My second day at the state legislative building was a very busy one. We started off the day by attending a Board of Education meeting so that we could watch the implementation of legislation that Ms. DeVivo had gotten passed a few weeks prior to my arrival. Following the meeting, we went down to the quad and helped Ms. Sams (DeVivo’s partner) set up for a lunch catered by the pit for 500 people. The lunch invited all senators, reps, and optometrist to join so that they could generate discussion about the optometrist bill that we lobbied for the day prior. And following lunch, we met with a client from Riskcor to talk about upcoming legislation involving immigrants. We took the client to a couple of senators and reps (including the president pro-tempore and the majority leader) so that he could express his concerns with the legislation, and try to win their support.
One thing that I learned during my day is the importance of making connections. While shadowing Ms. DeVivo, I noticed that she had very good relationships with pretty much all of the officials. She knew pretty much everyone in the buildings, and was genuine friends with them. By developing these friendships, it became a lot easier to do her job because they knew that they could trust her. And while she was fairly liberal, most of her really good friends were conservative. While I assumed that there would be conflict because of party, there really was not because she said that she has a long history of being fair, and that goes a long way. As she said, people remember everything. If you mess with someone, they will fight back. Making friends is a whole lot more effective than burning bridges.
Today’s work was rather time intensive. Despite working through lunch, and every other available hour, not a lot of things were actually finished, which I suppose showed me that lab work is something that requires patience. From the time that I arrived to the time that I left, Porsha and I worked on creating a protein quantification assay- a thorough process that ends up isolating the protein- AMPK in this case- in order to determine the concentration of each sample.
Dr. Rob also taught me how to pipette first thing in the morning, so I was much more involved today than I was yesterday, helping Porsha in measuring and diluting the 36 wells that we prepared.
The assay pre-incubation.The assay post-incubation number one.
After preparing the wells with a reworking agent (the blue-green liquid above), the tray was incubated at 37 degrees celcius in order to isolate the protein, the concentration of which is shown by the shade of violet (look at the last two rows of wells). Unfortunately, I forgot to put the reworking agent in two of the rows before the first incubation, so our process was somewhat extended because of that, but as Porsha told me “It’s lab- everyone makes mistakes, even after their first time around”.
What a day! Today I started off my morning getting to know the inter workings of the shop. I was given a run down on the process of custom orders and how all of the inventory works. I got to see how everything is kept organized and prepared before it goes on the shelf. Today I had an awesome time talking with “Z” who runs the whole back area of the shop. He showed me how order forms worked, what he does when they get new clothes, and many more logistics of the business. After that we talked for a really long time about the retail world and what is good/bad for business and even ways that their own business could improve. I learned about what they call “dum-dum proof” items. Apparently a store should be 80% dum dum proof clothes, or clothes that anyone would wear. So in the case of Liles, black/navy suits, white/light blue shirts, and neutral colored pants. Sure these items can have variety, but if 80% of the clientele are looking for a versatile piece, then that’s how many of your pieces should be versatile. The other 20% can be anything that is more adventurous or stand-out in nature. Z says that in the case of custom suits, typically the people who wan’t a suit that is more of a statement will buy it custom, and not off the rack. Therefore if they have too many “different” items on the racks, there will be lots left over after the season which translates to lost money. Anyways that was today, tomorrow I was told we will be messing around with custom fabrics and showing me everything that goes on when making a custom suit. Also here’s a table of ties for viewing pleasure:
Today was another great day! I started off the day with a conversation, talking to one of the top members of the government relations staff of the company. For someone who is incredibly interested in the crossroads of the public and private sectors, this opportunity was extremely valuable. We had a conversation about his job and our shared interests. We then attended a meeting, where a law I actually knew a lot about from a government perspective was being discussed. Instead, however, it was being discussed from the perspective of how SAS should respond to it, and how it impacted SAS’ bottom line. The meeting was honestly extremely interesting. It allowed me to gain a greater understanding of something I had been interested in for a long time, and to be perfectly honest, it seems like the exact type of work I would absolutely love to do in the future. Following that meeting, I moved on to another meeting, where I listened as some of the employees discussed ways to enhance communication about legal matters to the rest of the company in conjunction with the internal communications department. This type of collaboration is something that I have continued to see throughout my two days at SAS, and expect to see in the future. After the meeting and the lunch that followed it, I stayed in the legal team but moved on to the compliance department. Members of that department told me all about the different ways they act to ensure that all laws are followed and that none of their actions directly help corrupt governments, or violate governmental policies throughout the world. I was very intrigued by the nature of the work done in this department, and it has continued to contribute to my heightened interest recently in law and policy. I look forward to moving on to IT tomorrow!
