Pictured: Katharine Repetski poses at Wolf Park (left) and Tumi Adeeko gives a thumbs up at her summer research program (right)

The STEM Professional Services, Careers, Internships, and Co-ops Office works diligently to ensure students across STEM majors have the opportunity to pursue their interests through research, internship, and co-op experiences. These experiences are crucial in career exploration, professional skill-building, networking, and career development and often lead students to their next steps upon graduation. This month we're highlighting four amazing experiences, one from each area of STEM.

SCIENCE

Katharine Repetski– B.S. in Biological Sciences, Minor: Chemistry, Certificate: Forensic Science – Graduation: Fall 2021

Katharine Repetski, a senior majoring in Biological Sciences with a minor in Chemistry and a certificate in Forensic Science, spent Summer 2021 interning at Wolf Park in Battle Ground, Indiana. Wolf Park is an education, conservation, and research facility that studies wolves and other wild canids to learn more about their behavior and assist researchers in the wild. The animals are trained in behaviors for medical purposes to make their treatment more comfortable and voluntary. Katharine primarily participated in animal training and husbandry with bison, red foxes, gray foxes, gray wolves, and a domestic rabbit.

Katharine conducted a research study titled “Prompting Wolf Hunting Behaviors through Enrichment” where she constructed life-like deer replicas filled with deer meat and covered in hide to see if the captive wolves would display increased species-typical behaviors compared to behaviors exhibited when provided with the standard enrichment. Katharine collected and analyzed her own data and finalized her research through a paper and presentation to the staff and interns at Wolf Park. In addition to her primary research project, Katharine was also able to watch gray wolf concept formation research and helped with projects on gray fox nutrition and a study on Alzheimer's in Canids. She also had the opportunity to assist Dr. Susan Friedman, Applied Behavior Analyst, during an online seminar discussing red fox medical box training.

Aside from her research, Katharine also had a role interacting with the visitors at the Park, where she gave keeper chats on species within the facility. After providing several tours, she expanded her educational reach and lead a talk on the Indiana Bat and their impact on the ecosystem, as the Wolf Park has 37 acres dedicated to the conservation of the native species. Katharine’s other experiences at Wolf Park included learning animal behavior, preparing animal diets, administering medication, observing and assisting in medical check-ups and procedures, providing enrichment, landscaping, gardening, designing public programs, giving tours, working retail, office duties, attending numerous educational seminars, and practicing wildlife photography. 

Throughout this experience, Katharine has grown in many ways. She has gained research experience, improved her public speaking skills and more knowledge on the topics of animals, conservation laws, non-profits and animal husbandry experience. Additionally, the internship helped her to solidify her desire to work in research with large carnivores. After her Fall 2021 graduation, Katharine plans to attend graduate school to earn a PhD in Wildlife Biology with the goal of doing research with large carnivores such as wolves, tigers, and lions.

TECHNOLOGY

Anup Chhetri – B.S. Computer Science, B.S. Mathematics – Graduation: Spring 2022

Over Summer 2021, Anup Chhetri, a senior double majoring in Computer Science and Mathematics, completed an internship with Highmark Health, a health and wellness organization located in Pittsburgh, PA that operates health insurance plans in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and West Virginia. He served on the Reporting & Analytics Team in their Department of Finance Innovation and Transformation.

Anup worked on many projects with the team including predictive analysis using R and Python, data visualization using Tableau and Power BI, and data management using SQL Database. Anup’s first project was working with the organization’s internal audit team to create a clear audit trail of ownership and description within the report catalog of OTBI and BI Publisher reports. He also worked with Hypercare, a support system, to provide customer support and training to users on Oracle reporting. Additionally, Anup assisted with the implementation of the OTBI Dashboard to ease report tracking and minimize errors with reports. Finally, Anup participated in a group project which involved standardizing projection and programming of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) within his department.

