Pharmacy faculty, students share experiences with paid summer internship program

The �������� School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is giving its students the chance to learn, even when class isn’t in session. Over the summer, several undergraduate and pharmacy students took part in a paid summer internship in coordination with the Fleishman Center.

Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences John Fetse said the internship offered a valuable opportunity for the student to gain hands-on experience in peptide drug discovery, including solid-phase peptide synthesis and protein–protein interaction screening.

“Their contributions meaningfully advanced our lab’s efforts to develop next-generation peptide therapeutics,” he said. “This experience not only accelerated our research progress but also provided the student with critical skills for their future scientific career.”

Sophia Ruggerio, a third-year pharmacy student, said her experience in the internship program was very immersive.

“I learned more about teamwork and communication and had the opportunity to utilize these skills throughout my research,” she said. “This was my first time getting involved in research, so it was exciting to work through the research process and expand my knowledge.”

Thanks to this experience, Ruggerio would highly recommend the internship to future students.

“This internship allows students to get more involved at SOPPS and further explore areas that they are interested in,” she said. “Through this opportunity, students can also discover new subjects they are passionate about and enrich themselves in the research process.”

Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Katie Edwards was also involved in the program, letting students use her lab throughout the summer.

“Students learned to conduct assays examining how common medications influence enzymes in the pentose-phosphate pathway,” she said. “Through projects like these, students not only contribute to meaningful scientific inquiry but also grow personally and professionally, whether by making significant progress on their research or by gaining insight into their own strengths and career aspirations.”

Another pharmacy student who participated in the internship, Diya Wadhwani, studied under Edwards during the summer.

“Honestly, I never thought I’d be using that material in real life so soon,” Wadhwani said. “But I realized during this internship that even the smallest formulas we learned in class, like M1V1 = M2V2, are so important and come up in daily research work. Professor Edwards is such a patient and supportive mentor. She takes time to explain every step clearly, and right now, as we’re analyzing data, she’s guiding us really well. It was such a different but meaningful experience compared to regular classes.”

Wadhwani also would recommend the summer internship to future students.

“It connects classroom knowledge with real-world application in such a meaningful way,” Wadhwani said. “You not only build technical research skills, but you also learn patience, adaptability and teamwork. Plus, you get direct mentorship from faculty like Professor Edwards, who really invests time in teaching you. It’s a chance to understand how pharmacy is both science and practice, and that’s an experience every student can benefit from.”

It wasn’t just pharmacy students who participated in the internship program. Undergraduate student Benjamin Reinhard studied under Assistant Professor Yuanjun “Steve” Shen, working on different lab techniques and statistical analysis.

“Working in the Shen Lab this summer through the �������� SOPPS Summer Research Program has been an absolute pleasure,” he said. “I have learned a great deal about scientific writing and presentation from Professor Shen. As an undergraduate student, it was also extremely gratifying to actually contribute toward a real-world solution to a problem like Professor Shen’s main focus of study, pulmonary arterial hypertension.”