Alexandra College

Yvanne Kennedy

Days after the end of the summer exams, two fifth years travelled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to begin a five-week internship in the University of Pennsylvania.  Under the auspices of the Institute of Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, we worked under the guidance of the eminent Professor Garret Fitzgerald.  During our five weeks we were afforded the chance to savor the very best that the world of Science research and Academic Medicine has to offer.

Maeve Jones O’Connor and I were chosen from a group of fourth and fifth years based on application and interview back in February and busied ourselves preparing for this amazing opportunity since then.  We stayed with host families in the Philadelphia suburbs and to say that this enhanced our trip would be the greatest understatement I have ever made in this yearbook.

We were brought to baseball games, to the mall, on trips to all the sights of Philadelphia and so much more. The academic side of our trip was surreal. From the day we first walked in to the historic halls of the UPenn School of Pharmacology, we knew that this was going to be an amazing few weeks.

The first few days were difficult as we adjusted to the calibre of the task we had undertaken. The level of knowledge everyone had was ridiculous, to say the least. Never ones to be left in the dust, we threw ourselves in the deep and asked our 20 questions … every hour.

We moved from station to station every week and even though everyone was involved with their own research and had full schedules they couldn’t have been more helpful and forthcoming with anything and everything we needed or wanted to know.

Philadelphia was the trip of a lifetime and to say we would recommend it to all the girls coming up behind us would be like saying Ireland needs less rain. We would both like to take this opportunity to offer huge thanks to the Science staff for allowing us this brilliant chance.  Most of all, we will be forever indebted to Mr. Brendan Kearney, our sponsor for this trip.  Through the “Joan Kearney Memorial Fund”, Mr. Kearney has allowed his wife’s love of and enthusiasm for Science to extend to all of us.  A beloved teacher on the Science staff for many years, Mrs. Kearney has been an inspiration for many and it is our hope that our experience will keep that enthusiasm within Alex for years to come.  Mr. Kearney, we will be forever grateful and hope we were able to do you proud!

Yvanne Kennedy