My Internship Experience at the Schmidt Lab: Science Research Initiative

Meah Phan

“Good things take time, and that’s what makes them worthwhile.” My professor’s statement takes me out of my daydreaming. It’s the last class of the semester, and the Science Research Initiative (SRI) team leads are about to send us off to the program’s second phase with their final reassurances. Before I say goodbye to my classmates for the last time, I jot my professor’s quote down in my notes for safekeeping.

Truthfully, I signed up for the SRI program on a complete whim, a week within the application’s due date and two weeks before my freshman year started, simply because my advisor told me that I should.

The program placed me in the Schmidt Lab in early November, and I officially started in the following February. There were many pathways for me to choose from, ranging from studying microbiology and animal genomics to biosynthesis and drug discovery. I decided on neuropathy and organic synthesis, which I was only somewhat familiar with at the time, to specifically synthesize molecules that would eventually create leads to treating chronic pain.

I’ve learned many technical skills in the several months I’ve spent in the lab, getting familiar with pipetting, basic chemical handling, taking proper notes, and using instruments that I’ve never seen before.

Although I did build up my proficiency in lab work, the most important thing I learned was to ask. If you’re confused, just ask. There were a lot of mistakes that could’ve been avoided if I had just taken the time to ask which chemical did what, or a reminder of how to do a specific technique ー worries about being a bother and looking stupid while setting progress back in the reaction had become some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy in many cases, and in my inward focus on my own anxieties. I hadn’t grasped the importance of truly understanding what I was learning.

It was never common for me in high school to be the most ignorant person in the room, and all of a sudden, I was surrounded by new people with years of far more knowledge and experience than I could ever dream about living up to. Despite that, sitting alongside my discomfort with unfamiliarity instead of fighting it allowed for a deeper understanding of what I actually wanted to gain out of the lab, and carve that experience out myself.

What you put into your internship will most likely be what you’ll get out of it. I still make mistakes in the lab (and it still happens more than I’d like it to), but it's easier to take it less personally each time, and I feel more self-assured with my abilities every day. I feel incredibly lucky and grateful to have this opportunity, and I would encourage anybody even remotely interested in research to try it out and give it a proper chance, even when it gets difficult. It’s all easier said than done, of course, but I don’t think I could’ve learned as much as I have if I hadn’t stuck with it as stubbornly as I did.

Good things take time, and that’s what makes them worthwhile.