Student Perspectives
Program Observations
by Melissa Reimer, 2008-2009 Bridges Participant
This program has been a great experience so far. I am very grateful to Dr. Walker and Dr. Smith for granting me this opportunity. I feel very privileged to be around so many talented, brilliant people in the lab everyday. Dr. Walker’s PhD students are all such wonderful people and very helpful. I am very thankful to my mentor Berat who has helped me feel comfortable working in a lab setting. Everyday has been exciting. It’s really nice to be able to learn while working and experiencing the research atmosphere. Another aspect that has made lab so much fun is working with Karynn. It makes lab seem less intimidating being able to work with someone who is also new to the lab.
I started off as a Business major. It wasn’t until I was practically finished with my business transfer classes that I realized I enjoyed life science classes more. I started taking science classes for fun while finishing the last of my business transfer classes. When I realized I was putting more effort into my science classes and enjoying studying for those classes more than business I decided to switch my major to Biology. I still wasn’t quite sure if this was the right path for me, but after the experience I’ve had so far this summer, being an intern in Dr. Walker’s lab, I know this is the path I would like to pursue even if it does take me longer than it would to merely complete my Business degree.
My first passion is horses. I’ve been riding off and on since I was ten years old. I started with Dressage. When I was thirteen I rode racehorses and then went back to Dressage when I was fifteen. I went on Independent Study for my last two years of high school so I could be an assistant to my Dressage trainer during the day and study at night. When I was seventeen my mom asked if I would prefer her help with financing a UC education or instead attend a junior college while she helped buy my first horse. I chose the horse. That’s when she gave me my greatest gift, Harley, a dark bay Thoroughbred. He wasn’t the fanciest Dressage mover, but he was mine. Harley and I have had some great times together. I’ve enjoyed being apart of his training and showing him. Unfortunately, I can no longer ride Harley due to a soundness issue, which I have been trying to heal. I now have another horse, Sierra. At the beginning of this summer my trainer and the ranch owner, where I board Harley, bought me a wild baby Mustang. While trying to help Harley I also get to work with Sierra who’s already pretty tame.
After loosing my mom, who was my biggest supporter and best friend, to cancer in my first year of college, I began to look for a place to fit in. I was fortunate to be accepted into the British Columbia College of Equine Therapy, where I recently graduated from this past May. During my enrollment at BCCET I concurrently took business classes at RCC and began to switch my major to Biology. My experience at BCCET was definitely what I needed in my life at the time, especially since that was when Harley started developing his soundness problems. Luckily, using the knowledge I gained at BCCET I’ve been able to help Harley tremendously. Maybe someday I’ll get to ride him again. At least I have Sierra to carry new dreams and hopes. My time at BCCET coincided with my growing interest in science. I thought that an associate’s degree in business and being able to practice equine therapy would be enough. Now I feel going for a Masters and perhaps a PhD in Molecular Biology while still pursuing a career with equine therapy, rehabilitating horses, is a better fit for me.
I am very lucky to have such wonderful people helping me, not just the people in Dr. Walker’s lab, but many people in MSRIP and other professors I have taken classes with at RCC such as Mr. Burchett who’s Biology class peeked my interest in this field of study. I am very happy to be where I am even if it seems it has taken me longer than planned to find a field of study to pursue. I have no regrets and just want to continue having new experiences and being apart of as many things as I can. This program has certainly been a great start. I hope to continue pursuing science and hopefully one day I can give something back to the science community.
