After attending this Gordon Career Center event, I learned about the different biomedical opportunities that NIH offers. I was excited about the many different research opportunities available at first, but then I found myself thinking about the type of research that I would be conducting in a biomedical program. Although it would most likely look amazing on med school applications that I had spent a summer doing research at NIH, would that really be furthering my academic journey? Yes, I could most definitely learn a variety of research techniques that I may not be able to gain experience with in such a short program. And yes, making connections at NIH could never hurt when time comes around for job hunting. But would biomedical research techniques and researchers be the best skill set and mentors to spend a summer with?
After the event, I did a bit of research on the NIH website to find researchers that I may be interested in. Although there were some interesting studies being conducted on chronic illness, there wasn’t much being done in migraine research (which is my only clinical interest), and I’m not sure that that would fall under the biomedical research area. Although this event was very informative, I don’t think it was the information that I should have been looking for, and I know now that I will be looking for more cognitive psychology-based summer research opportunities to improve my skills in that field, which I most see myself creating a career in in the future.
