. The event will take place from noon to 12:50 p.m., in the Mailman-Hollywood Building, room 309. For more information, please contact Mark Jaffe, D.P.M., at (954) 262-8083, or Emily Schmitt, Ph.D., associate professor and coordinator of biological science in the college, at (954) 262-8349.
