Congratulations to the 2017 CRISSP Scholars! Roll over each student's image to read about their CRISSP experience.
"PCR, gel electrophoresis, and sequences analysis are some of the techniques I learned during the course of the summer."
Atm Roseline Atchori
School: Community College of Philadelphia
Mentor: Ian Krantz, MD
"The physicians I shadowed and interviewed made me feel welcome and gave me great insight into a career in pediatric medicine."
Michelle Avila Mejia
School: Community College of Philadelphia
Mentor: Sandra Amaral, MD, MHS
"I enjoyed being able to see what my life may one day be like as a clinical psychologist."
Simone Boyd
School: Stony Brook University
Mentor: Rhonda Boyd, PhD
"The environment, my CRISSP peers, the support network, and let us not forget, the surgeries!"
Amy Cao
School: Community College of Philadelphia
Mentor: Kristin Feemster, MD, MPH, MSHP
"I learned to use statistical software to write and run code, an area of analytical scientific expertise I came to CRISSP not knowing at all."
Emily Coffin
School: Pomona College
Mentor: Alex Fiks, MD, MSCE
"I learned how to conduct cell cultures, cell fractionation assays, gel electrophoresis, western blots, lowry assays, and protein extraction from C. elegans."
Katherine Copenhaver
School: Davidson College
Mentor: Marni Falk, MD
"CHOP’s culture of innovation motivated by patient care that seems to permeate through every department."
Mahima Devarajan
School: Case Western Reserve University
Mentor: Daniel Licht, MD
"I honed in on skills like running PCR gels, cell culture, Sanger sequencing, and transfection while becoming more adept at utilizing CRISPR technology."
Vishal Dhruva
School: University of California, Berkeley
Mentor: Kai Tan, PhD
"After shadowing I realized that social and emotional intelligence are just as important in being a good physician as knowing the science."
Rachel G.
School: Williams College
Mentor: Christina Szperka, MD
"Having the opportunity to shadow almost any sub-specialty within pediatrics and learning from the physicians at CHOP."
Karina Grullon-Perez
School: The Pennsylvania State University
Mentor: Elizabeth Lowenthal, MD, MSCE
"Conducting recruitment calls gave me practice consenting participants for a study."
Indira Joell
School: Ursinus College
Mentor: Lamia Barakat, PhD and Chavis Patterson, PhD
"I am impressed by how collaborative the atmosphere among researchers is here at CHOP."
Lillian Jones
School: Georgetown University
Mentor: Ron Rubenstein, MD, PhD
"From observing surgeries to gaining insight from a number of physicians doing research, I feel very blessed to have so many resources and opportunities."
Zachary Jones
School: University of Delaware
Mentor: Andrew Bauer, MD
"I was blindsided by the warmth and positivity that so predominates the atmosphere here at CHOP."
Alexandra Krstic
School: Williams College
Mentor: Yael Mosse, MD
"I have truly enjoyed building relationships in various communities – including in my lab, department, and fellow CRISSP scholars."
Patrick Lundgren
School: University of Cambridge
Mentor: Paula Oliver, PhD
"I learned a whole side of excel I never knew existed until I was handed a data table with 8000 observations."
Elle MacAlpine
School: Dartmouth College
Mentor: Todd Lawrence, MD, PhD
"I learned cell culture, Western blotting, histone purification, salt fractionation, and proteomic mass spectrometry."
Tyler Miller
School: Virginia Tech
Mentor: Matthew Weitzman, PhD
"Being able to shadow and chat with various specialists was incredibly insightful."
Jenny Raman
School: University of Texas at Dallas
Mentor: Fran Balamuth, MD, PhD
"The research skill that I value most of all is the ability to feel comfortable working independently in a lab."
Brenna Remick
School: Cornell University
Mentor: Rodney Camire, PhD
"This summer challenged me to learn not only the protocol of but also the reasoning behind ATAC-sequencing."
Hannah Sans
School: University of California, Berkeley
Mentor: Rebecca Simmons, MD
"From clinical research on autism to psychological evaluations at the emergency department, it was exciting to see different career trajectories."
Hannah Smilansky
School: Vanderbilt University
Mentor: Judith Miller, PhD
"Getting to work with my mentor in a way that has fostered independence yet still knowing when to ask for help."
Jeremy Tuttle
School: Temple University
Mentor: William Peranteau, MD
"Until you are living it every day, you don’t realize how fundamental error is to research, how absolutely acceptable it is to admit failure, but never defeat."
Julie Uchitel
School: Duke University
Mentor: Eric Marsh, MD, PhD
"From witnessing great advances in policymaking, writing and publishing, advancing biotech, and much more, I’ve come to realize, medicine opens doors, not closes them."
Katherine Wang
School: Princeton University
Mentor: Adam Resnick, PhD
"There are many different paths to becoming a researcher, physician or both, and in many cases, the path isn’t straight but you learn a lot along the way!"
Ashley Zhou
School: Williams College
Mentor: Struan Grant, PhD