Author Archives: Christian Zavisca

A Postcard From: Xinyi Wang ’19

Posted on by

Name: Xinyi Wang
Class Year: 2019
Major: Mathematics and Computer Science
Hometown: China

Internship Placement: REU CAAR (Research Experience for Undergraduate Student, Combinatorics and Algorithms for Real Problems) at University of Maryland
Job Title: Student Researcher
Location: College Park, Md.

What’s happening at your internship?

The research problem that I am working on is Adversarial Patch Attack on Deep Neural Network. Briefly speaking, we are trying to design a patch that Person A can wear to fool the facial recognition system to make it wrongly think that it is Person B.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I hope to gain some research experience to decide whether to apply to graduate school, and deep learning is a field that I am interested in.

What has been your favorite part of this internship?

Collaborating with my teammates.

Can you give us three adjectives and three nouns that describe your internship experience?

  • Collaborative
  • Inspiring
  • Interesting
  • Research
  • Computer Science
  • Mentorship

 

A Postcard From: Gwen Vandivere ’20

Posted on by

Name: Gwen Vandivere
Class Year: 2020
Major: Philosophy
Hometown: Lewisburg 

Internship Placement: Springboard Collaborative
Job Title: Intern
Location: Philadelphia

What’s happening at your internship? 

Springboard is a nonprofit focused on closing the literacy gap in American schools. They engage students, teachers, and families in a five-week summer program and an afterschool program during the school year. My internship allowed me to explore different roles in the office such as; HR, sales, operations management, and surveys and data collection. I also got to work with and observe teachers at participating schools while they worked with their scholars during the summer programing.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I applied for this internship because I wanted to work with children but also have the opportunity to build skills in an office environment.

What has been your favorite part of this internship?

My favorite part about this internship was being exposed to the conditions in various Philadelphia schools and getting to make connections with students as they learned to read.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced at your internship?

The hardest part about the internship was fighting boredom; there were days when I had nothing to do for hours. In the beginning it was hard to create things for myself because I was unfamiliar with the things that needed to be done.

Was this internship what you expected it to be?

No, not completely. I knew it would be a new experience for me and I would come out of It having learned and grown. But I did not expect it to be both extremely boring some days and very motivating others. I also thought I’d be doing less important things, but I had a big role in the summer process.

A Postcard From: Jessica Tharaud ’20

Posted on by

Name: Jessica Tharaud
Class Year: 2020
Major: Psychology and Spanish
Hometown: Newton, Mass.

Internship Placement: Harvard Study of Adult Development at Massachusetts General Hospital
Job Title: Research Assistant
Location: Boston

What’s happening at your internship?

This summer, I have been working at the Harvard Study of Adult Development, an incredible longitudinal study that has followed the lives of 268 Harvard undergraduates and another group of 456 men from Boston for the past 75 years. Because of the massive amount of material accumulated over that length of time, my main project this summer has been creating a spreadsheet listing all of the documents for each participant. I also check the files for any missing documents, update the tables of contents to resolve discrepancies, and digitize documents to make sure that all of the data is accessible. Additionally, I enter and verify data on health and aging from questionnaires between 1981 and 2010 and help with other tasks as needed.

Why did you apply for this internship?

During the academic year, I began working with the study through the lab of Professor Marc Schulz, who is also the Associate Director of the Harvard Study. Professor Schulz put me in contact with the researchers in Boston and helped me obtain the position. Since my introduction to the study, I have gained so much appreciation and passion for its unique contributions to psychology. These men entrusted the Harvard Study with the details of their lives, and the opportunity to be a part of that is one of a kind.

What has been your favorite part of this internship?

My favorite part of this internship so far has been shadowing one of the lab visits of the second generation of participants. At Bryn Mawr, I knew of the lab visits and had examined some of the data. But actually being in the room and meeting a participant as they willingly go through tasks is such a qualitatively different experience. Research often seems impersonal when it becomes numbers on a computer screen, and simply having witnessed the process gives me a new perspective on what data represents.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced at your internship?

The biggest challenge so far for me has been pacing myself and having to re-evaluate my project. I want to be productive and contribute, but allowing myself to slow down and take breaks actually improves my work and prevents me from burning out. When I began cataloguing the files, the intention of the project was to simply provide a resource so that researchers could quickly examine the availability of data across all participants. However, I quickly realized that the table of contents in each folder was not always accurate and a much smaller project grew into delving into the files for missing documents, fixing the table of contents, and digitizing documents. Learning each new step involved requires an adjustment, but taking on this bigger challenge has ultimately been more beneficial and rewarding.

A Postcard From: Shayra Banta ’19

Posted on by

Name: Shayra Banta
Class Year: 2019
Major: Psychology and International Studies
Hometown: Mumbai, India

Internship Placement: Energy Vision
Job Title: Summer Associate
Location: New York City

What’s happening at your internship? 

There are constantly different projects and assignments being tackled at a given time in the office. The previous week, Energy Vision was hosting a “Power of Waste” workshop for 100-plus people and we were all preoccupied with the agenda for that. It took place on the 6th of June and was a day filled with panel discussions from leaders in the field, and interacting with various interested government, private and nonprofit institutions. Since then, I have been focused on research regarding their upcoming comparative report on the alternative fuels available to end the diesel era. For this research, I have been searching the internet, doing conference calls with various project consultants across the U.S. and sending emails to affiliated companies trying to source as much information as I can. We are supposed to reconvene early next week to figure out the next few steps in the process.

Why did you apply for this internship?

During my semester abroad in Milan I had taken a sustainability class that caught my attention. I have always been interested in energy but never had prior exposure or sufficient knowledge in the area. Energy Vision seemed like the perfect amalgamation of collaboration on comparative analysis reports and autonomy in exploring your ideas regarding the next change you want to see. It is a think tank based in New York and it involves influencing decision makers to advance sustainable energy and transportation solutions through targeted research, education, outreach and engagement. Its mission and operational style tied back to my International Studies major and seemed like an interesting path for me to explore.

Living in a new city? What has that experience been like for you?

I have always loved exploring a new city. It was a big factor in coming for college to Bryn Mawr from Mumbai, and then deciding on studying abroad in Milan my junior fall. New York has been fairly easy to navigate and being so cosmopolitan I always have family and friends around.

As many times as I had visited, living here is a totally different experience. I had heard of how fast, evolving, and dynamic the city was — but that’s how I like to think of myself. I enjoy having established my routine coffee shop around the corner from work, and knowing how to navigate the initially daunting Trader Joe’s aisles every Sunday while getting the week’s supplies. It is slowly but steadily starting to feel familiar and I’m really excited to get to call another place home.

What are three adjectives and three nouns that describe your internship experience?

Adjectives — curious, insightful, appreciated
Nouns — team, understanding, support