{"id":9636,"date":"2011-08-09T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T19:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=9636"},"modified":"2012-12-21T12:39:34","modified_gmt":"2012-12-21T19:39:34","slug":"senior-clears-path-to-international-genetics-research-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/senior-clears-path-to-international-genetics-research-opportunity\/","title":{"rendered":"Senior clears path to international genetics research opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to getting some hands-on experience,\u00a0Chase Ridenour\u00a0<\/strong>isn\u2019t afraid to ask.<\/p>\n

That straightforward approach\u2014combined with talent, planning and focus\u2014has set up a senior year to remember: six months working at the\u00a0Eijkman Institute of Molecular Biology<\/a>\u00a0in Jakarta, Indonesia. And he won\u2019t be washing test tubes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be a life-changing experience,\u201d Ridenour said. The Northern Arizona University senior, pursuing a double major in biology and chemistry, will genotype blood samples from the island of West Sumba as part of a major government project to combat malaria. He will then design new methods of identifying and testing a genetic variant known as G6PDd.<\/p>\n

Asking for the opportunity \u201ctook some guts,\u201d Ridenour said, but that actually turned out to be the easy part. Once the lab agreed to host him, all he had to do to get there was earn three scholarships, negotiate with two consulates and convince a department chair to approve 12 credits of research experience toward graduation.<\/p>\n

The journey began with Ridenour doing what had worked for him as a freshman: simply asking for an opportunity. Back then, he hung around after class with professor\u00a0Michael Ketterer<\/strong>, talking chemistry and asking questions. One of them, eventually, was whether Ridenour could get a spot in Ketterer\u2019s analytical chemistry lab. The answer was yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Center steps up work to expand
\nglobal experiences<\/strong><\/p>\n

Danielle Varnes<\/strong>\u00a0is still settling into her new role as international internship coordinator for the Center for International Education, but she expects her work to become much more visible across campus as the fall semester ensues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to be getting a lot of exposure,\u201d Varnes said, some of which will come through extensive classroom visits. Her mission, and that of the center, is to bolster Northern Arizona University\u2019s push toward global education by supporting and expanding international internships and research.<\/p>\n

The work is more than just a matter of helping students secure course credits for their experiential learning. \u201cWe want to keep students safe and keep the dialogue going about the quality of the projects they\u2019re working on,\u201d Varnes said.<\/p>\n

Going abroad for internships, research or service work is no simple task. In her coordinator role, Varnes helps students secure and prepare for their internship or research project abroad for the benefit of the student and the university.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first batch of internship and research students was sent abroad this summer,\u201d Varnes said. After that initial group of 12, and 12 more in the fall, \u201cwe expect a substantial increase.\u201d<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

By last year, Ridenour transitioned to assistant professor\u00a0Jason Wilder\u2019s\u00a0<\/strong>genetics research lab as a way to fulfill his\u00a0Beckman Scholarship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There, he met Ari Satyagraha, one of Wilder\u2019s collaborators from the Eijkman Institute. Conversations ensued. An invitation from Satyagraha to intern at the Indonesian lab followed. But Ridenour would have to figure out how to get there.<\/p>\n

Ridenour began simply enough. \u201cI just went to the NAU website and started looking at international scholarships,\u201d he said.\u00a0 His self-motivated pursuit, with guidance from\u00a0Danielle Varnes<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Jannan Poppen<\/strong>\u00a0in the\u00a0Center for International Education<\/a>, brought him to three scholarship applications\u2014all of which resulted in awards: The\u00a0Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship<\/a>, via the U.S. State Department; the GO scholarship, granted through CIE; and the Bayless Scholarship, awarded by the Department of Biological Sciences. Together, they are financing Ridenour\u2019s internship.<\/p>\n

Once in Indonesia, Ridenour will contribute to a study with widespread implications for malaria prevention. \u201cA G6PDd deficiency,\u201d he explained, \u201cis strongly correlated to resistance to one form of malaria,\u00a0Plasmodium vivax<\/em>. But those with the deficiency also may react negatively to anti-malarial drugs.\u201d A reaction, he said, which can be fatal. \u201cThe government needs to know where to use which anti-malarial drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ridenour plans to post updates to his\u00a0“Take That, Malaria”<\/a>\u00a0blog\u00a0<\/a>during the internship, in part to fulfill the terms of his Gilman scholarship, and he hopes to informally pick up some foreign language skills while there. After his return and graduation, he expects to take a year off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t had a ton of time to look at grad schools,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve thought about the idea of going to med school, so I\u2019ll probably look at volunteering at a hospital. And I\u2019ll try to get into a lab just to keep my skills up.\u201d<\/p>\n

If experience means anything, all he\u2019ll have to do is ask.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to getting some hands-on experience,\u00a0Chase Ridenour\u00a0isn\u2019t afraid to ask. That straightforward approach\u2014combined with talent, planning and focus\u2014has set up a senior year to remember: six months working at the\u00a0Eijkman Institute of Molecular Biology\u00a0in Jakarta, Indonesia. And he won\u2019t be washing test tubes. \u201cThis will be a life-changing experience,\u201d Ridenour said. The Northern…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":9637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}