Austin, Minn. — On Thursday, August 1, The Hormel Institute hosted its annual Research Symposium. The event is dedicated to fostering scientific collaboration and knowledge exchange among invited attendees spanning high school students to seasoned scientific professionals.
This year's theme was aimed at exploring the diverse career opportunities that exist across STEM fields.
The Hormel Institute Research Symposium serves as a capstone event for the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) internship, where undergraduate interns are able to present their findings from the hands-on research projects they conducted over the course of the summer in a poster presentation session.
SURE-fire successes
During their poster session, SURE interns had plenty to share about the benefits they experienced over the courses of their internships.
“I think I got a community of really interesting people,” said SURE intern Morgan Arnold. “All the other interns here are very intelligent, very interested in different areas of science, so I feel like I learned a lot from them, and I also feel that I got a lot of support from my lab to continue research in an area that I didn’t have as much experience in, and support to go forward with future research.”
“I got a lot out of this experience. I learned how to analyze data, I learned how to do interviews, and I learned how to be more systematic with my methods and jot down everything I’m doing, and have a reason for everything, even in generating this image [on Bacon’s poster]. Every part of this image has a purpose. … Science is very organized …” said SURE intern Marta Bacon. “And also just communicating science: poster talk, poster blitz … Science is effective, but it’s also good to make sure the general public has a good understanding of what you’re doing.”
“This experience has been really great for me. I have done a little bit of wet lab shadowing in the past, but I’ve never had something this independent, this complete. My PI [principal investigator] and my postdoc mentor were really great, and they really allowed me to take a lot of responsibility and execute my own projects, but they were also very supportive,” said SURE intern Cynthia Dong.
Insights from the experts
In addition to the poster session, the day involved talks from keynote speakers Ashok Singh, PhD (an alumnus of The Hormel Institute), who is an Associate Research Scientist for PPD Laboratories Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Teresa DiColandrea, PhD, who is an R&D Director Principal Scientist for Procter & Gamble.
“I think prospects [for careers in STEM fields] are excellent,” said Dr. DiColandrea. “I think society as a whole is learning to recognize the importance of biology in the bigger picture of our world and universe, and also, you see more and more industry incorporating human biology into everything it does.”
Dr. Singh shared similar sentiments on the vast array of career opportunities for individuals in STEM fields, from academia to industry to education and more. He also shared that his own experience conducting research in Dr. Rebecca Morris’s lab during his time at The Hormel Institute was a supportive, formative experience that shaped the trajectory of his own career.
The Hormel Institute researchers also presented the latest from their own research. An afternoon career panel discussion included:
- Tisha Pischke, MA, Science Teacher, Austin Public Schools, 1998 SURE alumnus
- Dr. Ashok Singh
- Eric Rahrmann, PhD, Assistant Professor, The Hormel Institute (from Byron, Minnesota)
- Jennifer Boyle, University of Minnesota-Rochester Graduate Student (from Austin, Minnesota)
- Dr. Teresa DiColandrea
As the symposium drew to a close, The Hormel Institute Executive Director Robert Clarke, PhD, offered SURE interns and other attendees some parting words of wisdom.
“If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life,” said Dr. Clarke. “The hard part is figuring out what it is that you love to do—particularly when you’re not sure and you’re just getting started. Every journey that we take, we do not take it alone.
“All of us, whatever path we’re on, our friends and family and colleagues around us, they come and go as we take our path. We should remember always to be aware of them: how they can help us, how we can help them … They are on your journey just as you are on theirs. … You’re the one who has to make your path work for you. We’re happy that you came here and took a few of those steps with us.”
Following the symposium, attendees stepped out of the RLLC Auditorium and into a networking reception and abstract poster session highlighting the progress of current The Hormel Institute research.