A WSU junior has been selected to participate in a prestigious internship at Cornell University. Rachel Daniel, an Agricultural Biotechnology major, will participate in the two month internship program beginning in June. Researchers in Cornell’s Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology mentor summer scholars in a program in which undergraduate scientists pursue research projects.
Rachel Daniel, an undergraduate scientist at WSU, heads to Cornell this summer to participate in a prestigious internship. “Honestly, I felt it would be a long shot that I would get in because I knew there would be many applicants and Cornell is very prestigious,” Daniel said. “But this program sounded so interesting to me; they had several projects that were primarily lab work, my main interest.”
Cornell’s Summer Research Program offers 18 different research projects that students participate in. Daniel will be working on a project entitled “Bacteria that Prevent Disease!”
According to Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences web site, students in this project will study how some bacteria act as biological controls of crown gall infections of grapevines and test how the biological controls can be applied to plants for maximum efficiency. Crown gall, a disease of roots and stems, infects a wide variety of plants, including many economically important ones such as tree fruits and berries, as well as grapes.
“I’m very exciting about this opportunity,” Daniel said. “I’m excited to learn new things and to accomplish something with this project. I keep checking my email to make sure I really did get it because I still can’t believe I’m going to be a research scholar at Cornell!”
The student participates of this internship will be staying at Cornell’s Hobart and William Smith Colleges. The program itself will be held at the research station in Geneva, New York. The internship includes travel assistance, both to and from Geneva as well as local transportation. It also includes housing and a $4,000 stipend.
This past fall, Daniel took it upon herself to reestablish the WSU Biotechnology Club.“We now have a steady group of members who show up and participate,” Daniel said. “We have a community service event planned for March, and are putting together a presentation on biotechnology to give to a local high school.”
So far, Daniel’s favorite things about being at WSU are working in the Winter Wheat Breeding Lab over the last summer and, during her freshman year, going to WSU Springfest to see Tech N9ne.
“Working at the breeding lab was a job that I looked forward to going to every day,” Daniel said. “At Springfest, the concert was amazing. They had fireworks and everything! It was just so exciting and fun, I think I smiled the entire time.”
By Chelsea Low, WSU CAHNRS MNEC intern