Overall, Anup gained several new skills throughout his summer experience. Technically, he gained in-depth experience with OTBI and Power BI. On a professional level, Anup acquired or improved his communication skills, ability to work in a team, saying yes to challenges, punctuality and being comfortable asking questions. Additionally, he enhanced his network by connecting with individuals across the organization. Anup is continuing his internship with Highmark Health this Fall and is preparing for the workforce upon graduation in Spring 2022. After a few years in the workforce, he hopes to pursue an M.S. in Data Science and Analytics.

ENGINEERING

Oluwatumininu (Tumi) Adeeko- B.E. Mechanical Engineering, Graduation: Spring 2023

Last summer, Miss Oluwatumininu (Tumi) Adeeko, currently a junior in the Mechanical Engineering Program at YSU, served as a Wen H. Ko Intern with the Cleveland VA Medical Research and Education Foundation at the Advanced Platform Technology (APT) Center. Her two projects were the "Mechanical characterization of Nitinol wires used in orthodontics" and the "Incorporation of NanoJet aerosol printing for use in clinical devices." Although she was hired through the VA, she did most of her research at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), one of the VA's academic affiliates, under the supervision of Dr. Janet Gbur. Dr. Gbur, a Senior Research Associate at CWRU and Investigator with the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center is a YSU Mechanical Engineering Program alumna.

During her internship, Miss Adeeko specialized in mechanical testing and failure analysis of biomaterials. Her research focused on tensile and fatigue testing of shape memory alloy (Nitinol) wires used in orthodontic applications, and fracture analysis using optical and electron microscopy. The equipment she used for these tasks were the Instru-Met-1130 tensile tester, the Bell fatigue ductility flex tester, Keyence VHX-7000 for optical microscopy, and a Thermo Fisher Apreo scanning electron microscope (SEM). She also had the opportunity to use the NanoJet aerosol printer, the first of its kind on CWRU's campus.

Tumi attributes her success to the strong academic background received at YSU before the internship. She explained that classes like Engineering Materials (MECH 2606) and Engineering Communications with CAD (ENGR 1560) provided her with enough background in engineering materials and 3D modeling to execute her tasks. During her internship, Tumi presented her work on many occasions, one of which was at the SOURCE symposium hosted by Case Western Reserve University. You can watch her presentation for the symposium here.

MATHEMATICS

Elaine Guthrie – B.S. Mathematics, Minor: Actuarial Science – Graduation: Spring 2022

After the completion of her third year at YSU, Elaine Guthrie, a senior majoring in Mathematics with a minor in Actuarial Science, completed her first internship as a Finance Student Trainee with Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) over Summer 2021. DFAS is an agency of the Department of Defense that handles all accounting and finance for U.S. military departments. While DFAS has several sites, Elaine worked at the Cleveland, OH site which handles payment for the Navy, Marine Corps and all civilians. Her first interaction with DFAS was at our Spring 2021 Virtual STEM Expo!

During her 15-week tenure, Elaine was a member of the Vault Team in the Disbursing Department and was the only intern that had a hybrid schedule, rather than fully remote. Her individual projects included handling returned payments and database upload rejects. By the end of the summer, she handled over $11 million! In addition to her individual projects, she did a number of group projects. One large project included working with the Navy Budget submitting officers to improve communication and understanding between the two parties since they work together very closely on a regular basis. Additionally, she took part in a large data collection project that involved understanding why checks were being returned more frequently. Finally, Elaine was selected to represent Cleveland and assist with providing a sense of connection and social interaction between the interns across the 5 sites.

Elaine has stated that this internship has helped her to develop employer-desired skills and gain experience in the field. It has also helped her to make career decisions, gain networking opportunities and find mentors. Some of the main skills that Elaine felt she acquired or improved include presentation skills, ability to work in a team, flexibility, overcoming setbacks, professionalism and learning industry-specific systems. After her Spring 2022 graduation, Elaine will join DFAS as a full-time employee!