Congratulations to the 96 students who displayed posters in NEOMED’s largest-ever Poster Day, held Monday, Aug. 19, in the NEW Center Ballroom.
Through the Summer Research Fellowship Program at NEOMED, medicine or pharmacy students gain intensive training in research procedures by working (often side by side) with research mentors. The program culminates each year in the Poster Day event.
Over the lunch hour many of the participants could be found by their projects, talking with faculty members and interested fellow students or staff who stopped by to chat and learn more.
Alyssa McIntire (pictured above), a third-year College of Pharmacy student who spent the summer working on Parkinson’s research with Sheila Fleming, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences (left in photo), and William Chilian, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Integrative Medical Sciences, said she was attracted to the summer opportunity because of the chance to start a project from the ground up.
The work was so interesting that she hopes to continue part-time during the school year, McIntire said.
Summer options
Many of the 96 participants had completed NEOMED’s Summer Research Fellowship Program, in which they were matched with NEOMED researchers and paid a stipend for their work. Others had completed internships or programs elsewhere in Ohio, as well as institutions including the National Cancer Institute, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Harvard University.
Summer Preceptorship
Yet another group displaying posters at the event represented participants in the Leroy Rogers Summer Preceptorship Program of the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians. Students were paired with family physicians whose routines they got to know as they shadowed them and took on responsibilities over the summer. One such participant was Jonathan Seok, a second-year College of Medicine student and student representative on the NEOMED Board of Trustees who worked at Jackson Family Practice in Canton, Ohio.
Another was Salam Osman, a second-year College of Medicine student who – with the oversight of preceptor Deborah Plate, D.O. – created an educational flyer on the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. Osman later shared the flyer with the SOAR Student-Run Free Clinic, in hopes that NEOMED students might present it to patients at their Saturday clinics.
A tradition of research
Student projects in the Summer Research Fellowship Program are funded by the Office of Research & Sponsored Programs, under the direction of Steven P. Schmidt, Ph.D., vice president for research and dean of the College of Graduate Studies.
Read more about summer research opportunities. Deadlines for next summer’s events will be posted on the website.