Campbell Medicine Spotlight Medical Student Summer Research Scholars The Medical Student Summer Research Scholars (MSSRS) Program is a summer research opportunity open to rising MS-II students only. The project period is 7 weeks during the summer, and students are expected to devote at least 6 full weeks to the project. Students attend weekly work-in-progress sessions and provide the opportunity for MSSRS participants to present their work to student peers. A final report is presented in the form of a poster or oral presentation at a local, regional, or national meeting. The Interprofessional Education Symposium held each spring at Campbell University is an opportunity to present, and all MSSRS participants are encouraged to present a poster at the event. ROBYN NARON
Hometown: High Point, NC Education: Bachelor of Science in Psychology, University of North Carolina; Masters in Public Heath, A.T. Still University Hobbies: Spending time with my husband and two pups; hanging out with friends and family; listening to live music; watching College Basketball (Go Heels!); exploring new cities, reading, soccer, hiking, baking, working with children, and giving back to my community. Project title and research role: Analysis of Pediatric Car Seat Restraint Use in Rural Emergency Department I served as one of the primary investigators for this project by collecting and analyzing survey data in collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth Gignac, two Emergency Medicine Residents at UNC Southeastern Regional Medical Center, and two fellow CUSOM medical students. UNC Southeastern is located in Robeson County, NC and is the home to one of CUSOM’s clinical sites and residency programs. Robeson County has one of the highest percentages of pediatric trauma by motor vehicle crash due to improper restraint use in the state. Our goal was to examine why this is happening in hopes to shape future community-based health interventions on this issue. Why did you choose to participate in the summer scholars program and what are you learning? I am very interested in pediatric medicine and wanted to find a clinical research opportunity that combined my love for pediatrics while expanding my experiences in scholarly research. I love the idea of being able to make a difference at a community-level, so the project at UNC Southeastern appealed to me for so many reasons. The Summer Scholars program is so much more than just involvement with a research project. Since I participated in a clinical project, I also had the opportunity to shadow within the Emergency Department and found this experience extremely valuable to my medical education. We also had small group meetings weekly with several CUSOM faculty members to advance our knowledge on the research process and challenge us to become confident student researchers.
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Advice to MS-I’s and future medical students: Surround yourself with people who will lift you up and support you through this process. I would have felt so lost through my first-year of medical school without my friends, study buddies, family, and the encouraging staff at CUSOM. Having a strong support network can make all the difference during the particularly tough weeks. Also, please don’t be afraid to reach out to older students for encouragement – we have been in your shoes and can offer some very valuable advice!
JUSTIN BAIRD
Hometown: Raleigh, NC Education: Bachelor of Science in Physiology and Neurobiology, NC State University; Master of Science in Medical Sciences, LECOM-Bradenton Hobbies: Weight lifting, basketball, camping, night life, trying new restaurants, and traveling Research project title and role: Deltoid Fiber Architecture. PI: Dr. Maxx Toler My role, along with my partner Sarah Bogan, was to dissect a few cadavers and take measurements of the deltoid muscle. We also performed acid digestion of the muscles and measured the lengths of the individual muscle fibers. I also helped to create an oral presentation and write a paper with the summary of our findings. Why did you choose to participate in the Summer Scholars Program and what did you learn? I applied to participate because I wanted to use my summer to learn more about the field of research. I thought it would be beneficial to put on my resume in the future when applying to residencies. It also gave me the opportunity to learn more about cadavers since we did not have an in-person anatomy lab during our first year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I learned how to dissect cadavers in the anatomy lab – due to COVID-19, my class had not had that opportunity. I also was able to build a closer relationship with anatomy faculty members and some fellow classmates. I also learned how to present research in a presentation and in a final research paper summarizing our findings. I learned a lot about other research projects from fellow medical students’ presentations C AMPBELL MEDICINE NE WSLET TER
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