Internships, research, service: Baylor students spend summer growing with top orgs
Many Baylor students use summer as a time to broaden their horizons, to grow both personally and professionally. Right now, thousands of Baylor students are taking part in internships, fellowships, research opportunities and more at elite companies and academic institutions. These positions are highly coveted and very competitive, and Baylor students shine as they enjoy experiences that further shape them in their academic and career journeys.
Here are just four examples of that — Bears representing Baylor in our nation’s capital and at Harvard, MD Anderson, and a construction-and-design firm for Fortune 500 companies:
Combining Service and Calling in Washington: Trent Johnson hopes to someday improve the lives of patients — not only as a physician, but as someone who plays a role in improving healthcare systems. This summer, the junior Business Fellow and economics major is exploring that calling through the Baylor in Washington program alongside other Baylor students. As part of his D.C. experience, he is serving with L’Arche USA, a national organization supporting those with intellectual and development disabilities. There, he serves in a community where people with and without those disabilities live, serve and interact together.
“This summer program is really meaningful for spiritual formation and seeing how to integrate faith in your work,” says Johnson. “And then also being a L’Arche, I’m a go-go-go person. But serving others, you can’t just go quick. It’s a great opportunity to learn how to really care for others in different ways.”
Data-Driven Cancer Research at Harvard: As a pole vaulter for Baylor’s Track & Field team, senior Raynah Cheng is no stranger to competition. Cheng, a senior bioinformatics major, earned a coveted spot at Harvard Medical School’s Summer Institute in Biomedical Informatics. There, she applies her computer science skills to help cancer researchers utilize genomic data and AI more effectively as they seek to improve cancer diagnosis and treatment.
“It was intimidating to walk into an Ivy League college,” Cheng says, “but as I meet the people here and work alongside them, I see I’m learning the same things as at other top colleges, and I love working with them and seeing different projects that people are applying in bioinformatics.”
Bridging Engineering and Leadership: Construction sites, project meetings and stakeholder conversations are very different settings than his engineering labs and classes, but Austin Soupisett has been energized by those experiences this summer. A senior mechanical engineering major with an aerospace concentration, Soupisett took on a different kind of challenge: as a project manager intern with ARCO/Murray, a national company that designs and builds construction projects with Fortune 500 companies from concept through completion. As a part of large-scale design-build projects, he works with teams throughout the construction process. It’s an opportunity he says stretches him as he grows his leadership and communication skills in a fast-paced setting.
“This experience has helped me understand what kind of work energizes me and what I might want my future career to look like,” says Soupisett. “The technical side is important, but it’s also fun working with people and solving problems.”
Connecting Research to People at MD Anderson: Drawn to both cancer research and patient care, senior Sophia Pantangco is spending her summer at one of the world’s leading cancer centers. Pantangco, a senior health science studies major on the pre-med track, earned a summer research position at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. There, she studies adolescent and young adult Hodgkin’s lymphoma survivors, with a goal of better understanding the long-term effects of cancer treatments and uncovering ways to improve patients’ quality of life long after treatment is complete.
“I love research because you’re always learning,” says Pantangco. “But I also love working with people and getting the chance to care for others. I’ll really bring into my senior year and beyond that connection between the research you’re doing and the people you’re trying to help.”
Sic ’em, Baylor summer interns!