USC
student enjoys rare Mayo Clinic internshipUSC
student enjoys rare Mayo Clinic internship
By DENNIS DARROW
The Pueblo Chieftain
Few college students get the chance to spend a summer internship
working with doctors and researchers at the famed Mayo Clinic
in Rochester, Minn.
When her acceptance letter arrived, 21-year-old Bambi Palumbo
of
Pueblo reacted like she'd just hit the Lotto.
"I started shaking," the University of Southern Colorado
senior said of
the the day last spring when she checked her campus e-mail to
find the
notice.
"Tears got in my eyes. I was yelling at the entire lab."
Hard work in the college research lab along with good grades
resulted in
Ms. Palumbo joining the select crop of Mayo summer undergraduate
research fellows.
Each summer the hospital-research center selects 60 interns
from a list
of 1,400 of the nation's top science students.
Ms. Palumbo left in June and returned in mid-August.
"It was like a dream," she said of the 10-week visit.
She was assigned her own research project -- testing a specific
gene for
its immunity level, similar to work she does at USC.
She also spent her days attending seminars and workshops on
such
topics as science ethics and career options.
"At first I was really intimidated because I had never
been out of
Colorado basically," she said.
In contrast, the clinic is staffed by more than 2,000 doctors
and
scientists from throughout the world.
Meanwhile,Ê most of her fellow student interns came from
major
universities, including the Ivy League schools.
Her anxiety soon subsided, though.
She discovered her work at USC left her as well prepared as the others.
More surprisingly, the clinic's scientists displayed an easy-going
style
that put the students at ease, she said.
"They're non-competitive with each other. They're willing
to do
anything. Their first concern is always the patient," she
said.
The atmosphere helped calm her worries.
"Here are these scientists, the heavyweights in their
fields, and they
were willing to help us with anything. After the second week,
I felt right
at home."
Ironically, when the time came to explore the Mayo Clinic's
home city
of Rochester, Ms. Palumbo was the one who felt all-knowing.
Rochester's population barely tops 70,000.
"We (in Pueblo) have two of everything compared to them," she said.
Ms. Palumbo applied for the internship last February.
She is believed to be the first USC student to take part.
"I really got to see firsthand how research can help people," she said.
The change was welcome given that college students perform
tons of
research but rarely stay long enough to see their work come to
fruition,
she said.
"I think a lot of the time you don't realize how much
can be done," she
said.
During her visit, one bit of research became reality as the
clinic launched
the first round of clinical human trials of a new leukemia medicine.
Now back at USC, Ms. Palumbo begins her senior year with a
new
appreciation for her field of study but also a new set of questions
for her
future.
Right now, she's leaning toward going to graduate school to
study
forensic science or medical patent law.
However, another possible option is to apply to the clinic
for a one-year
post-graduate internship. The clinic also runs its own graduate
school.
For the moment, she's content to return to USC to complete
her
undergraduate studies and share her experiences with her classmates
and
instructors.
"The biology and chemistry faculty was really excited," she said.
Almost as excited as her.