Summer Exposure to Career Paths in Medicine

Four Eberly College of Science students were selected to participate in the Penn State College of Medicine M.D./Ph.D. Summer Exposure program, which aims to prepare students for career paths combining clinical medicine and research. The students—Kaleb Bogale, Jenna Mandel, Rhea Sullivan, and Andrew Tucker—are all Schreyer scholars and were four of the five students total selected for the program.

Each student was paired with a College of Medicine faculty member mentor in a biomedical laboratory for the summer, with the opportunity to shadow a physician in a weekly clinical exposure session.

Tucker was paired with Sean Stocker for lab work in cellular and molecular physiology and shadowed allergy, asthma, and immunology specialist physician Faoud Ishmael. Bogale worked in the lab of Steven Schiff in the Institute of Personalized Medicine and shadowed neurology physician Xuemei Huang. He was able to work on a collaborative project investigating neonatal sepsis in Uganda while shadowing Dr. Huang in his clinic, which focused on Parkinson’s disease.

“My summer research project pushed me to learn Python, a computer programming language, in order to identify various bacteria based on their genetic fragments in the blood and cerebral spinal fluid of neonates,” he said.

He feels his biology coursework adequately prepared him for this challenge. “This computational analysis was only possible with an understanding of molecular and cellular biology that I learned in classes like BIOL 110H with Dr. Steve Schaeffer and BIOL 230M with Dr. Kimberly Nelson.”

Mandel conducted lab research with Leslie Parent and shadowed physician Kathleen Julian, both experts in infectious disease. Infectious disease was a new area for her. “I had never been exposed to this field of medicine, and it was incredible to learn about several new infectious diseases every week and watch a well-regarded physician care for her patients with the utmost respect and expertise,” she said.

For Mandel, this experience was life changing: “I had not previously worked in a laboratory, so I was unsure of what to expect. At summer’s end, I left Hershey knowing how to work efficiently in a laboratory, and now understand the importance of quantitation and consistency.” She began an undergraduate research position in the lab of Melissa Rolls this fall as a result of her experiences. “Having this experience under my belt has provided the foundation for my future work in labs.”

Sullivan worked in Robert Levenson’s pharmacology lab while shadowing family and community medicine physician Dennis Gingrich. She learned many new techniques in Levenson’s neuropharmacology lab that she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to learn in the neurodevelopmental disease lab she works in at the University Park campus (she works in the lab of Santhosh Girirajan). “I was really excited to learn all these biochemical techniques because my laboratory back at UP doesn’t work with any of these techniques.”

The experience has been great for her as she considers a future career in medicine, either on the research or clinical sides…or both.

“Programs like these are vital to a student’s Penn State career because they offer direct experiences that influence a future career and focus. Before the program I was really sure that I loved science and molecular biology, but had no idea what to do with it. Because of the Penn State College of Medicine M.D./Ph.D. Summer Exposure program, I was able to see myself in three possible career paths—M.D., Ph.D., and M.D./Ph.D.—all in one summer.”