Report on Attending the Hispanic Serving Institutions Student Leadership Conference in Washington, DC (January 2008)
by Juan Lucio
The word leader has many definitions but the one that stands out the most to me is “someone who directs a course or a direction”. To me it has a significant meaning. This past month I was chosen for the Hispanic Serving Institution's Student Leadership Conference in Washington D.C. sponsored by the USDA. Only fifteen students were chosen from around the nation to represent their institution and respective projects. I was very proud to represent Riverside City College and the University of California, Riverside. At the conference I presented my undergraduate research that I have been doing at the University of California, Riverside on bacterial adhesion to material surfaces. It was a great experience and honor I will never forget. We also met and heard from many USDA officials and a subject that everyone spoke was the under representation of Latinos in math, science and engineering fields. According to the National Science Foundation, in the science and engineering workforce only 3.2 percent are Latinos - the smallest percentage compared to other minorities. This does not come as a surprise to me because in the Hispanic society having a job and making money is an expectation is expected after high school. There is no focus on education and so many Latinos don’t achieve a higher education because of this cultural thought. In fact, I am the only person in my immediate and extended family that is currently attending college. I am extremely focused on leading the way in a new direction for Hispanic people in science related fields. Especially at a time when Hispanics are seen as foreign problem becoming an essential part of society is important. Becoming essential components of the professional workforce is how Hispanics will assimilate into the huge melting pot that is the United States of America. I’ve learned that through hard work and determination anything is possible. I hope that through my direction I can set an example for others to follow so that we may better our society and our future. As a great man once said "The future depends on what we do in the present." -Mahatma Gandhi.
A week in the life of a new researcher
by Juan Lucio
Monday: June 25, 2007
Today was my first complete day of my summer internship and all I can say is that excitement can hurt. I was so excited last night for today that I couldn’t sleep. I also switched my pillow that I usually sleep with so that can also contribute to my tiredness. Besides that tiredness that I have the day went very well. Berat showed us the lab and it was beautiful. It had equipment that I had never seen before the centrifuge was the size of a large microwave and it could spin at 3700 g’s, and cool to 4 degrees Celsius. To make things even better I also got my first lab coat today. Once I got my lab coat we got some hands on experience in making Luria Broth and we began the process of culturing the bacteria. I got to learn a lot about biological techniques and I cant wait to learn more. I also met all the people that will be working here this summer and it’s going to be great.
Tuesday: June 26, 2007
Last night sleep was great and the day was even better. One thing I can say is that there is not a moment during the day that is not wasted here. Today in the morning I started off my day by having a library orientation about using the science library that was very helpful. Then we went to Berat’s office and talked about everything that we were going to achieve in lab for the next couple of days and the reasons behind what we were doing. Once he explained things everything became clear and wonderful. This project is so huge and what we are doing is little puzzle of a big picture that is amazing. Berat explained of how we are looking at bacteria as it is being transported through our soil by water and how it reaches our drinking water. The experiments that we were doing began to make so much sense after this explanation. Then I attended a course in lab safety that certifies me to work in the lab. After that I took a course about waste management that also certified me in waste management. Then I went back to lab and we experimented with bacteria and their hydrophobicity (polarity in different environments) which links to bacteria transporting through water within the soil. This day went great and I can’t wait to learn more.
Wednesday: June 27, 2007
Today I went to a second library orientation that was very informative. Then in lab we cultured and Harvested bacteria and checked its viability. The Harvesting process is a process in which you separate the bacteria from the media to produce a stock solution. The viability analysis is a staining process to check how much of our bacteria are dead or alive through an advanced inverted microscope. This is done to verify the results from the stock solution basically to make sure our stock solution is good. Slowly I am starting to understand everything and everything is starting to make sense.
Thursday: June 28, 2007
Today was a group activity from 9:00 to 3:00 it was a lot of fun. There was a ropes course and everyone had a good time and lunch was especially delicious with subs from the Sub Station.
