Tufts Intern Spotlight: Sean Boyden at Brigham & Women's Hospital

Name: Sean Boyden
Organization:  Brigham and Women's Hospital, Division of Rheumatology, Immunology, and Allergy's Section of Clinical Sciences, Boston, MA

Hometown: Leominster, MA
Year: 2017
Major: Biopsychology & Community Health
Duration: Summer
Compensation: Unpaid

I mentioned in an earlier post that I spent part of this summer working as a research intern at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Specifically, I worked in the Division of Rheumatology, Immunology, and Allergy's Section of Clinical Sciences. I learned a lot about myself and the internship process in general (and not just because my lengthy commute to Boston left me with exorbitant amounts of time for introspection), and the proximity of Tufts to Boston has made it possible for me to continue my internship into the school year (you can catch me flipping through orgo flashcards on the red line on Thursday and Friday afternoons). In keeping with our internship spotlights, I thought I'd shine a light inward and share my experience as an intern. Here's what I learned in between 2-hour train rides and crowded subway cars:

The best (or worst?) intern ever. (source)

Don't be intimidated by the learning curve. My major duties as an intern in a clinical research department were to review patient charts to determine their eligibility for our studies, and to contact patients by phone if they qualified for participation. At first, I was really bad at these jobs - like, really bad. I'd spend way too much time reading through charts, I'd get nervous on the phone and slip up in conversation - I was no expert. But an intern is never an expert; the point of an internship is to learn about something you don't know much about. Once I got a grip on what specifically to look for in a patient's chart, I could skim through it and quickly get to the parts I needed to read. Similarly, once I'd read through my phone script and practiced it (many, many times), I developed my own way of communicating all of the appropriate information to patients in my own voice. And, guess what? I got better. It took some time - I remember in the first few weeks of June, I'd leave the office and want to ram my head against a subway pole in frustration - but the only way to get better at it was to do it. If you encounter difficulty at first, don't run from it - face it head on, and work on it until it becomes easy.

Be eager and flexible. One of the most common pieces of advice that interns get is "Don't be afraid to do the grunt work." To expand on this (very true) suggestion, don't be afraid to do new things and take on new responsibilities. Not only does it add variety to your day, but it demonstrates your work ethic and willingness to your employer. At the start of my internship, I assisted with one study, which examines the role of central nervous system processing of pain in rheumatoid arthritis. Now, I help with at least four different studies, and do different things for each one. Because I was eager to help whenever my supervisor asked, I was able to really enhance my experience.

Don't be annoying, but definitely be eager! (source)

Reflect on the experience. This is something that I recommend to everyone who has completed an internship. By thinking about what you gained from the experience, what you liked and didn't like, and what you would do differently, you can foster an even better internship or job experience in the future, and learn a lot about yourself and your future career goals. My internship has made me realize that I definitely want to work in a clinical setting, where I can really reach people and improve their lives. Additionally, before my internship I'd never seriously entertained the idea of doing clinical research, but now I think I really want to incorporate this into my future. I love the applicability of clinical research, and its potential to help many people because of how understandable it is. In the future, I'm going to seek internship and job opportunities in clinical research, or more broadly, that share the values and themes of clinical research.

(source)

In case you couldn't tell, I had a really great internship experience. To everyone looking for a summer internship or thinking about doing one (DEFINITELY DO IT), I encourage you to really make the most of it and push yourself to be the best intern you can be - review those charts, print those agendas, and get stuff done.

Until next time,
Sean Boyden
Class of 2017

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It Begins Anew

Hello once again, fair readers!

After what seemed like an incredibly long summer (although I wouldn't have minded a few more weeks without classes), another school year has begun! And what an important one it is, especially for us 2017-ers. No longer naive and confused underclassmen, we must, as wise but still confused upperclassmen, embrace adulthood as we start to think about post-graduation plans.

I know how much you all missed my incessant Friends references.

