Lauren's Story - Asia PGI's First Intern
"During the summer of 2022, I worked at the Duke-NUS Centre for Outbreak Preparedness. I had just completed my first year of undergraduate study as a public health major, and was looking for ways to supplement my learning by engaging in an immersive internship experience. Prior to interning at Duke-NUS, I knew that my interests lay within the field of public health, but I did not know much about the various avenues within the discipline itself.
While at the Centre for Outbreak Preparedness, most of my work was housed within the Asia Pathogen Genomics Initiative (Asia PGI). I assisted with the landscape assessment research by collating reference libraries, summarising existing publications and grey literature, and crafting literature reviews. From a research standpoint, I learned a lot about scientific databases and how to go about searching for and organizing academic papers and journal articles. This is a skillset that I still find myself turning to today, whenever I need to source peer-reviewed references for my coursework. From a technical standpoint, interning at the Asia PGI opened my eyes to the field of epidemiology and introduced me to the world of genomic sequencing for public health surveillance. I attended lectures where I learned about the various sequencing platforms, and then got the opportunity to visit some of the sequencing sites with the team. These visits proved to be incredibly meaningful, for when it came time to return to school in the fall, I was able to make connections between my classroom learning and the real-world mechanisms that I had been so fortunate to witness.
My time at Duke-NUS was transformative in exposing me to the many dimensions of public and global health, and I often reflect on my experiences with fondness and gratitude. As I prepare to begin my senior year of university, I am still in the process of figuring out my next steps. However, I know that the skills that I gained during my internship will benefit me in whatever path I choose to take."
Lauren Lee
Undergraduate student at UC San Diego
Lauren's farewell lunch after her 2-month long internship with Asia PGI