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By:Amber Troy
Today is the day! The KEYS internship
has begun. Students are standing wide eyed, sweaty
palmed, curious and unsure of what to expect in the
days to come. They are thinking about labs, they
may be afraid to ask questions but are dying to know.
Yet, they needn’t worry but be excited! They’ve
got great knowledge to gain and mentors around to
support them. Mon-Ning Fung, a valuable member of
the KEYS Crew, along with Shiana, Greg, Kristopher,
and Daniel, is ready and willing to take interns
under her wing.
The KEYS crew is a group of former
interns of the KEYS Summer Internship who would like
to help mentor
the students on a more social level. “We're
kind of like the back support of the program,” said
Mon Ning, “I’m someone that the interns
can lean on if they feel hesitant or worried about
what to do next.”
Mon- Ning has been with the KEYS program since
the beginning in 2007. So this is not her first
rodeo.
She is excited to help the students make connections
with other interns and with each other. Connections
may seem like small dice with all the goings on
in the labs, but that’s not the case. “The
connections that students make in this program with
their PIs, lab mentors, KEYS personnel, and their
peers can last a life time,” explains Mon-
Ning, “What students take out of their KEYS
experience is solely up to their willingness to
accept the tools and resources that are given them.”
Students will learn more than how to connect as
well. The hands-on work is what gets everyone excited. “When
students look at this program, they should expect
to learn how to think like a scientist. During
the first week of the program, students will be
shown
different biotechnology techniques that they might
encounter in the lab by Dr. Nadja
Anderson.
She is the director of the BIOTECH Project in the
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at
the University of Arizona.
Students this year will also be learning professionalism
through several communication workshops that have
been set up in collaboration with Eller School of
Business. These workshops will teach the students
how to give presentations, how to speak effectively
in a professional manner, and how to act in a professional
setting. Students will be growing up fast thins summer,
learning, thinking, and connecting.
One important thing for the students to remember
is remain open minded. Mon Ning recalls one of
her first lab experiences. “When I was an
intern, I had the pleasure of working in Dr Orbach's
lab
back in the Marley building. His lab focuses on
plant pathology especially in the areas or rice
infection
and disease and Valley Fever. I actually didn't
want to deal with plants, it was the last thing
that I
would prefer to do. I decided to be open to the
experience. I have to say that the knowledge, the
techniques,
and the people that I met in that lab will always
be a part of my life. I thoroughly enjoyed my time
through the internship and I would never ask to
change a thing.”
The students involved in this years
KEYS experience shouldn’t want to change a thing either. As
long as the focus is on learning and growing the
experience will be more than beneficial. And with
leaders like Mon- Ning no one need be nervous. Be
excited! Mon- Ning is. Aren’t you?
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