For me, returning to the Career Center, and Tufts as a whole, feels like re-acquainting with an old friend. By now, I'm almost always sure of where I am, and when wandering parents and prospective students ask me where Dowling Hall is I can usually point them in the right direction (confession: for almost all of my freshman year I thought that tour groups met at Bendetson instead of Dowling. I gave wrong directions to dozens of people.) So, like I would for any old friend with whom I'm catching up, I'll give you the run-down of how I spent my summer. But instead of boiling down the last four months to a quick "It was great" or boring you with every last detail of my summer, I thought I'd give it to you in a top-10 style, in tribute to the now-retired David Letterman (I have high expectations, Stephen Colbert). Here are the top ten most interesting, least interesting, most random, and weirdest things that I did this summer:

1. I started drinking coffee. I finally broke my hipster vow to never surrender to the most over-used drug on Earth, and now I honestly don't know what I did before coffee. Was I even awake? I doubt it. 

2. I discovered my undying love for podcasts. Where my Serial fans at?! 

3. I spent almost 200 hours on trains. Although I interned in Boston and worked in a lab at Tufts throughout the summer, I decided to live at home to save money. Which meant that a lot of my time during the week was spent riding the rails of the MBTA, in all its wildly unreliable glory. I found ways to pass the time, and now I know every announcement in a commuter rail conductor's repertoire.

4. I learned how to knit. This was one of the ways to pass the time on the train. I've always felt like an old lady (I love naps and rocking chairs and I'm always cold), so I figured I might as well lean into it.

5. I dedicated at least two mornings every week to watching bees. I worked in the Starks lab for two or three days a week, helping out with a study on the effects of Anthidium manicatum, or the wool-carder bee, on bumblebee fitness. Most of the time, I watched the entrance and exit tubes to bumblebee hives, counting the number of bees that left and returned in a 30-minute interval. It sounds boring, but it taught me to appreciate complexity in the most seemingly simple of places.

6. I went to the 2015 Pokemon World Championships. For years I was a closeted Pokemon fan, and only really began to publicly decree my passion once I discovered the underground subculture of adult Pokemasters. The World Championships were held in Boston this year, and let me just say, it was one of the greatest and nerdiest days of my life.

7. I mastered my phone voice. I spent two days a week this summer as an intern at Brigham and Women's Hospital, where I assisted with chart review, recruitment, and maintenance of several studies in the Rheumatology Department's Section of Clinical Science. One of my main duties was to call potential study participants to ask if they were interested in joining our research sample, and I had to learn to talk in a confident but not arrogant and calm but not boring manner. I usually hate talking on the phone, so this was a real challenge for me, but now if my friends want to order pizza I'm the default caller. (Internships are all about gaining transferable skills, am I right?)

8. I spent every weekend from July 4th to Labor Day on a farm. For those of you who read the Career Center blog faithfully, you may know that I've worked at a farm in my hometown over the summer for the past few years. When I wasn't on a train or watching bees, you could catch me picking corn and washing cucumbers.

9. I took my first online college course. This is something I'd definitely recommend to anyone who wants to get a jump on coursework. I was able to take a required class for my major at my own pace and open up my schedule in the fall to continue my internship at the Brigham.

10. I made plans to leave North America for the first time ever. One of my best friends from high school is studying abroad in Perugia, Italy this semester - and come Thanksgiving 2015, I'll be joining her! I'm so excited for my first trans-oceanic voyage that I'm not even the least bit depressed about taking organic chemistry this semester.

Overall, it was one of my favorite summers so far, and although I'm sad to see it end, I can't wait for what junior year will bring me! Like I mentioned in my post last May, I'll be not only blogging for the Career Center this year but also working as a Career Fellow, an exciting new program that will facilitate peer mentoring for career advice, resume critiques, and more. Stay tuned for my weekly posts on my attempts (and most likely failures) to mature into a somewhat put-together adult!

Until next time,

Sean Boyden

Class of 2017

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