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Neuroscience major Erin Kenning ’05 (Gulph Mills, Pa.) is researching Turner’s syndrome, premature ovarian function, and mood in relation to thyroid function in an internship at the National Institute of Mental Health in Washington, D.C. this summer.
She is working with psychologist Peter Schmidt and his two fellows, Khursheed Khine and Jamie Luff, in the behavioral endocrinology department as she mulls over the options of attending medical or graduate school after earning her college degree.
“This internship is part of a series of personal experiences that I began a year ago in order to see what I might like to do as a career eventually,” says Kenning, who has worked one-on-one with a physical therapist and a surgeon in the past.
When considering internship possibilities, Erin sought an experience in an area more urban than her hometown. She began researching opportunities in October and applied to the U.S. Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs and the National Institute of Mental Health, as well as companies abroad.
“One of my criteria was living somewhere exciting, somewhere other than a suburb of Pennsylvania,” says Kenning. “I always wanted to work in DC, but getting back and forth from my home in Pennsylvania wouldn’t be terribly convenient, and as a neuroscience major, psychology and mental health is something that really interests me.”
An officer in Lafayette Society for Neuroscience, Kenning is a member of Alpha Phi sorority and an orientation leader. She takes classical piano lessons and has conducted an internship in the athletics trainer’s office at Kirby Sports Center.