Experience with global reach

Abigail Binkley, ’26, and Abigail Williams, ’25, spent six months researching how education and culture can prevent medical crises in rural Kenya. Williams, an evolutionary biology and anthropology major, and Binkley, a student majoring in biology with a minor in global health, held positions at the TERMES Center. Binkley focused on the impact of visceral leishmaniasis among childbearing-aged women, while Williams focused on obstetric fistula and similar childbirth-related injuries. The co-op was an invaluable experience for their career plans.

Last spring, Luis Sarmiento, ’27, spent six months at a co-op consultancy for Verizon. The innovative consultancy teams four to six students with faculty and industry partners to create business solutions for companies. Sarmiento’s group built software that aggregates data about Verizon’s and competitors’ clients. Machine learning converts the data into an interactive dashboard to track client sentiment and turnover to get ahead of issues and improve customer retention. Students increased technical and soft skills, and experienced transformative growth.

As a co-op at Apple, Sam Scroggie, ’25, spent six months working as a camera process engineer, supporting complex, high-volume manufacturing process development for the cutting-edge cameras used in Apple products. The mechanical engineering major also provided design guidelines for manufacturability, and developed new assembly processes, equipment, and materials for camera modules. Scroggie now works at Apple full time as a camera process engineer.

Psychology major TaKaya McFarland, ’25, completed a co-op at Boston Medical Center, working with a team to implement coordinated care for youth experiencing psychosis and substance use. She then joined Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center as a clinical researcher, exploring methods of early psychosis detection; her goal is to develop a risk score to help clinicians assess vulnerability to psychosis. McFarland is now positioned to pursue her dream: a doctorate in clinical psychology.

Siima Machayo, ’26, who’s studying behavioral neuroscience and social innovation and entrepreneurship, completed a co-op at the White House Office of Science and Technology, working with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology—a group of CEOs, university presidents, and nonprofit leaders charged with making science, technology, and innovation policy recommendations. During co-op, the premed student contributed to a report on advancing U.S. nutrition science. With this deeper understanding, Machayo plans to promote holistic care in her future career.

In spring and summer 2024, Sumedha Reddy Sudini, ’26, completed a co-op at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, India, working on the lab’s stem cell research for developing immunotherapies to treat certain types of cancer. That co-op sparked her passion for research. Sudini plans to pursue a career in lab work to advance her analytical techniques and eventually a doctorate to continue stem cell research.