Ananya Shah

• Buddies on Call: Visiting patient rooms and offering different crafts/activities, while also assisting with sanitization in the hospital's playrooms.

• Patient Experience: Support patients by offering friendly visits, conservations, and by providing different activities (such as books, word searches, etc.)
• Hand Hygiene Helper: Assisted in gathering data regarding the handwashing and sanitization habits of the hospital staff.

Synaptic Dysfunction after Traumatic Brain Injury

• I had the amazing opportunity to learn about and help conduct research with Dr. Carlson and his team. I learned proper pipetting technique, how to plate tissue, different types of staining, and many other skills. I also learned how to use different software such as Image J and Prism. One take away from my research was that the lack of alpha-synuclein, a protein that plays a role in synaptic function, leads to an increase of Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein after TBI. Though I focused on the neurological aspect of this research, I also read about about the cognitive results post-TBI, while learning about the Morris Water Maze and beam balance task.

• Assisting students, ranging from kindergarten to 12th grade, with mathematics, writing assignments, and standardized testing.