ONIF Student Spotlight
November 25, 2022
Name: Madison Maille
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Major: Biochemistry
Graduation Date: May 2023
Fellowship Award: The Duke Amgen Scholars Program is a funded summer research program. Throughout the 10 weeks, students conduct hands-on research in a lab at Duke University, participate in weekly seminars, and take part in a program-wide symposium.
What are your current or future career plans? I plan on applying to graduate school programs where I can continue to do RNA-related research.
What did you enjoy most about the program? It was a lot of fun to be surrounded by people that have similar educational and career goals as me. Everyone was from different schools and science majors, so it was interesting to learn about the projects people worked on over the summer and at their home institutions. I enjoyed getting to spend time talking about our lab days and exploring Durham with everyone in the program. I’m also glad that I got the chance to learn more about life in grad school from my grad student mentor and other members of the lab.
What was the most challenging aspect of the program? It took some time to adjust to living in a new place and being at a different school for 10 weeks. The lab I worked in at Duke was bigger than the one I’m in at LMU, so I had to learn to work with the different pace of the lab. I also had to deal with shipping delays for some of my project materials, which required me to figure out new and creative ways to continue making progress on my summer project. However, my graduate student mentor and the other lab members were very encouraging and created a supportive environment that helped me navigate these challenges.
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What advice do you have for future applicants? My advice would be to spend time carefully researching the labs you would want to work in. The lab is where you spend a lot of time throughout the program, so you want to find ones with research projects that seem exciting and match your interests.
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For more information about the Amgen Scholars Program visit: https://amgenscholars.com/ or contact ONIF.