May 7, 2018 | Internships
Brandon Moritz with the translators he worked with in Haiti
Brandon Moritz is a biomedical engineering student at the University of Arkansas. During the summer of 2017, he spent three months as a Medical Intern with Mission of Hope, Haiti. Below, he describes the experience and discusses what he learned:
This past summer I had the opportunity to live and serve in Haiti for three months. I was hired as a Medical Intern with Mission of Hope, Haiti to assist with operations and execution of their healthcare system in the region. Along with other Medical Interns and our Mobile Medical Clinic Director, Lauren Raschke, we led doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals from all over North America in providing healthcare to 18 different villages in our region of Haiti. We saw 5,400 people in the region through mobile clinics alone during my time there.
Moritz working in the pharmacy during a mobile clinic
I also was able to use my biomedical engineering knowledge to assist our Haitian prosthetist in the Prosthetics of Hope lab. Some men and women came in who still hadn’t walked since the devastating earthquake that occurred back in 2010 that cost them their leg, but some of my most rewarding work came from seeing people who hadn’t walked in years be able to take their first steps without the assistance of a crutch for the first time.
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Apr 6, 2018 | Internships
Megan in front of the Sydney Opera House
Megan Davidian is a sophomore from Fayetteville, Arkansas majoring in biomedical engineering. She is currently studying abroad on a Gilman Scholarship at the University of Technology Sydney. Below, she discusses the scholarship application process and what she’s been up to in Australia so far.
Since I am from Fayetteville, the University of Arkansas was in my backyard and it was the only school I applied to. I knew during my first semester here that I wanted to study abroad in Australia, and while researching programs I found out about the Gilman Scholarship—I came across it on the study abroad website.
In general, just applying and figuring out what classes I would take (and if I would be able to get credit for them) was a long and complicated process. I didn’t know for sure that I would be able to attend an Australian university and get transfer credit until August of my sophomore year. Once I got the final approval, it was time to apply for the Gilman Scholarship—I started the application process in September and it was due October 10th. While I found the application process very stressful, the study abroad office and Dr. Bryan Hill were happy to help and answer any questions I had.
While many of the questions on the application were straightforward, there was one multipart essay that required you to answer various questions about what you are studying, why you want to study abroad, how studying abroad will help you, and what challenges you have faced coming to this decision. Though writing this essay felt terrifying at first, I learned that once you start answering the questions in bullet form it becomes much easier to then figure out how to put them together as a coherent whole. In the future, I would recommend that anybody applying for the Gilman or other similar scholarships use the University’s Writing Support center. If it wasn’t for the gentleman there who helped me to better organize my essay and to provide stronger examples within it, I don’t think I would have received this scholarship.
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Jul 25, 2017 | Internships
Wagle with his university medical class (left) and at El Hospital General Al Norte in Puebla, Mexico (right).
Saurabh Wagle is an undergraduate majoring in premed and biomedical engineering at the University of Arkansas. This past summer, he spent five weeks studying health care in Puebla, Mexico by by taking classes in Spanish medical terminology and shadowing at local hospitals. Below, he reports on his experience:
Studying abroad for the first time was an extremely nerve-wracking, yet exciting experience that I will never forget. As soon as I entered my terminal and saw my friends, I knew that this study abroad experience would be truly special. During the plane rides, I kept thinking about how all of the Spanish classes that I had taken and all of the times that I had practiced speaking in Spanish had finally come to this. In the end, it was simply incredible to have the opportunity to become fully immersed in a different culture and to be able to navigate through the city of Puebla using the Spanish speaking skills that I had previously acquired.
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Feb 17, 2017 | Internships
Perez imaging with the confocal microscope
Jessica Perez is a master’s student in biomedical engineering here at the U of A. As part of a year abroad, she’s been given the opportunity to do research training at the Harefield Heart Science Centre, located in northwest London. Below, she reports on her experience:
My name is Jessica Perez, and I am currently a master’s student in the Biomedical Engineering Department with Dr. Kartik Balachandran as my graduate advisor. I had done undergraduate research with Dr. B when I was pursuing my Bachelor’s in Biomedical Engineering, and when I decided to do my master’s degree at the University of Arkansas, he took me on as one of his graduate students. However, this semester I have taken a break from schoolwork, and I am currently doing research training at Harefield Heart Science Centre in a little village in Northwest London.
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Dec 1, 2016 | Internships
Abby Terlouw is an undergraduate studying biomedical engineering here at the U of A. This past summer, she had the opportunity to participate in the Harvard Summer Research Program in Kidney Medicine, a program supported by a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Disorders (NIDDK). Below, she reports on her experience:
The summer following my junior year, I had the opportunity to perform research at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) as part of the Harvard Summer Research Program in Kidney Medicine. This program partners undergraduate students with research labs in Boston’s four major hospitals—Massachusetts General, Brigham and Women’s, Boston Children’s, and Beth Israel Deaconess—to study various aspects of kidney medicine for eight weeks. I was paired with Dr. Dennis Brown to research how the protein aquaporin-2 (AQP2) is trafficked throughout kidney principal cells under the influence of two drugs: chlorpromazine and dasatinib. AQP2 is responsible for concentrating urine and maintaining water balance in the body. In a condition known as nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI), patients are unable to concentrate urine resulting in severe dehydration and excessively diluted urine. A typical adult should produce one to two liters of urine each day. Patients with NDI can produce upwards of ten to twelve liters of urine per day. NDI can be caused by genetic factors or induced by lithium, a common medication to treat bipolar disorder. By better understanding how AQP2 is trafficked throughout cells, we hope to create new therapies to treat NDI.
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Sep 26, 2016 | Internships
Grace Bagabe is an undergraduate student studying biomedical engineering here at the U of A. This past summer, she had the opportunity to participate in Engineering World Health’s Summer Institute, which was held this year in Rwanda. Below, she reports on her experience:
I had the opportunity of participating in a summer program in Rwanda known as the Summer Institute with Engineering World Health. I was with 18 other students from different universities all around the US, namely Texas A&M, Duke, Rice University, among others. This was a 2-month internship, where we spent the first month doing language and technical training and the second month repairing medical equipment in local hospitals. The students were required to learn French and Kinyarwanda which are two of the three national languages of Rwanda. During the language training I mostly assisted the teacher and helped my peers since I already speak the languages.
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