About Nina

Hometown:
Ridgefield Park, NJ

University Partner:
Columbia University

Degree:
Biochemistry

Grant Partner:
Hospital for Special Surgery

Senior Mentor:
Dr. David Altchek

"Each summer, the Steamboat Summer Scholar Program gathers together a group of exceptional undergraduates with a diverse array of professional goals, and prepares them to be leaders in their future careers and communities. The result is a fascinatingly diverse community of people--with vastly different life experiences, interests, and viewpoints--interacting, befriending, and learning from each other. For many Scholars, the experience is nothing short of incredible, thought-provoking, and life-changing."

Scholar Background

Nina's interest in medicine was sparked at a young age after volunteering at a camp for children and young adults with multiple disabilities. While attending the Academy for Medical Science Technology at the Bergen County Academies, a magnet high school in northern New Jersey, her interest in medicine quickly grew into a passion. As a high school junior, Nina began doing transfusion medicine and immunology research in Dr. Steven Spitalnik's laboratory at the Columbia University Medical Center, where she continues to work today. Over the years, Nina has presented her research at both the local and national level. Notably, she gave a talk at the AABB Annual Meeting 2010 to an audience that included medical directors, transfusion specialists, blood banking professionals, and physicians. On her college campus, Nina is also a leader of several student organizations. She is a counselor, the Mentorship Coordinator of a program that offers support to low-income teens with sickle cell disease, and an Associate Editor of the Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal. She also leads campus tours for prospective students and interviews undergraduate applicants as a Senior Interviewer on the Columbia Undergraduate Recruitment Committee. In her free time, Nina enjoys painting and drawing. She also loves philosophy, literature, film, and meeting many different types of people.

Internship Description

Nina spent the summer following Dr. David Altchek, attending orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery. She watched 100+ hours of orthopedic surgery and 100+ hours of clinical consultations. In the operating room, Nina became especially familiar with the techniques used in ACL reconstruction, rotator cuff repair, arthoscropic shoulder stabilization, and MCL reconstruction surgeries. In the clinic, she learned how to read MRIs and X-rays, assess the need for surgical versus non-surgical treatment, and explain surgical options to patients. Nina also helped to kick-start a clinical research study examining the psychological effects of failed ACL reconstruction surgery on athletes. Through all of this, she learned valuable lessons about the importance of teamwork in medicine and the psychological effects of surgery on patients, while gaining unparalleled insight into the daily life of a surgeon.

Where are they now?

Nina is currently finishing her senior year at Columbia.