Eckerd-MGH interns during their final presentations. Left to right: Senior Project Coordinator Coleen Cunningham, Finn Topham ’27, Maggie Tomaszewski ’27, Kylee Roberts ’27, Brady Schumaker ’28, Allen Chen ’27, Stephanie Wall-Perrogon ’28 and Professor of Neurology Sue Slaugenhaupt ’85 (P ’20), Ph.D. Photo courtesy of Coleen Cunningham.
When Finn Topham graduated from high school, she knew from her work with service dogs and EMT training that she wanted to pursue a career helping others. What she didn’t realize at the time was how her Eckerd College education would give her a new pathway to do that—even at the molecular level.
“I didn’t connect helping people to being a scientist,” says Finn, a senior from Salt Lake City, Utah. “When I got to Eckerd, I was always wanting to learn more about underlying mechanisms, so that’s what drew me to biology and chemistry courses, and eventually I landed as a biochemistry major.”
This summer, Finn was one of six Eckerd students to embark on a prestigious medical experiential learning journey at Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Genomic Medicine. Together with her cohort—Allen Chen ’27, Kylee Roberts ’27, Brady Schumaker ’28, Maggie Tomaszewski ’27, and Stephanie Wall-Perrogon ’28—they studied topics such as type 2 diabetes, autism, familial dysautonomia, Friedreich’s ataxia and Sanfilippo syndrome.
The College began sending summer interns to the Center for Genomic Research at MGH in 2010. Nearly two decades later, 124 Eckerd students have had the opportunity to conduct medical research at one of the nation’s leading hospitals.
Founded by Eckerd Board of Trustees Vice Chair Sue Slaugenhaupt ’85 (P ’20), Ph.D., professor of neurology at MGH and Harvard Medical School, the internship is designed to prepare Eckerd students to pursue careers in the medical field and advanced education. Many Eckerd-MGH alumni have gone on to competitive M.D. and Ph.D. programs, including at Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University and more. Recognizing the program’s impact, Eckerd has created an endowment for the MGH internship and others like it in Boston to ensure generations of students at the College can access this opportunity.
Finn trying out a surgical simulator at MGH’s Paul S. Russell Museum of Medical History and Innovation. Photo by Katie Willgohs ’21.
“The students are remarkably enthusiastic and dedicated to the program and to science,” Slaugenhaupt says. “They all go on to do amazing things.”
Allen Chen, a senior marine science student from Millersville, Maryland, recalls learning about the Eckerd-MGH internship from Associate Professor of Biology Denise Flaherty, Ph.D. “I’d never have this opportunity if I were at a bigger school. I would just be doing dishes every day,” Allen says of the hands-on experience as an undergrad. “But here, we are making the agar plates.”
At MGH, Eckerd students explore new scientific questions and multiple facets of research. “I studied autism, and the way the autism field currently is, most of the research is on one aspect,” describes junior Brady Schumaker, who is also a member of Eckerd’s baseball team. “My project was on a completely uncharted aspect of autism, so it was cool to be able to start from the bottom where nobody has really ventured.”
“I feel like I got so much more out of it than just lab skills,” shares Maggie Tomaszewski, a senior biology student from Louisville, Kentucky. “I learned so much about scientific communication and formed relationships with people in positions that I look up to, like postdocs, grad students and principal investigators.”
The biggest takeaway of the summer? How much their Eckerd education equipped them to work in cutting-edge research labs.
“When I got to MGH, every single lab technique that we used in my Advanced Molecular Techniques course, I used here. I felt so prepared,” reflects Stephanie Wall-Perrogon, a junior biology student from Naples, Florida. “They asked, have you done this before? I was like, yes, actually.”
Kylee Roberts, a senior biology and psychology student from Tampa, Florida, says she was surprised by how much the subject matter from her upper-level classes was directly applicable to the research she did over the summer.
Kylee’s summer studies centered around type 2 diabetes. Photo by Katie Willgohs ’21.
Every summer, Sue takes the Eckerd-MGH interns on a boat cruise around Boston Harbor to celebrate the culmination of their studies. Photo courtesy of Coleen Cunningham.
“I always knew that I was getting a good education at Eckerd, but it was so rewarding to feel like all of my hard work paid off, especially to see it applied in a real-life scenario that really mattered,” Kylee adds. “It felt really good, like I had made the right decision going to Eckerd.”
Many of the Eckerd-MGH interns will be able to continue their research pursuits when they return to campus—and in true liberal arts fashion, they are examining how biology intersects with other disciplines. Kylee and Finn are members of the College’s Behavioral Neuroscience Lab, investigating the role of biopsychology in various behavioral and cognitive processes under the supervision of Assistant Professor of Psychology Katherine Dyer, Ph.D. Maggie is a member of the Lancaster Invert Team Lab led by Assistant Professor of Marine Biology Emily Lancaster, Ph.D., where she studies environmental DNA (eDNA) off the College’s seawall in Boca Ciega Bay.
“Eckerd being the small place that it is with supportive faculty, and just the fact that when you go to sign up for classes, you can take any class that you want—I think that really changed the narrative for me,” Finn says. “You can pretty much do anything with your life, it just depends on what kind of challenge you want to undergo.”
