Meet Sara,

She is a Biology major who has done research at the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. She currently works in Dr. Philip Farabaugh’s laboratory and is also President of the Food Recovery Network, an organization whose mission is to recover food from dining services on campus and donate it to local homeless shelters. Her future plan is to become a physician.

Sara is also a member of the Muslim Student Association and serves as a photographer for the Retriever Weekly.

Sara’s research involves determining how errors in protein synthesis are regulated.

Are you a first year student looking for an opportunity to make a difference on campus?  

Name: Hailey Lynch

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: The Hershey Company

Position Title: Advanced Capabilities Intern

Major(s)/Minor(s): Mathematics/Statistics;Economics 

Expected Graduation Year: May 2016

Briefly describe your internship, co-op,  or research opportunity, including your day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and assignments.

I was an Advanced Capabilities Intern in the Global Knowledge and Insights Department at The Hershey Company this past summer. Hershey is currently working with a Silicon Valley technology company to build new capabilities that will allow Hershey to analyze big data and advance analytics. I was one of three interns placed on the project. I was responsible for conducting a wide variety of analyses in order to gain insights into the consumer landscape and to answer high-value business questions. In order to do this, I worked with the technology company’s new capability and utilized a range of large public and private data sets. I also conducted statistical analyses using the programming language R. Additionally, I was responsible for meeting with key individuals on a biweekly basis to help shape and enhance the new capability. 

Describe the process of obtaining your internship, research, or co-op opportunity.

I received an email from the Career Services Center notifying me that Hershey was looking for analytically minded undergraduates to fill its new internship position. I applied on Hershey's website and was notified by the Career Services Center that I had been selected for an in-person interview. Both a Vice President and a Senior Manager from the company came to UMBC to conduct interviews. Hershey called me back shortly after my in-person interview and offered me the position.

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization/company?

Throughout my time at Hershey, I was exposed to so many brilliant people, and I was able to learn so much about technology, big data, and the consumer packaged goods landscape. As a math major, I never imagined I would be given such a unique opportunity. I love that my position allowed me to utilize my analytical mind and quantitative background to help the company develop a new capability that will be used by future researchers.

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

Throughout the course of my internship, I made a multitude of recommendations for capability enhancements. In this way, I helped the system to run more efficiently, and I was able to leave my own personal mark on the capabilities being developed. Many of the recommendations I made either have been or are in the process of being implemented.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience? 

Be willing to try anything. I went into my internship unsure as to how a math major could be of any value to a chocolate company. My experience turned out to be invaluable, and it never would have happened if I hadn't taken a leap of faith at the start.

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Want to be the next Intern of the Week? Make sure to fill out this form and stay tuned. New interns are announced every Friday!

Today's post is written by Emily Somach, a recent graduate of the College of Information Studies at College Park. Emily has been working in Special Collections this year as part of an NHPRC funded grant project; you can read more about her work with EAD-XML in a previous post. As part of this project she also wrote descriptive records for collections that had not previously been described. This blog post was inspired by Collection 156. Thank you, Emily!

Looking at cute pictures of cats is not a new pastime. The advent of the internet has certainly made it a more widespread form of entertainment, but far before the World Wide Web people were finding ways to satisfy their desire for cute kitten pictures. Most people do not realize that the most popular and effective method for admiring representations of felines was once the scrapbook, a hobby that appeared in the early 19th century and that many Victorian women greatly enjoyed.

According to Collectors Weekly, “In response to the scrapbooking trend, 19th-century bookmakers designed blank albums with elaborate, tooled-leather covers, gilt paper edgings, and engraved clasps” and materials were “explicitly produced as die-cut ‘scrap’ for decorating homemade albums.” With access to abundant scraps as well as blank-paged books, it is no wonder that the practice of scrapbooking grew so quickly in popularity. An excellent example of a scrapbook from this time period is the one seen below, from the shelves of UMBC’s Special Collections. As you can tell from the photographs, the hobby was truly a serious pursuit.

This particular album from Special Collections is a very standard example of a scrapbook from the 1800s. It is chock full of playful kittens and cats of all colors and sizes, as well as some anthropomorphized felines performing human activities (such as eating cake at a table). The images vary from the cat memes and gifs with which our modern eyes are now accustomed, but they seem to fill the same niche.

Elspeth Rountree, the co-founder of the Know Your Meme website, explains, “They're the perfect distraction from our hectic lives. You don't need any explanation or prior knowledge to understand the slapstick humor that animals provide. Cat videos and images are a quick hit of pure, unfettered 'cute.' They're also entertainment in easily digestible doses.” Who wouldn’t smile after looking at a tangle of playful kittens chasing a ball, or popping out of a snare drum?

Ben Huh, CEO of The Cheezburger Network, elaborates on the appeal of cat pictures when he states, “Cats have very expressive facial and body expressions, so they are a perfect canvas for human emotion.” This reason helps to clarify why humans used to, and still do, portray animals in clothing or place animals in human situations. After viewing scrapbooks from previous centuries, it becomes undeniable that the desire to gaze on adorable, furry felines has long been a part of human culture. The desire transcends time and space, and persists in spite of new technologies and trends.

Cited sources:

"The Million Dollar Question: Why Does the Internet Love Cats?" Mashable, accessed August 27, 2015, http://mashable.com/2010/10/21/why-does-the-web-love-cats/.

"Scrapbooks and Paper Die-Cuts," Collector's Weekly, accessed August 27, 2015, http://www.collectorsweekly.com/paper/scrapbooks.

The Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) invites you to attend the Henrietta Lacks Memorial Lecture on Saturday, October 10, 2015, in Turner Auditorium on the Johns Hopkins East Baltimore (Medical) Campus.

The keynote speaker is Dr. Ruha Benjamin, Assistant Professor, Princeton University and author of People’s Science: Bodies and Rights on the Stem Cell Frontier.  Special guest presenters include Dr. and Mrs. Roland Pattillo, Morehouse College; Dr. John Joseph Strouse, Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; and members of the Lacksfamily. Copies of Dr. Benjamin’s book will be offered for sale and guests will have an opportunity to have their book signed.  The 2015 winners of both the Henrietta LacksDunbar Health Sciences Scholarship and the Urban Health Institute’s Henrietta Lacks Memorial Community Award will be announced.

This is a free community event open to the public. Parking, breakfast, and lunch are provided at no cost to attendees.  Parking is available in the Washington Street Garage, 701 N. Washington Street, Baltimore 21205.  Handicapped/disabled parking may be requested on the registration form.  Registration is required. Early registration is advised as online registration will close prior to the event.  Space is limited. Click here to download the event poster.

For more information and to register online, visit: http://ictr.johnshopkins.edu/lecture.  

 The goal of this event is to describe the reach and complexity, both biomedically and ethically, of the story of Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells as well as to provide some insight into the past, present, and future of the conduct of clinical research. By honoring Mrs. Lacks and the positive global impact of HeLa cells through this lecture series, the ICTR hopes to acknowledge, thank and honor everyone who participates in the clinical research process.