Friday: June 29, 2007
Today we got to see Dr. Sharon Walker again after not seeing her for the week because she was busy attending a conference in Delaware. She took the whole research group to the Getaway pizzeria. Everyone had fun and we all got to talk to each other and get to know each other better. I also got to meet Dr. Walkers Post-Doc Saeed (who is hilarious) and undergraduate intern Matt Yates from UC Davis. Then we went to the lab to finish up our training. We spent most of the day trying to do a Titration and it was very cool since a machine did it with help from a computer all we had to do is set it up and would add .005 mL of NaOH. It is more efficient and professional since it makes a graph and gets the exact amt. Very cool and very fun. (My mentor Gexin is in Kansas visiting a friend so I haven’t got a chance to talk to him about project)
Monday: July 2, 2007
Today my mentor Gexin (pronounced Gu-shin) finally came back from his conference in Delaware and from visiting his friend in Kansas and we finally got started on talking about the project that I will be working on for the next year. The whole group that was training went in separate directions with our respectful mentors. My project is awesome and just talking about it is great. We are going to test bacterial adhesion to different metals to try to understand why this coating zeolite seems to kill bacteria. The main reason we are checking this is because we are trying to find answer to bio fouling. Bio fouling is a problem that occurs when bacteria adhere to surfaces like boats and other aquatic surfaces and either causes corrosion or the clogging of pipes or increases in biomasses on boats. Biofouling on boats causes an increase in consumption of gas an increase in corrosion and in one year a cost of 5 billion dollars for the Salt Lake City Lake alone.
Tuesday: July 3, 2007
Today was a very productive day and it feels good to finally start getting ready for my project. Gexin showed me how to grow the media for our experiments and how to pre-culture our bacteria Halomonous Pacifica g (this g stands for fluorescent). I also got to learn how to make how to prepare antibiotics for our bacteria media. Then Gexin also showed me how to make colloids. Colloids are latex particles that we use instead of bacteria and for our use they are fluorescent just like the bacteria we use. The fluorescence is later used in our very advanced inverted microscope. The main object that we use on the microscope is a parallel flow where we are checking the adhesion of bacteria to glass, metal, and zeolite covered metal. On Tuesday we did it with glass. (We have not yet received the zeolite)
Wednesday: July 4, 2007
Independence day-Holiday
Thursday: July 5, 2007
Today me Gexin went over the procedures of how the bacteria (Halomonous Pacifica g) were grown and he let me do most of the work so I could gain some experience. We are also going over the procedure of the microscope and the flow cell. We also set the flow cell with colloids for Gexin’s project. (Derek from the Yan lab is supposed to teach me how to make zeolite but he didn’t call me today)
Friday: July 6, 2007
Today we harvested the bacteria in the morning, thanks Gexin who pre-cultured and cultured it the night before. We prepared everything and we counted the concentration of the bacteria on the microscope. Then we set a parallel flow cell with aluminum inside and we set it up on the inverted microscope. It was so cool to use the microscope it looked as though I was looking at the sky but fluorescent. At first it was hard to see but it then I got used to it and it was very cool.
Monday: July 9, 2007
Today I harvested the bacteria all by myself and I counted it all by myself. Gexin has taught me a lot and it is paying off, it is so great. Gexin and I tested our bacteria for hydrophobicity (polarities sort of) and Zeta potential (charges around the bacteria). The reason I am doing these experiments is to further my understanding of why does bacterial adhesion occur. Then I spent the day watching Gexin experiment on the flow Gexin projects deal more with colloids. (We went to talk to Derek because we need the Zeolite coated metal).
Tuesday: July 10, 2007
Today after harvesting my bacteria I went to the microscope room where Gexin showed me the use of the program that the microscope uses in which it measures bacteria sizes. It takes a picture and then we set what sizes are too big (clusters) and what sizes are too small (other things). Then it takes the averages and shows them. Then after we checked the sizes we checked the viability of our bacteria. Which is when we check what is living, and what is dead with a special dye. Then after that we started titration of the bacteria and how to use it more in depth. The titration was very cool because it does for you very accurately through a computer program named tiamo. After all this we checked the counted the concentration of the bacteria and called it a day.
Wednesday: July 11, 2007
Today I spent most of the day watching Cory a graduate from the Dr. Yan’s Lab show me how to go from solution to coated metal (on Friday I will get to learn how to make the solution) with the zeolite coating. By the way zeolite is a coating that goes on the metal and has certain chemical characteristics. He showed me how to coat Zeolite ZSM-5 on aluminum. He showed me how they prep the metal and the process in which they cook it at 175 Celsius. He also explained Zeolite ZSM-5 more in depth to me and its many applications, not to mention on spaceships and next generation computer chips as some of them. It was very interesting and it showed me a glimpse of material engineering. Dr. Derek Beving also gave me a couple of sheets of metal to label them for the sizing of our parallel flow cell (They tried before to just make them by dimensions and none fit). Then Gexin and I spoke to Dr. Walker about our plans and how will we go about them for the duration of the summer. We have a tough schedule ahead of us with Gexin up at 12:00 am and me up in the lab and harvesting at 7:45 am and harvesting 3 times after I come in. I left early today because I wanted to catch the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on IMAX.
