Matt Spence is a senior majoring in Genetics. In addition to genetics, he is also earning certificates in gender and women’s studies and LGBT studies. After he graduates in May, he hopes to enjoy another summer interning at Harvard University or touring Europe before entering medical school. Matt works in a research lab on campus, volunteers with PAVE, the LGBT Campus Center and St. Mary’s Hospital ER and is the Co-President of PRIDE (Promoting Recognition of Identity, Dignity, and Equality) in Healthcare-Undergraduates.
Q: What did you do to find an internship?
A: I found my internship by emailing different contacts of mine and my family’s asking if they had any positions available or knew of any openings.
Q: What did finding an internship teach you about searching for a full-time job?
A: Finding my internship reminded me how important it is to make personal connections and to reach out to others. If you put yourself out there, meet people, work hard and create a good name for yourself, others will be happy to help you the best that they can.
Q: What type of on-campus research opportunities did you pursue to enhance your resume and help improve your professional skills?
A: My work in research labs here on campus gave me many of the skills that my internship was looking for. My knowledge of lab techniques and training with mice were what this internship required.
Q: How did this opportunity help you in achieving your career goals?
A: This internship was an amazing opportunity to work in a cutting edge research lab, but it reminded me that going into medicine is my true calling. I really enjoy participating in and reading about groundbreaking research, but it is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. Although it is not what I want to do with my life, I worked very hard over the summer, and I earned the respect of my colleagues and a great letter of recommendation from the professor I worked for.
Q: What did you do during your internship?
A: I was able to work in one of the world’s most cutting edge biological research labs. My work in the Rinn Lab was centered on a new project in the lab’s quest to discover new lincRNAs and define their roles and functions in mammalian cells. In order to accomplish this goal, I helped maintain eleven strains of knockout mice lacking specific lincRNA genes and cloned mouse lincRNAs to be expressed in different cell types. To maintain the mouse colony, I set up breeding pairs, weaned pups, and genotyped and sacrificed mice. The other half of my work involved cloning mouse lincRNAs from different cell types and inserting them into bacterial plasmids. By cloning the lincRNA genes into plasmids, they could then be put into viruses and inserted into mouse cells in vitro.
Q: In what way was your internship valuable to your professional development?
A: This internship taught me many new research techniques and allowed me to learn more about how cutting-edge science is performed. It also taught me the value of working hard and being able to accomplish things that have never been done before.
Q: What was the most important thing you learned at your internship?
A: I think the most important thing I learned was the value of working hard and doing my best work. As I pushed myself to learn more about the biology of the systems I worked with and the techniques I was using, I became more engaged in the project and was able to produce greater results in less time. While I worked hard, my colleagues and supervisors took note and praised me for my contributions and accomplishments.
Q: Do you feel your internship experience was important to your career development? If so, why?
A: This internship was an amazing opportunity to participate in something that I find incredibly interesting. The work ethic that it reinforced within me will help me in every area of my life, but the specific biomolecular techniques are less applicable to the rest of my life. It was a very valuable experience, and one I hope to be able to repeat next summer.
Q: Who do you feel helped you the most in your professional development and why?
A: I think the people that helped me prepare for the professional world the most were my parents and the post-doctoral student that I work with here in Madison. My parents are both business people, and they taught me the importance of meeting people and making good impressions. They also helped me write my resume and cover letters. My post-doctoral student taught me about how to work in a lab, participate in research, and stay invested in a project.
