Looking back on his Peruvian experience, Ryan Haley describes it as both a painful and rewarding experience. He quickly adds, “I would do it again in a heartbeat.” Ryan is finishing his last year as a biochemistry major and will be graduating in May 2008. Although he originally envisioned himself as a scientific researcher, following his experience in Peru, Ryan realized the demand there was for physicians not only in the United States but throughout the world. Now Ryan is feverishly applying to medical schools. He is glad he received “real world” experience during his SURF Abroad project; he also learned that travel and research demand flexibility. “You may not get what you want, but you get something.”
For Dr. Louis S. Tisa, mentoring is synonymous to teaching; “I try to help my students reach their full potential in any of their endeavors,” he explains. When Ryan approached Dr. Tisa with a SURF proposal to study malaria in Peru, Tisa was very supportive. Having worked with Ryan over the last year and half, Tisa knew that Ryan’s work ethic would benefit both his experience and his on–site research. When asked if he too has benefited from Ryan’s experience, he quickly responds, “What I gained from this experience was the satisfaction that I helped Ryan broaden his life’s experience by living in another country that had a totally different culture.” Furthermore, he reports that the molecular techniques Ryan learned in Peru have aided him in his classroom lab research. Tisa is an associate professor of microbiology and genetics at the University of New Hampshire. He takes pride in his students’ progress and is proud of his work as a faculty mentor for the Research and Engineering Apprentice Program, in which he mentors socially disadvantaged high school students by encouraging them to pursue careers in math, science, and technology through hands–on experience.
Read Ryan Haley’s research article Drug Resistance in Malaria: A Peruvian Research Experience >>
