{"id":11547,"date":"2012-03-21T11:00:15","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T15:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=11547"},"modified":"2015-03-06T09:33:11","modified_gmt":"2015-03-06T14:33:11","slug":"researching-epilepsy-in-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2012\/03\/21\/researching-epilepsy-in-brazil\/","title":{"rendered":"Researching epilepsy in Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Editor\u2019s note: This is the first of four stories in the weekly &#8220;Opening Doors&#8221; series about Wright State programs that provide laboratory research and training opportunities in the biomedical sciences for students of underrepresented minorities. The programs are directed by the Boonshoft School of Medicine\u2019s Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology.<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_11553\" style=\"width: 245px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2012\/03\/21\/researching-epilepsy-in-brazil\/amma-boakye-550x700\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11553\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11553\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11553\" src=\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2012\/03\/Amma-Boakye-550x700-235x300.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Amma Boakye\" width=\"235\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-11553\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Boakye, a junior majoring in exercise biology who hopes to attend medical school, started her adventure in her sophomore year with a simple computer mouse click.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>With parents from Ghana who had lived in Canada and Pennsylvania before settling in Clayton, Amma Boakye had an itch to travel that she did not think she could scratch by attending nearby Wright State University.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had my heart set on going out of state, but that\u2019s pretty expensive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>But choosing the local option is helping Boakye go far\u2014geographically as well as academically.<\/p>\n<p>At Wright State, Boakye also discovered a program that could satisfy her wanderlust while meeting her academic needs. It was Translational Biomedical Training for Underrepresented Minorities, a research apprenticeship program in which U.S. and Brazilian students spend time in each other\u2019s countries.<\/p>\n<div class=\"text-callout series-box right\"><h3 class=\"title\">Series: <em>Opening Doors<\/em><\/h3><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2012\/04\/13\/mothers-affliction-motivated-woman-to-participate-in-wright-states-grad-prep-program\/\">Mother\u2019s affliction motivated student to participate in Wright State\u2019s GRAD-PREP program<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2012\/04\/06\/seeing-ones-ability-not-disability\/\">Seeing one\u2019s ability, not disability<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2012\/03\/30\/biostar-steers-undergraduate-toward-research-on-his-way-to-a-career-in-biomedical-sciences-orly-leiva-is-following-a-star\/\">BioSTAR steers undergraduate toward research<\/a><\/li><li><strong>Researching epilepsy in Brazil<\/strong><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n<p>Boakye, a junior majoring in exercise biology who hopes to attend medical school, started her adventure in her sophomore year with a simple computer mouse click.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn a whim, through all those emails you get here, I thought, \u2018I\u2019m going to open this Biology Club one. Maybe there\u2019s something interesting going on,\u2019 \u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>It turned out to be an announcement about the program.<\/p>\n<p>Wright State, Boakye learned, is a partner in an innovative program that offers participants hands-on exposure to biomedical research in Brazil. The students pay tuition at their home institutions and receive academic credit for their lab experience. They also receive financial support for housing and travel.<\/p>\n<p>The program is led by Mariana Morris, Ph.D., of Wright State. Catherine Winslow, B.S., is the program\u2019s administrator.\u00a0 In Brazil, the program is led by Maria Claudia Irigoyen, M.D. and Ph.D., from InCor Heart Hospital at the University of Sao Paulo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFewer than 4 percent of minority students in the United States participate in foreign exchange programs,\u201d said Morris, Distinguished Professor of Research, chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and assistant vice president for graduate programs at Wright State. \u201cThis program makes it possible for more underrepresented students to study abroad, while focusing on diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes that lead to health disparities in both the United States and Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The program\u2019s ultimate goal is to encourage students from population groups that are underrepresented in biomedical sciences, such as African Americans, first generation college students or students with disabilities, to pursue high-level careers in that field.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really wanted to study abroad, but usually you don\u2019t get to study abroad if you\u2019re a science major,\u201d Boakye said. The courses available generally don\u2019t match what science majors need, and their requirements offer little leeway for electives. \u201cI thought this would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, where it\u2019s actually a science program.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Besides the allure of going abroad, the program offered a rare chance for Boakye, then a sophomore, to get real laboratory experience\u2014something that would help her chances for gaining acceptance to a medical school. \u201cAt first I thought we were just going to take classes. But it is a research-based program. I got to work with grad students. Being a sophomore and just walking into a lab like that, that\u2019s pretty unheard of,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Boakye, who is African American, signed up immediately. \u201cThree weeks later, I was gone. It happened really fast,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>In 2011, Boakye\u2019s group spent three months\u2014March to June\u2014in Sao Paulo, where they worked on research projects directed by Mackenzie Presbyterian University faculty. The Americans lived separately in local residences, an arrangement that immersed them in the local culture.<\/p>\n<p>To Boakye, working in a lab was as novel as living in a foreign country, but she said her lab partners made her feel at home. \u201cThey definitely went out of their way to make me feel welcome. My lab teaching assistant was amazing. She showed me around, took me to her house, and we had cookouts. It was great. I felt like I almost became a part of her family,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Boakye worked on a neuroscience project that used laboratory rats to study epilepsy. She said the experience gave her a chance to see her classroom lessons at work, and she acquired lab skills that have been useful to her back at Wright State.<\/p>\n<p>Boakye said her visit didn\u2019t go without a hitch\u2014she had a dispute over rent money with her Brazilian roommates\u2014but she said she enjoyed the experience and wished she could have stayed longer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you go abroad you change a lot, even though you might not realize it at the moment. You learn a little more about yourself because you see everybody else\u2019s way of thinking and how they behave and act, and you get to compare it to what\u2019s going on at home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Boakye also discovered how research suited her. \u201cI found out about myself that research for me is like running,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t always like the process. But at the end, it\u2019s like a runner\u2019s high. You feel like you really accomplished something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>More information:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Department of Education\u2019s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) provides grants to support innovative educational reform projects that can serve as national models for improving the quality of postsecondary education and increasing student access.\u00a0 One of these programs is the Translational Biomedical Training for Underrepresented Minorities. The program is open to undergraduate and graduate students. It encourages underrepresented minorities to apply. To qualify, students must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents, must be in good standing with one of the U.S. partner schools, and must have completed at least one quarter or semester of Portuguese language training.<\/p>\n<p>Phone: (937) 775-2463<br \/>\nEmail: catherine.winslow@wright.edu<\/p>\n<p>Visit <strong>www.med.wright.edu\/bse<\/strong> to learn more.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Next week: BioSTAR steers an undergraduate toward a research career.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By staying close to home for college, Amma Boakye travels far. <a href=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2012\/03\/21\/researching-epilepsy-in-brazil\/\" class=\"morelink\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":11553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064,2016,715,2132,18,746],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biology","category-medicine","category-news","category-pharmacology-and-toxicology","category-research","category-science-mathematics","series-opening-doors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11547"}],"version-history":[{"count":65,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35727,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11547\/revisions\/35727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}