Thursday: July 12, 2007
In the morning from 8:30-10:00 we had a group meeting where we talk about we have done in the week and how experiments are going. It went very well and Dr. Walker said great report even though I think we had to much data that was not properly organized it was good she said that. Then we took off to a lecture by the winner of The Clark Award, Dr. James L. Barnard in the Huntington Beach Hilton. The food was really good and the lecture was even better. He spoke about his research and it really interested me it almost made want to become an environmental engineering. Afterwards my group went to the beach and Dr. Walker made me come back in the SUV Yasmin was driving (that was the group that went to beach). The beach there was beautiful and very nice but empty on a Thursday. The drives were killers though.
Friday: July 13, 2007
I went to the lab early so that Cory the graduate student of Dr. Yan’s Lab could teach me how to make the zeolite solution, which they refer to as recipes. He also showed me techniques they have to test the zeolites corrosion on the metal through electrical readings. The process of making zeolite ZSM-5 solution is over four hours. The whole entire process takes over 24 hours since the cooking alone takes 24hr. Then after that me Gexin got to learn how to cut the metal since before it was done for us now we will able to produce exact measurements since we took the parallel plate flow cell with us. Then after cutting the metal we got a rare Dr. Derek Beving took me and to go do an element analysis of a new zeolite that they have. The analysis was done with an electron microscope and it was so cool. It was picture clear and I had never seen something so cool and I miss it already.
Monday: July 16, 2007
Today Gexin and me began our rigorous routine and finally began testing our stuff in our parallel plate flow cell. We tested Aluminum in 10 mM KNO3 and got no bacterial deposition in three experiments. Gexin and I are machines when it comes to lab and data turning out great. We are actually one week ahead of schedule so let the good times roll. The only problem today was that other people needed the centrifuge when I did but besides that it was a very productive day.
2007-2008 Participants
Juan Lucio:
Juan has lived in the United States for most of his life having only spent a month in Mexico City D.F., Mexico after he was born there. His parents are both immigrants from Mexico, immigrating to seek a better life in the United States. Once they emigrated from Mexico they lived in Dallas, Texas for about a year and then they moved to Sun City, California. He lived in Sun City for 6 months and then moved to the town where he currently resides Hemet, CA. He attended Fruitvale Elementary and then Santa Fe Middle School then West Valley High School. In high school his interest had laid more in the social sciences rather than in math and science where they lay now. In high school he also earned varsity letters in Cross Country and Track and Field and was All-League for Cross Country for two years and the two mile League Champ his senior year. He now attends Riverside Community College where he is extremely focused on his goals of transferring to a four-year university and going to graduate school. His hobbies currently are running, playing soccer, and any sport other sport ever created.
Yasmine Salas:
Where can I begin… well Ill introduce myself, my name is Yasmine Salas. As of right now I’m 20 years old and a full time student at RCC. Now I’m really a normal person, or yet I wish to believe I am. I love to surf and skateboard, anything that seems to be a challenge, I’ll challenge. I love to live life, and take what ever opportunities that are offered to me. I suppose that I’m considered somewhat of an oddball in my family, due to the fact that I never follow what they consider to be the norm. That’s probably one of the huge reasons I became so interested in medicine. See, I come from a family of business people, literality everyone in my family owns some type of shop, and since im the youngest my parents thought that I would be the same as my brother and sisters… man were they wrong. I got Interested in microbiology, because I had to take the class in order to transfer, funny how things happen huh? I wanted to be veterinarian, ever since I was little I knew that I didn’t want to sell things, I wanted to help things. To tell you the truth I didn’t have the slightest idea of what a microbe was! I mean, yeah sure I took a couple of classes that exposed me to bacteria, and viruses. But never had I taken a class with such an exuberant teacher! Dr. Heather Smith truly inspired me to pick up the reigns of microbiology. Now at this point I hit the ground running, I mean sure I loved the idea about becoming a vet, but nothing could compare to the true passion that I felt for this field of microbiology. True I was intimidated because I had no idea about what school I should go to? Do I really like microbiology? Can I do this for a career? That’s when I worked enough courage to overcome my shyness and ask for help from the one person I knew would guide me in the right direction, Dr. Smith.
