Five of my weeks abroad was spent interning at Save the Children Jordan’s (SCJ) Department of Advocacy, Media, & Communications which was secured through SIT after a round of applications, cover letters, and interviews. I have really enjoyed my internship experience and it has shed light on a potential career path for me. At SCJ, I learned more about the services provided to impoverished Jordanians and Non-Jordanians living in Jordan as well as child protection services, a field that intrigues me the most. I can see myself coming back to Jordan after graduating from Rollins and really focus of bettering the lives of children, mainly since I want to ensure their safety and happiness.

                                                                                  This is a picture of me from my desk at Save the Children Jordan. It is taken from my Rollins Instagram takeover video.

My largest assignment was meeting with each program director in our office and reviewing 3-5 case study profiles from each director. This will be used to compile a final list of 10 case studies which will go on to be filmed by a professional as part of a video to celebrate Save the Children’s 100 year anniversary. Each case study focuses on a child beneficiary in Jordan and the success they’ve accomplished since gaining the resources from SCJ. There will be a mix of Jordanian and refugee beneficiaries in the final product released in the Fall.

                                                                              This image was taken by myself during a work field trip to the Zarqa Vocational Training Center which was sponsored by SCJ and the German BMZ. The event pictured is the conclusion of a young woman’s two-year training course for hairstyling and makeup application. At this event, employers observe and may hire them.

Out of this internship, I’d say the most significant gain I’ve had was strengthening my network through my fellow intern Hala and supervisor Layal as well as gain a perspective of post-college life. This experience has led me to pursue a graduate degree in Human Rights or Forced Migration studies with the goal of working within the UNHCR or other organizations that work directly with the populations they serve.

With the sponsorship of the SHIP Grant, I was able to attend a study abroad- internship in Amman Jordan this past summer. The program was through the School for International Training (SIT) and it was titled: Counseling & Humanitarian Action Internship in Amman, Jordan. The first two weeks of the program was spent learning about the causes of increased forced migration and asylum seekers in the region, especially the influx in Jordan as it is one of the stablest and safest countries in the region, as well as learning about how Jordan and international players are working to solve some of the problems that increased migration has caused, especially for those with UNHCR Refugee status. This period of classroom learning was joined with guest speakers from the UNHCR, members of Jordanian Parliament, and professors from the nearby universities as well as venturing out to the historically important locations throughout Jordan and to some of the organizations involved with refugees.

                Image of myself (black shirt) and friends from the SIT program while on an excursion to Ajloun, in the north of Jordan. In the picture, we are at the top of Ajloun Castle with the landscape of Syria behind us.

I was most interested in adaptations needed from the UNHCR for the specific type of refugees coming into Jordan and how their top priority was making sure the refugees are safe, healthy, and gaining a childhood education. Additionally, the transformation of the crisis was important: from a refugee crisis to a developmental crisis. The number of refugees entering Jordan has dwindled but the refugees present have stayed in Jordan for the past eight years without having access to employment and having limited access to housing and education. The UNHCR and worked with the Jordanian government in providing a number of employment licenses to Syrian refugees as well as incorporate non-profit school centers to help reach out to children.

                                                                          This picture shows myself in front of The Treasury in Petra during a southern excursion of Jordan. The Treasury is a UN World Heritage Site and is still home to some of the original inhabitants.

Blog 2: Research

My arrival at the lab was at the very start of a new mice model experiment the doctor and his post-doctoral researchers were beginning. Each of these experiments at this lab last a total of 26 weeks, so my time at the lab of 10 weeks was not sufficient to help them with that experiment in particular. Instead, in the lab, I was doing additional research to help back up their findings in their previous mice study which was researching the impact of a particular gut bacteria on the presence and progression of colorectal cancer. The first three weeks I was there, the post-doc researcher, Gar Yee, helped teach me the lab protocol, but she moved to work at the University of Florida on the fourth week and I learned independently from then on.

My lab space I worked in while in Boston. The grey incubator on the left housed my cells and the fridge on the right housed reagents and solutions needed for experiments.

During my time, I gained experience independently in cell culture assays, growing and splitting colorectal cancer cells and hTLR-4 cells, along with PCR analysis, ELISA assays, Caspase-3 assays, TLR-4 activation assays, as well as assisting with Western Blot analysis, immunohistochemistry, and TGF-beta activation assays. Additionally, my analysis of TLR-4 activation led to a partnership in which I analyzed samples from a lab at Northeastern University to help identify the effects of certain bacteria on cell lines. My time at the USDA HRNCA was also supplemented with visits to 2 conferences and multiple speakers to heard about advancements in nutritional and cancer research, as well as to see my boss present on his findings at our lab. The experiments I learned and knowledge I gained during this experience was an excellent addition to my curriculum at Rollins and will aid my future lab work in Biology and Biochemistry practices.

Blog 1: Commuting   

My time spent in Boston this summer began with a long road trip from Apopka to Danvers, Massachusetts. I was going to be staying in Boston for two months, so my Dad and I thought it would be important to have my car with me to get around. There, I lived with my grandparents to conserve money I would have been using to rent an apartment. My internship itself was downtown near Chinatown, next door to Tufts Medical Center. To get there each morning, I drove to the local train station in Salem, took a 35-minute train to North Station (TD Garden in Boston), and took the orange line on the subway to get to the laboratory. I really enjoyed my commute, but it wasn’t very affordable. However, it was more affordable than driving each day.

My sterile hood which I worked under during my experiments. This was during one of my TLR-4 activation analyses with over 80 samples I had to load into a 96 well plate.

In July, the MBTA (transportation in and around Boston) increased the prices of my tickets by $20, and I decided I did not want to use the commuter rail anymore. Instead, I now drove about 35 minutes each morning to the nearest subway stop in Oak Grove and took the orange line to work. My boss at the laboratory decided that he wanted me to stay a few extra days for my research and I ended up working until July 26^th. That day, I had my boyfriend fly up to Boston to accompany me on my road trip home. After 6 days on the road and some nice stops on the way back, we’ve finally made it back to Orlando, and just in time for RLE training!