Chemistry and Biochemistry News

Biochemistry major Aanchal Deol is completing her intership at JVS Rehabilitation as a Physical Therapy Technician who helps with basic exercises, heat, ice, and electrical-stimulation set up. She is learning about all aspects of a Physical Therapy office including the front-desk and customer service side by also answering the phone, scheduling patients, and verifying insurance information. One thing that Aanchal was surprised to learn about was all the precautions physical therapists take to avoid lawsuits and the scope of what Physical Therapy Assistants and Technicians can and cannot do. For example, she isn’t permitted to do something as simple as walk a patient to their car after dark. This is because if they fall, the Physical Therapy techs are not certified to handle that situation. She has valued the whole experience as allowing her to see another aspect of healthcare, and it has shown her that she prefers an office setting to a hospital setting.

Biochemistry major Darah Araheem-Waters is conducting a research capstone internship with SU Chemistry and Biochemistry faculty member, Dr. Dawn Ward. She is performing organic synthesis with the goal of synthesizing a potential Hepatitis C inhibitor that is more flexible than HCV inhibitor UK-1 and its analogs. She feels very prepared for research as she quickly realized throughout the first 6 weeks that most of the lab skills required for synthesis reactions are a review of what was learned in previous courses. This experience has helped Darah realize that she loves working in a laboratory setting and that research is definitely something she’d like to do as a career.

Biochemistry major Y Luu completed her internship at Lauring Dermatology, where she learned about many different skin diagnoses, and all the different treatment plans and cosmetic procedures done in the office. This internship was pivotal in Y’s career decisions. She sees that as a physician, there is so much energy that is put into the work every single day, and that they rely on their care team to be successful. She notes that physicians “must be energetic, caring, and charming 24/7”. Y’s goal is to help people, but after her experiences shadowing pharmacists, doctors, and physician assistants, she may reconsider medical school. This is why the internship experience is so valuable for Stevenson students; they can have a small taste of what different careers are like, before committing fully to that path.

Biochemistry senior Ethan O’Brien (pictured, third from right) along with classmates Drew Powell and Nate Nash and other members of the SU Chapter of the American Chemical Society, organized an event to benefit the St. Baldrick’s Organization which funds research to fight childhood cancer. Ethan says:

“St. Baldrick’s has been apart of my life for a long time. I started shaving my head when I was in elementary school in Brigantine NJ. I shaved my head every year up until my sophomore year of high school where I began to host my own event under the name “Be the Change in Childhood Cancer”. According to the foundation’s website, there are more children that pass away each year in the US to cancer than any othger disease and many diseases combined. Therefore, events like these are designed to raise money and hopefully decrease statistics such as that one.”

Ethan adds that since he has started hosting his own fundraising events, he has raised a total amount of $4,856 for St. Baldrick’s, and if you see him, he is once again sporting a bald head.

Maryam Al Naseri interned at MedStar Physical Therapy, where she worked with licensed physical therapists, clinical assistants, orthopedic surgeons, and administration staff. Her duties consisted of guiding patients through different excersizes, and maintaining the cleanliness and order of the clinic. Maryam was surprised to learn that there are different exercise programs and procedures for different patients who have had the same surgery or injury, and that the care is really individualized. She has improved her ability to multitask, while working with multiple patients simultaneously. She has learned what an orthopedic surgeon does and what post-surgery procedures follow an injury. She has really mastered her human anatomy as well, which “will help tremendously in medical school”. Maryam’s dream is to become a doctor, although she is still unsure of specialty, she is leaning towards sports medicine or orthopedics.