Senior Lara Eade conducts behavioral observations on the Clearwater Marine Aquarium’s bottlenose dolphins. Photo courtesy Lara Eade
Eckerd College students participating in hands-on learning and internships at local businesses—from a hospital to animal behavior labs—were awarded funding to help with transportation costs.
A Local Transportation Grant of up to $100 each was awarded to 15 Eckerd students participating in internships, research or service learning, with preference for students working in Pinellas County or the greater Tampa Bay area. The grants were made possible by the Norman R. Smith Engaged Learning Endowed Fund, and eligible expenses include gas, Uber or Lyft and public transportation.
Finn Topham, a sophomore biochemistry student from Salt Lake City, Utah, began her internship with Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in February. Nestled in the Research and Education Building, she’s a participant in the Basic Research Pathways internship, genotyping mice cell lines to mimic conditions being studied and using other molecular biology techniques like Polymerase Chain Reaction, which amplifies DNA sequences.
Finn is gaining experience with several projects that postdocs are doing involving liver cancer and retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease.
“Recently, I have been working on a project to study the specific function of the ZNF408 mutation and, sort of, its ties to retinitis pigmentosa,” she says. “It’s hard to, like, simplify it, but it’s essentially just the functional analysis of a gene mutation in retinitis pigmentosa.”
Finn says this internship has allowed her to do a deeper study of the “ideology of disease,” something she’s passionate about. She’s debating whether she wants to pursue medical school or a Ph.D., but either way, she values working in a sophisticated lab to gauge how much research she sees in her future.
Finn used to be a psychology major but felt unfulfilled in that field. She didn’t want to focus on those theoretical applications or wait until she earned a master’s degree to help people but would rather apply her learning now, during undergraduate studies.
In her current field, she feels she can “contribute to the progression of society and advancement of medicine,” she says.
She notes the importance of her small class sizes at Eckerd, too, leaving room to ask questions and take advantage of extensive research opportunities at the undergraduate level. Finn began to find a passion for biochemistry as a member of the Eckerd College Emergency Response Team, which fueled her curiosity to know why things were happening.
Sophomore Finn Topham uses a pipette to move dye into samples for gel electrophoresis at a Johns Hopkins laboratory. Photo courtesy Finn Topham
Lara Eade at ZooTampa at Lowry Park; photo courtesy Lara Eade
“This person is having a heart attack,” she says as a hypothetical, “but I don’t know what’s happening in their body or why it’s happening—and I wanted to know. How can we prevent it? How can we improve treatment?”
She didn’t have a background in STEM prior to college, and faculty such as Associate Professor of Biology Denise Boyce Flaherty, Ph.D., were instrumental in Finn reaching her goals and combating imposter syndrome.
“I feel like that confidence piece and imposter syndrome is something that, like, especially as women, you know, it can hold us back from going after what we’re truly passionate about,” she adds.
Eckerd’s faculty, staff, funding and connections with the broader community are really crucial, Finn emphasizes, such as Assistant Dean of Faculty Kat Robinson, Ph.D., who had shared the grant opportunity with students via email.
Lara Eade’s Behavioral Research Internship at ZooTampa provided her with an opportunity to study social behavior in southern white rhinoceroses. Photo courtesy Lara Eade
Senior animal studies student Lara Eade, from Sykesville, Maryland, also secured $100 from the grant. “I’ve been involved in research since my freshman year,” she says, “and part of that research through the Frick Animal Behavior Lab involves driving once a week to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, where we collect data on the dolphins.”
It can be challenging to self-fund all of the driving back and forth, as it’s about an hour’s drive to the aquarium, she explains, so the Local Transportation Grant eases that stress. Lara has earned the full $100 every semester she has applied.
Currently the student lab manager of the Frick Animal Behavior Lab, she and other researchers conduct longitudinal behavior research with bottlenose and rough-toothed dolphins.
“This has been an ongoing research collaboration [with Clearwater Marine Aquarium] for several years now,” Lara says, “and I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in it almost my entire time at Eckerd.”
It’s a way for students to get involved in everything from the research design process and data collection and analysis to producing posters, papers and presentations, she adds.
“The projects that I’m most interested in take more of a behavior and welfare lens,” Lara says. “So we look at the frequency of certain behaviors and what might be influencing whether or not they’re happening.
“It gives us a lot of information about not only the species but especially them as individuals, allowing for elevation of welfare and ensuring they’re living their best lives.”
Like Finn, Lara is grateful for the opportunity to get involved with hands-on opportunities so early in her undergraduate education. Lara recently began a position as a zoological specialist at Busch Gardens in Tampa, working 28 hours a week around kangaroos, wallabies, parrots and other bird species. As graduation approaches, she hopes the position will eventually transition to a full-time job.
Hands-on learning “helps you build skills a lot faster,” Lara says, and opens your eyes to how your coursework is relevant and meaningful in the career field.
