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Finding Genes to Fight Cancer: Kimmy Leverenz's Summer Internship

By Kimmy Leverenz, '12

Kimmy Leverenz is a senior majoring in chemistry-biochemistry with a Gerstacker management minor with a concentration in anoconc and is a member of the Prentiss M. Brown Honors Program. She is the daughter of John and Catherine Leverenz of Grosse Pointe and a graduate of Grosse Pointe South High School.
Kimmy Leverenz in her research lab at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Leverenz is a senior majoring in chemistry-biochemistry with a Gerstacker management minor and is a member of the Prentiss M. Brown Honors Program. She is the daughter of John, '78, and Catherine Martin Leverenz, '78, of Grosse Pointe, Mich., and a graduate of Grosse Pointe South High School.

Almost every day, I look at my watch, feeling like I have been there for a few hours, and all of a sudden it is 5 o'clock. I also really like the idea that the work I am doing could potentially help a great deal of people, one reason I want to go into medicine. I have been interning this summer at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center in Ann Arbor. It's an amazing experience for an undergraduate student and I feel very lucky to have been awarded this opportunity!

Most importantly, the skills I have gained from this experience are invaluable to my goal for a career in medicine. I have learned how to thaw, treat, and grow cell cultures, and then isolate their RNA. My research lab doesn't come with answers in the back of a book, or correct or incorrect direction to take at each step. I even used to hate using a microscope in class, but in the research lab, I've really grown to like it.

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