TRIP Takeoff! by Catalina Edu

Hello everyone! My name is Catalina Edu and I am a junior at Abington Senior High School. I am extremely excited for the kickoff to TRIP and I am looking forward to learning and growing closer with my peers. I found out about TRIP from school’s HOSA (Health Occupations of Students of America) and immediately knew this would be something I would be interested in. I have always loved science and after being in HOSA for multiple years and attending the State Leadership Conference last year, my interest in a scientific and medical career solidified. TRIP is a fantastic program due to its educational yet creative opportunities and I couldn’t be more lucky than to be here with my wonderful instructors and fellow students!

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A bit about myself: I love to stay busy and am involved in many things both science and non-science related. I play the cello in my school orchestra and outside of school. I am also president of my school’s HOSA chapter and am highly invested in the club. I also am involved and hold leadership in my school’s Medical Club, Key Club, and Science National Honors Society. I volunteer at a local hospital on Wednesdays as a Unit Aide and volunteered in a research lab here at Fox Chase this past summer. Once a month, I hold meetings for my student-led kids STEM program where me and other students teach a STEM lesson to elementary school children at my local library, followed by a correlating fun activity. In my free time I love to go downtown and go on walks with my friends and travel with my family. Fun fact: I am bilingual! I am fluent in Romanian and visit my family in Romania every other summer. I love to crochet, listen to music, go to concerts, go hiking, and cook/bake! To relax I enjoy watching my two year old baby tortoise Pistachio crawl around my backyard when it is nice outside. I am quite friendly and always up for a challenge so I believe that TRIP is going to be an incredible experience and I can’t wait to see where it leads

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On the first day of TRIP we started off with a lecture and an icebreaker for people to get to know each other better. We learned about our responsibilities, timeline, and how we can begin to navigate our kickoff experiment. We then visited the lab to begin working on our kickoff experiment! We started by doing some micropipetting exercises. I had previous experience working with micropipettes and scales but the TRIP instructors gave me insightful tricks and tips on how to get the most accurate measurements and work most efficiently. We also began making the fly food for our kickoff experiment. My question is: Does intestinal inflammation impact adult fly anxiety? And does diet have a proactive effect? The drug for my experiment is licorice and the stressor is soap. Once we did the calculations and prepared the fly food with the correct dosages of drug and stressor we got the chance to work together on a packet about making solutions and dilutions. Lastly, we got to take home our own vile of flies to watch the development process throughout the week and record our findings. Already, I’ve enjoyed every minute of TRIP and am excited to explore and see everyone’s research come together

On the first day of TRIP we started off with a lecture and an icebreaker for people to get to know each other better. We learned about our responsibilities, timeline, and how we can begin to navigate our kickoff experiment. We then visited the lab to begin working on our kickoff experiment! We started by doing some micropipetting exercises. I had previous experience working with micropipettes and scales but the TRIP instructors gave me insightful tricks and tips on how to get the most accurate measurements and work most efficiently. We also began making the fly food for our kickoff experiment. My question is: Does intestinal inflammation impact adult fly anxiety? And does diet have a proactive effect? The drug for my experiment is licorice and the stressor is soap. Once we did the calculations and prepared the fly food with the correct dosages of drug and stressor we got the chance to work together on a packet about making solutions and dilutions. Lastly, we got to take home our own vile of flies to watch the development process throughout the week and record our findings. Already, I’ve enjoyed every minute of TRIP and am excited to explore and see everyone’s research come together!

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