{"id":2594,"date":"2014-06-04T19:24:51","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T19:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/?p=2594"},"modified":"2014-06-04T19:24:51","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T19:24:51","slug":"from-puerto-rico-to-durham-meet-roy-budding-biologist-and-miami-heat-fan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/from-puerto-rico-to-durham-meet-roy-budding-biologist-and-miami-heat-fan\/","title":{"rendered":"From Puerto Rico to Durham, meet Roy – budding biologist and Miami Heat fan"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Roy Brooks Rivera<\/em><\/p>\n

Hola a todos los lectores del Toxinsider blog, soy uno de los nuevos integrantes de internado del Superfund.\u00a0 For those of you who don\u2019t know Spanish, let me translate: Hi to all of the Toxinsider blog readers, I\u2019m one of the new Superfund interns.\u00a0 I\u2019m coming here from Puerto Rico which is located here:<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A map. That’s Puerto Rico in the circle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Puerto Rico I\u2019m a 3rd<\/sup> year undergrad, majoring in general biology at the Universidad Metropolitana<\/a> which is in San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n

How did I end up in Durham?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I came across this internship opportunity with the Neural and Behavioral Toxicity Assessment Core in the Duke Superfund Research Program and couldn\u2019t pass up applying for a position. I chose the NBTA Core because it sounded like a challenge to me considering I don\u2019t have a background in neurobiology or psychology. Rather than trying to find an internship in something that I might know my way around, I wanted one that would introduce me to a completely new field. This way I will learn as much as I can, experience new things and broaden my horizons in scientific research.<\/p>\n

When I complete my internship, I expect to be well rounded in research procedures and to have become a skillful individual. I hope to learn how to successfully handle zebra fish as well as rats since I will be working with them. I can\u2019t be more specific because I myself don\u2019t know what to expect, but neurobehavioral effects of developmental toxicants in zebra fish does sound really interesting. Since this is my first internship I also hope to generally find my way around the lab and learn how to work with tools that I may need, like setting up trial experiments, getting doses of drugs ready for use and exposing the animals to them. Typically, I\u2019m a more quiet and reserved person, so while I\u2019m here I hope to be able to develop better communication skills to use with my peers as well as with people who are unfamiliar with the work I\u2019m doing in the lab. While this is a research internship and I know I\u2019ll gain scientific research skills, I also hope to obtain skills that will help me grow as an individual.<\/p>\n

\"Roy<\/a>
Roy and the Miami Heat!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What will I do when my internship is finished?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

My first priority is to return to Puerto Rico to finish my degree.\u00a0 I\u2019m still not completely sure what I want to do after I graduate. Every research field is of interest to me. I was lucky enough to go to many seminars and conferences this year, each one on different subjects and they all seemed so interesting to me, so for now I\u2019m just going to keep an open mind and explore as many research fields as I can to see which I enjoy the most. This can go hand in hand with my future goals. I know I want to do something related to medicine and something that positively impacts future generations, but exactly what, I do not know at the moment. If I decide to be a surgeon of some sort, which has been an interest of mine, then my goal is to go to medical school and beyond, but if I decide to be a researcher, then I\u2019ll attend graduate school. But if you couldn\u2019t tell, I like a good challenge, so who knows, maybe both!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Roy Brooks Rivera Hola a todos los lectores del Toxinsider blog, soy uno de los nuevos integrantes de internado del Superfund.\u00a0 For those of you who don\u2019t know Spanish, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[26,39,47,49,176,177,178],"class_list":{"0":"post-2594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-trainees","7":"tag-communication","8":"tag-nbta-core","9":"tag-reu","10":"tag-zebrafish","11":"tag-puerto-rico","12":"tag-universidad-metropolitana","13":"tag-san-juan","14":"czr-hentry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2594"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2601,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2594\/revisions\/2601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}