Student Experiences

Summer Research Training Program

Submitted by Rachael Lahar, University of Illinois

The day I started working in a lab, I entered another world. A vast area of veterinary medicine that I was unfamiliar with. When I was accepted for the Summer Research Training Program, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I just applied because I was interested in research and wanted to learn more. 

From the very first day, loads of information was presented to me. The week before I started in the lab, the other veterinary students and I had an orientation with presentations and speakers on various topics from scientific writing to lab animal medicine and more. 

When the day came for me to start in the lab, I couldn’t deny the nerves I felt churning in my stomach. On arrival, I was swept up in the project I would be working on for the next two months with Cryptosporidium parvum. The procedures, the various terminology, and the equipment in the lab felt like a whole new language and culture. 

Day by day, with the help of my mentor and the Ph.D. student I was working under, I acclimated. Quickly the lab became like a second home. If I never would have applied for this opportunity, I never would have been introduced to this other side of veterinary medicine. These last two months have been a wonderful whirlwind; I only wish I had more time to work in the lab. Then again who knows where my future may lead.