Hey! My name is Grace and I’m the VP External for SIMS. I am a second-year Honours BHSc Biomedical Sciences student. I love to bake, watch shows and movies, and hang out with my cat whenever I can.
I was lucky enough to be able to participate in research right after my first year and to be honest, I didn’t expect to actually get the opportunity! Most students reach out to professors/doctors in October/November, and I didn’t until January. If you’re worried about reaching out too late, I guess I can tell you from personal experience, better late than never! You never know what could happen! I got two interviews, one in paediatric rheumatology and the other in genetic Parkinson’s disease. In the end, I actually got to choose between the two research opportunities, which I didn’t expect either! I was super interested in both, however I ended up picking the project in genetic Parkinson’s as it was a wet lab opportunity, and the paediatric project was a dry lab. I wanted to get hands-on experience within a wet lab, and I'm glad I did!
Although COVID-19 seriously impacted all our lives and the research project, I was still able to continue on with my studentship. I spent the first few months working from home with literature review, and in the summer months got to go into the lab after completing all my training. I got hands-on experience with maintaining my own embryonic fibroblast cell cultures and got to see the work with mouse models being done in the lab. I got to do western blots and observe all kinds of experiments going on within the lab. At first, I was so intimidated by everything. From the instruments to the level of detail to the fact that there were 6 fridges full of different chemicals, everything was just extremely daunting and I kept feeling as if I would mess something up. I actually spilt the acrylamide gel while preparing my first western blot, which is a big no-no as it is highly cytotoxic before it polymerizes and thickens. But it’s all part of the learning right? By the end of my time at the lab in October, I had gained so much experience that all the initial fear was absolutely worth it! I am forever grateful to the Park Lab at Hotchkiss for taking me in as a summer student. Especially since I spilt toxic gel everywhere :)
This year I’m hoping to get research experience in the social side of healthcare and medicine. I’m currently looking into psychosocial projects, and this time around I made sure to reach out earlier rather than later. For anyone interested in research, make sure you go for it and reach out to projects you’re interested in! It can seem so scary at first but I promise it’s worth it! Even with the ongoing pandemic, research can still be an amazing experience. Good luck!
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