Today I shadowed the IT department at SAS. The format of my experience today was much different than yesterday’s. Today I switched mentors every hour so i was able to get a very well rounded view of the IT department. One of the most memorable parts of my day was when i first arrived this morning. Ms. Elena was my one person welcome committee and we spent our time walking around the lake beside the Umstead Hotel. I really appreciated this break from the office time that I had become accustomed to. Ms. Elena told me about what she does as a project manager in the IT department along with describing her personal experience at SAS. Walking around the lake felt much more natural than if I was sitting across a desk from my mentor. It was a great way to start off the day. Another great experience from today was lunch. Not only were the food and facilities beautiful, but also I was able to have another beneficial conversation with Mr. Michael. In the morning I shadowed the business side of the IT department and in the afternoon I shadowed the hardware side. Mr. Michael, who worked on the hardware side, took time to explain to me the differences of the many facets of the IT department and cleared up my confusions from that morning. One of the biggest lesson I learned from my experience in the IT department today is that it really is okay that i currently am not sure what I want to major in. In a project manager meeting that I attended with my second mentor, Janine, all of those attending the meeting had started their college careers in a major that didn’t apply to what they are doing now. Shadowing the IT department was a great experience. I was able to see the behind the scenes hardware that is necessary to running SAS’s complex technological infastructure. I was also able to experience the business side with Janine and Elena. The IT department did a great job introducing me to the many different sides their work.
Today Chandler and I went to Epic Games. Our day started with a tour of the building and we got to learn about the story behind Epic Games. It’s really interesting! It all started with a text-based adventure game, and they have the map for that game framed on a wall in the building. After that, they published the first real game to make Epic Games known: Unreal. Unreal was a shooter game set on an alien planet and it had groundbreaking use of color with 16-bit graphics instead of previous games only using 256 colors on the screen at a single time. Then, there was the first Unreal Tournament, a fast paced shooter game that is our host, Steve Polge’s favorite game he’s worked on. We actually got to playtest the newest Unreal Tournament in pre-alpha development, because playtesting is critical to the final product in game design. It was so much fun and I’m so grateful for this epic opportunity. Playtesting Room
Okay so yesterday I said I was getting tired of doing banners, and today I did so many more. I didn’t even take pictures of them this time. It’s really fun doing them for an hour or so because it makes me feel artsy, but there are so many restrictions and the banners themselves are extemely repetitive. Luckily after lunch the person I’m working with gave me an actual project she’s having trouble with to work on. The job was a tshirt design for the dragon boat festival. I’ve never been much of a tshirt designer, but it was cool getting to try something new with graphics. There are some restrictions about logo placement and wording, and the tshirt isn’t put together yet, but here’s a boat I drew:
It’s not good right now but I’m hoping to scan it onto the computer and then add more detail, coloring, and overall make it a quality graphic I can put on a tshirt. Again this project isn’t really my thing, but I’m learning a lot so it’s great!
Technically this is day two, but I forgot to post yesterday because I was to excited about my day. Anyway, yesterday I found out that the company I’m interning at has only 4 employees. 4. And that’s awesome! Their office space is on the third floor of a building in the corner, so there are lots of windows and light. There are 10 desks in the main area but only two workers to fill them (the other two work in private spaces). Because of that I got a very nice desk right next to a window :
Everything was all set up for me! After getting organized in my new space I learned a bit about what they do at the company, specifically in terms of graphic design. I learned they do a lot for Lenovo so they gave me a project based on the types of jobs Lenovo gives them. The first project I’ll be working on is creating digital banners that act as advertisements for Lenovo products. Based on certain restrictions and guidelines I made the following:
I did a lot more than that, and I have a ton more I’m supposed to do (says the project) It was fun doing them yesterday but I’m going to ask to try another aspect of graphic design to see if I find something else more in my field of interest.
As I arrived at FHI 360 for our second day of work, I was considerably more tired than I had been Tuesday morning – but as we had the chance to delve into our projects, I quickly found myself engaged and awake during another exciting day.
After our morning meeting, and during some of our free time, the four of us worked on our first project. Our goal was this: how can surveys on contraception be both accessible and fun for a younger generation? We were encouraged to implement social media platforms into our pitch, and we came up with a “Tinder-style” survey on contraceptives that matches the user with their best fit, but also collects data for the CTI researchers. A decision-tree format that allows the user to rank how they feel about certain side effects and tailor their contraception to them, and it can also provide information to the CTI team about which side effects and contraceptive methods are most important to women worldwide. I think we’ve made a great start on our pitch, and it was very cool to work on a very unique project that I hadn’t been expecting at a nonprofit like FHI 360.
