Stephanie Kane
Spring 2007
Internship with Representative Dorothea Schäfer of the Rhineland-Palatinate Parliament
Interning with Representative Dorothea Schäfer of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) was a very rewarding opportunity, through which I gained an invaluable insight into the parliamentary institution. I provided Representative Schäfer with updates on developing political issues pertinent to her various fields of specialization and accompanied her to the CDU working groups, their corresponding committee meetings, and multiple sessions of parliament as well. This internship exposed me to the intense, fast paced, real time pace of politics and gave me a greater appreciation for the intricacies of partisan politics and the inner workings of the parliamentary institution. Furthermore, it enabled me to gain work experience directly related to my academic interests as a double major in German and International Studies major with a specialization in political science. While gaining invaluable practical work experience interning for an elected official of the Rhineland-Palatinate State Parliament, my German language skills and understanding of German cultural were also greatly enhanced.
Cecil Ozturk
Spring 2004
Ülker Radziwill
I did an internship with Ülker Radziwill, who is a member of SPD (Social Democrat Party of Germany) and the State Parliament of Berlin. I was assigned to do research on various topics, on which she was responsible for making speech in the Committee meetings. Since she was a member of the Committees of Health, Integration, Immigration and Consumer Rights and Economic and Technological Development, my research assignments were based mostly on the social issues that currently concern Berlin. Other than that, I have attended the committee and the Parliament meetings and had a great opportunity to experience the political scene of Berlin.
Andrew FANOUS
Spring 2004
Biochemistry Department: Freie Universität
My internship this semester was at the biochemistry department of the Freie Universität. There I undertook the investigation of a new splice variant discovered in our laboratories for a protein believed to be involved in pain transmission. The known splice variants of the protein are found both in brain and the spinal cord. However, our splice variant could be only detected in the latter. The detection is done via a lectin molecule. For it is practically hard to work with human spinal cord, we have been isolating our protein from the spinal cord of pigs, which are believed to be evolutionary close to humans. After isolating the protein, I investigated the location of the lectin reactivity and the amount and location of glycosilation on our new splice variant. We believe that our experiments could lead into shedding more light on how pain is transmitted from the peripheries to the brain. We already have evidence about that, since we also demonstrated that our splice variant is down regulated in rat pain-models. During my internship, I performed gel electrophoresis, Western blotting, immunhistochemistry and dot blotting among other techniques.
I learned a lot during this internship and am now encouraged to consider a career related to research. Forced to interact with people in German in my laboratory, I dramatically improved my spoken skills and what they call in German contact language, which is rather different from the language taught in classrooms, spoken by professors and government officials or even written in newspapers. Unfortunate incidents due to language misunderstanding, such as decolorizing instead of colorizing a gel and consequently having to repeat a 2-weeks amount of work, were common at the beginning but ended up disappearing towards the end of the semester. Such an initially tough learning process was therefore eventually fruitful and rewarding. Having established a connection with the biochemistry department here in Berlin, Middlebury should seize the opportunity of advertising such possibilities to students majoring in natural sciences and offer them the opportunity to enjoy a year of studying abroad.
Swethe SRIDHARAN
Spring 2003
Abgeordnetenhaus
I was working as an assistant to a member of the Regional Parliament of Berlin. Uelker Radziwill was a member of the Social Democratic Party and in the following working committees: "Health, Social Welfare, Migration and Consumer Protection" and "Economy, Businesses and Technology". I analyzed the social and legal integration of Middle-Eastern minorities into the German community using government sources, meetings with government officials, affected individuals and organizations. I also contributed to the guide to integration created by the Social Democratic party, which was presented to the Working Committee for Health, Social Welfare, Migration and Consumer Protection. Finally, I quantitatively analyzed naturalization and immigration trends since the initiation of German labor import. It was a very enjoyable internship. I worked with a very motivated individual and the workplace was one that is integral to the life of all those who live in Berlin.