By: Claire DeJong
Junior Alecia Diede has always been interested in science and the medical field, but she didn’t know she wanted to pursue that love until she had been recommended for the Governor’s School Program at North Dakota State University (NDSU). From this program she was advised to work for a company called Aldevron.
Diede had attended the science program within the Governor’s School Program and had been told she would be a good fit for Aldevron. After she interned there for six weeks, due to the work she had done and the reports she had written, she was offered a full-time internship then.
At this lab, the workers receive DNA samples from different companies and grow it so the companies can then do gene therapy with it.
“The biggest projects that we do are that we take it in and we grow more of the DNA for them so they can do different projects on it to test vaccines and the cleanliness of vaccines,” Diede said.
Diede’s mother, Kim Diede, can only see the benefits of having this unconventional job over common jobs.
“It’s good because she’s getting a chance to try something to see if it’s something she’s interested to study in college for a career,” Kim said. “She gets a taste of it. It’s good because it gives her that experience and it isn’t the traditional work at retail or fast food place.”
Alecia also experiences the benefits of this job. It has opened her eyes to a job she did not know of in a field she hopes to go into.
“The whole science research interests me and I want to be able to help people,” Alecia said. “Not necessarily in a direct way, but more of an indirect way. It will affect more people than just one-on-one.”
Alecia had been interested in the medical field, but did not know how much she enjoyed DNA processing until this internship.
“It’s more her own thing,” Kim said. “She had never really known that that might be an option before.”
Getting a head start on something Alecia may be interested in studying in college is one of the biggest benefits to this internship, according to Kim, who says that it is smart to experience different things before you get into college to try and get a sense for what kind of field you want to study.
“It’s smart because college is so expensive,” Kim said. “It’s nice because sometimes you go two-to-three years to college, but maybe you don’t like the field you’ve started in. This way, you can get a chance to experience before you commit too much time in college.”