Before lunch, Maddie and I met with Stevie Daniels to look at their photo database for the upcoming CTI social media exchange. Because of a very minimal budget for photography, all photos used by FHI 360 are either taken from creative-commons databases like Flickr, pulled from specialized photo libraries that only allow one-time use, or are taken by FHI 360 employees at their sites. It was cool to see all the beautiful photos taken by staff around the world, but the process of collecting those photos into one location and getting permission to use some was quite complicated.
The four of us went to lunch on the American Tobacco campus today as well. The FHI 360 offices are in a very convenient location: not only is it a 2 minute walk from cafes and Durham restaurants, it also overlooks the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. In the afternoon, we spent more time in meetings talking over new projects we will work on this week. One requires us to go through a few very long spreadsheets of contacts and categorize them based on their professional fields – we’ll be doing quite a bit of professional stalking through linkedin and their company websites. Our last big project will be a video that summarizes the work CTI has done.
Today was a great day at FHI 360, and I’m excited for tomorrow!
I stepped onto UNC’s campus early this morning, ready for the work experience I had been waiting for, ready to finally begin my time at the Sheikh lab. Contrary to my initial belief, I was actually far from ready to jump into the complex realm of gastrointestinal immunology and genetic research that the lab specializes in. You see, I had spent some time on Day 1 struggling through a scientific review paper that I had been instructed to read, as a means of familiarizing myself with the current research available on the topic of inflammatory bowel disease. However, “struggling through” was not an understatement; the task of reading a scientific paper requires far more than a pen and a comfy place to sit. With my colorful highlighters in one hand, post-it flags in the other, and Dictionary.com at my side, I began to slowly work my way through the extremely technical language and concepts that the paper discussed. As I embarked on my treacherous literary journey, all I could think of was how tiny the font was and how unhelpful the complicated scientific diagrams were. But as I persevered, scary phrases like “nucleotide-binding oligomerization domaincontaining 2” were shortened to simply “NOD2”, and I recognized that with a little patience and courage, I began to actually understand what I was reading, and it turned out to be really interesting!
Some light reading
The paper discussed the pathogenesis, or development in regards to disease, of inflammatory bowel disease, particularly Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Inflammatory bowel disease is particularly elusive in the medical world because the exact cause is still unknown. We know that there are significant genetic linkages, but environmental, microbial and immunological factors still play an important role in patient susceptibility. Upwards of 160 susceptibility genes have already been identified and scientists are working on piecing together the connections between those genes and the responses they cause and the responses in IBD patients.
Throughout the morning I continued my preliminary research by supplementing the initial paper I read with another one that went deeper into researching the cause of IBD in patients. When Shruti, the lab technician and my mentor for the internship, arrived, we had a short conversation about the lab’s current ongoing projects which led to a discussion on PCR techniques. Later this afternoon, Shruti took me down to the Lineberger building, which is equipped with a special machine able to conduct and monitor digital PCR. She walked me through how the machines were used to further explore gene expression of a certain genetic target through testing the fluorescence of individual droplets. If a single droplet contained the target particle, it would glow and the machine would measure it and store it next to the data for the thousands of other droplets tested. The process was complicated and tedious, but being able to visualize the ratio of positive droplets (with the target particle) to negative ones using the computer program assisted with my understanding.
This is the droplet reader that carries out digital PCR. A needle on the inside of the green hood sucks up individual droplets that are made with a mixture of oils and primer. Some of the droplets contain the rare target particle, and some only contain the more common DNA particle. The droplets with the rare target particle exhibit a special glow, which the machine measures and uses to create groups of positives and negatives. Complicated statistics and programs can be used to backtrack from the data collected; essentially, you can figure out what the starting distribution of the target particle must have been in order to have gotten to the current distribution. The numbers you get tell you how many copies of the target particle were present in any random sample.This is the automated droplet generator, which creates the tiny droplets used in digital PCR. Some of the droplets encase regular DNA particles, while some hold the special target particle. Sometimes, multiple target particles could be found in one single droplet, but that’s okay because the amount of glow measured by the other machine accounts for that possibility.We passed by this cool collection of a BUNCH of different kinds of buffers, which I learned about in AP Chem this year with Mr. Rushin. Buffers regulate the pH of a certain solution so that reaction can take place in the right environment. It was cool to see a connection to something that I had learned at school at the lab!
