Internship
CityLab Academy
Internship Component
CityLab Academy is a nine-month college-level academic and job-training program in biomedical laboratory science that includes a two-week internship in February/ March of the spring semester. At this point in the program, students have received several months of academic and laboratory instruction and are able to perform basic lab tasks and understand the rationale behind techniques. In the fall, students take a two-credit Medical Terminology course and a four-credit Introduction to Biomedical Laboratory Sciences course, where they learn pipetting, solution-making, gel electrophoresis, protein quantitation, gel filtration chromatography and the ELISA. In the spring semester, students take a two-credit class in Biotechnology and continue learning lab skills in a four-credit Cell Culture Techniques course.
The major goals of the internship are to expose students to a “real” lab environment and to broaden their understanding of laboratory science. The internship also affords students the opportunity to apply skills acquired during the fall semester and to learn new techniques and methodologies. Over the 2-weeks of the internship, students learn the objectives and areas of interest of the host lab, assist lab staff, attend lab meetings, and if possible, conduct a mini-research project. Ideally, the intern is paired with a lab member who has the time and ability to explain theory and technique to the student at a basic level.
At the conclusion of the internship, students summarize what they have learned in a poster (so maintaining a lab notebook throughout the internship is critical!) Guidelines for the posters are distributed to students and lab mentors, who can then provide guidance in assembling information. Students present their posters at a presentation, which takes place in late April / early May and is attended by lab mentors, friends and others. CLA staff and graduate students evaluate students on the content of their posters and on their ability to explain the material. The poster session allows the CLA staff to gauge the remarkable progress that students make during the Academy program.
As a final note, the internship experience enhances the Academy students’ resumes and helps students find laboratory jobs after graduation in May. On occasion, an Academy student so impresses his/her internship mentor that the student is offered a job in the lab. Many of the Academy graduates who find employment at BUMC (and many of those who work elsewhere) continue their education in BU’s Biomedical Laboratory and Clinical Sciences program.
If you are able to host an internship student, please contact us at:
medacad@bu.edu
For more information about the CityLab Academy program, please visit:
