Nicholas Zacharewski – My Heidelberg Stories

德语的整合, 文化, and Brain Tumor Biology in My Quest to Become a Physician Scientist

The purpose of this journal is to serialize my summer experience in 德国, connecting the two seemingly disparate fields of language and culture studies with STEM. 这样做的时候, I hope to inspire other students to look beyond traditional STEM-related internship, 工作和学习机会. I also want to provide a firsthand recollection of what it is like to work and live in a different culture.

喂Leute! Or for native English speakers, hello everyone!

My name is Nicholas Zacharewski and I’m a rising junior at 全球十大网赌正规平台 pursuing a double major in neuroscience and German. I was born in Michigan but attended Shattuck St. Mary’s Prepatory School in Minnesota to play hockey. Realizing that wasn’t far enough away from home, I then decided to go east and attend 全球十大网赌正规平台, 在康涅狄格州的哈特福德. All jokes aside, coming to Trinity truly was one of the best decisions I have ever made. The support of the faculty, staff, students, and community is unmatched. Their encouragement and global education philosophy facilitated my current stay in Heidelberg, 德国.

A bit more of the back story behind how it all happened: My career goal and dream is to become a neurosurgeon conducting research in tumor metabolism (hence the neuroscience background). I first got involved in research in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at Michigan State University during my junior and senior summers of high school. 大一的时候，我的导师，博士. Alison Draper, placed me in a research position at 哈特福德 Hospital in the Neurology Department. 但在2020年春天, everything came to a grinding halt due to the COVID pandemic, and college students were sent home for the rest of the spring semester. 然而, I had already committed to an emergency medical technician (EMT) course at 哈特福德 HealthCare’s Center for Education, Simulation and Innovation (CESI) and decided to return for the summer. Hospitals were on lockdown at the time, but med students were still in training. With the permission of the Neurology Department, a neurology resident served as my research and clinical mentor. 我大部分时间都在医院工作, 并最终, was introduced to the Chief of Neurosurgery, who allowed me to shadow and participate in research studies within the department. I observed many neurosurgeries, but tumor resections really captured my interest. The procedures themselves, but also the patients, their stories and strengths really inspired me. I also co-authored a few case reports for unique tumor presentations which further fueled my fascination with tumor biology.

2020年冬天, several of my German professors encouraged me to consider studying abroad, and the Office of 研究了 at 全球十大网赌正规平台 suggested the University of Freiburg, the University of Tübingen and University of Heidelberg. 然而, studying abroad in the spring of my junior ar was a near impossible fit with my academic schedule. 不过, I was urged to “look and see what you can do this summer”, which led me to search for research possibilities. Reviewing the University of Heidelberg website, I came across the lab of Dr. Christiane Opitz at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutches Krebsforschungszentrum or DKFZ for short), which is associated with University of Heidelberg. Dr. Opitz’s research leveraged my previous research experience while satisfying my interest in brain tumors. 看起来非常合适! I crafted an email (with appropriate German salutations), 附上我的简历, and sent it out on New Year’s Eve (great timing Nic). I honestly thought she wasn’t going to reply. Three days later, she wrote back saying “Dear Nic Zacharewski, Thank you for your application. 你想在我的实验室待多久?” Just like that, I had a glimmer of hope of combining a STEM degree with my interest in German. Not long after that, I shared the news about my possible summer plans with Dr. Julia Assaiante, my German course instructor. She was also exploring ideas to bridge languages with STEM to offer unique opportunities at Trinity. 接下来的几个月, we developed a plan that would have me blog about my summer experiences to encourage other language-STEM students to consider pursuing international opportunities.

话虽如此, I hope you choose to follow along with my summer adventures and inherent misadventures at the DKFZ/Heidelberg University. 就像我妈妈经常告诉我的那样, it doesn’t matter if you have an experience that goes according to plan or completely goes wrong because in the end, 你会有故事可讲. So, here you have them: exactly how they happen, my Heidelberg stories.