An internship to explore ‘Plan B’

This is a guest blog by Jenette Seal, a student at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC). She is finishing a major in Pre-Veterinary/Pre-Professional major. This past semester, she was an intern for SMWC’s undergraduate genetics class.

My internship was not a typical experience.

Many people take an internship to get a better idea of the career field they are interested in and gain firsthand knowledge doing the daily tasks associated with a given job. This was not my motivation, however.

My career goal is to attend veterinary school and either practice medicine or conduct research, both sides of veterinary medicine with which I am already familiar and experienced. My back-up plan, however, was to enroll in a graduate program for genetics if vet school didn’t pan out. I have an interest in genetics and decided if Plan A (vet school) didn’t work, I would pursue Plan B, being a geneticist.

I knew about the main concepts of genetics, but another portion of the graduate program is working with the instructors and teaching undergrads, something I had limited experience in. With this in mind, as well as a desire to learn more about genetics in general, I did an internship with Dr. Joyce Cadwallader at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in the undergraduate Genetics class.

During the internship, I assisted the students with labs in which they used fruit flies and fast plants to determine the dominance and interactions of different genetic traits, as well as simulated experiments using GCK software. I got an in depth look at what it is like teaching a class by going over a given chapter in the genetic textbook, developing a PowerPoint presentation and instructing students for an hour-long class. In addition, I answered questions and helped the students understand concepts they were going over in class.

I gained a deeper respect for my professors by experiencing what they have to do for a class. I have a better understanding of many genetic concepts with real life applications, and I am even more comfortable with public speaking and presenting than I was before. Though I have been accepted into veterinary school, and my internship wasn’t about deciding if a potential career would be a good fit, my experiences have made me a better person, with an enlightened understanding of the academic career path.