Now look at me, I’m living at the dorms at UCR for free, I’m getting paid, and I’m not only being exposed to microbiology, but also engineering. Plus gaining experience through working with my mentor Berat in lab! What else could I ask for this whole experience is truly a dream come true, and only reassures me that I’m finally on the right path to doing something I’m going to love for the rest of my life. Who know what my future holds… I do!!! Trust me that feeling of security is great. Never in a million years would I have thought of seeing myself doing research, extracting DNA from bacteria. Now that I look back on things I don’t know why I thought like that. The way I see it, your life is YOU’RE LIFE and you can pick and choose what ever path you want no matter what anyone says.
2006-2007 Participants
Jose Avila
Moving to the US coming from El Salvador was a big step, but moving out to the UCR dorms and my apartment was even bigger.
I am majoring in Industrial Engineering and this summer I have been working with bio, chemical, and environmental material. At the beginning it was difficult to assimilate all the terminology. Step-by-step, I have been learning about this complex world of the microscopic individuals called bacteria. All the different procedures to analyze them were hard to understand, but once I put them in practice, all the information made sense.
The working experience that I gained has changed my perspective of life. It is amazing how the little bacteria live and also to understand that those small creatures are the reason of such a big project supported by the USDA. Working and organizing the time to analyze the bacteria taught me a lot. Preparing the work for everyday helped me to understand that everything has to be done by a procedure. For instance, preculturing, incubating, harvesting and analyzing is the process to analyze the bacteria, but it can be compared to how ideas born, grow and turn into reality.
The working experience was priceless, but the experience of becoming independent is the most valuable skill that I got out of the project. During this 8 weeks, I had to prepare budgets, organize my time, network with many people, and I had fun doing it! I enjoyed every single day even if I stayed in the dorm cleaning it... Most importantly, I learned how to minimize the costs of everything that I had to pay, because it is a human reality that money has, is and always will be a big issue.
It's amazing how everything comes together at the end of a short labor period. All the small things that I have learned look like a big picture when they are all together.
Today, I say that I am proud of have rejected the UCSB internship because I came to UCR and learned a lot of the working field in the Chemical and Environmental Engineering area, but also, I learned about life and how to enjoy everyday I go to work.
DJ Cummings
D. J. Cummings is majoring in cell and molecular biology, with a minor in both chemistry and music. He enjoys singing, having been a part of the Chamber Singers of RCC and the Dickens Carolers, which perform every Christmas season at the Mission Inn in Riverside. D. J. also enjoys playing the piano and trumpet, and bowling on his free time. He hopes to become a forensic scientist (in the FBI or LAPD) or a general researcher in the future.
“It’s been a wild eight weeks doing this internship. I’ve had a lot of fun meeting and getting to know everyone working on this research. It’s been time-consuming, trying to learn the many different techniques for this research, but it’s definitely the best part of my summer—except for when we all went to Dr. Smith’s beach house. Beautiful, is all I can say!
Helping Dr. Walker and Berat with the lab part of the Copernicus Project was great, too. She told Jose and I to read up on water quality, and it really helped with the other interns wondering why we do this or that. Too bad I can’t get the knowledge of water safety out of my head now, hahaha.
I’ve had a lot of mishaps along the way, like breaking equipment and slipping bacterial solutions on my clothes…but it’s all in fun. I’m just looking forward to the rest of the year of research with pathogens. Now things will get even more interesting!”