Learning and growing: a second time around
July 9, 2023
This summer marks the second time I have come to the Fox Chase Cancer Center as an Empower fellow. Last year I was one of four students, but this year I am one of twelve. Although my experience last year bonding with three other like-minded students was very rewarding, there are plenty of advantages that come from having a larger fellow class. Before the summer even started, we had a welcome/get to know each other event in Newark where fellows were introduced to each other and to Tom Hoffman, whose support has been instrumental to the fellowship’s success. There I was excited to learn how diverse all of our backgrounds were. From rising sophomores to recent college graduates, from neuroscience and psychology to chemistry majors, we all had different perspectives and expertise to bring to the table. One thing that united us all: we were all eager to listen to what we each had to say, and we were all eager to learn from each other.
A few weeks later, the summer internship officially began by completing the Foundations in Cancer Research bootcamp. This signature training phase allows all fellows to be exposed to basic laboratory procedures that they will likely encounter throughout their time at the Center, either in their labs, or at research talks, symposiums, or journal club readings. This is personally one of my favorite parts of the program given that we are given the freedom to conduct our own experiments and fill our own reports while being under constant supervision at the same time. This creates an ideal learning environment where students take responsibility for their learning while also being provided the guidance that they need to succeed. This year I received a welcomed refresher on how to make solutions, measuring quantities, pipetting, among other important skills. I also got to read research papers written by some of my co-fellow’s PIs. This allowed me to expand my science literacy while also learning about the work that my friends will be doing throughout the summer. Finally, since I am a returning fellow, I was given the chance to present my research findings from last year which was very rewarding.
After the training was over, I got to reunite with everyone at Dr. Erin Tagai’s lab, who is my PI and whom I with worked last summer. I was glad to see everyone, and I was happy that everyone remembered me from last year. I also got to meet a fellow undergraduate researcher from Temple and a medical student from Lewis Katz's School of Medicine, both of whom are new this year.
This time around, I continued to work on prostate cancer research, but the project is different from last year. While I previously did work on low-risk prostate cancer, I am now doing work on high-risk locally advanced prostate cancer. What unites the two projects is that both projects focus on better understanding our patients and the way they navigate their diagnoses and treatment options. This new project focuses on socioeconomic factors that impact outcomes and mortality and uses geo-mapping to identify specific communities in the state of Pennsylvania who are most at risk of developing aggressive prostate cancer.