By Masaki Fujishiro
The one year of studying abroad at Swarthmore was such a fulfilling and unforgettable experience. The past two semesters flew by at the fastest speed I have ever felt in my life; I still cannot believe it is already over. Despite thousands of regrets during this journey, overall, I doubt I could have had a better experience. I feel this way because not only did I check all the boxes I prepared last year, but also I tackled new, more challenging goals I set along the way. Initially, I had two big goals for this exchange program.
The first goal was to gain research experience in the U.S. As I am inclined to pursue a career in basic research in the field of medicine, I was keen to enrich my research experience, especially in the U.S., which is the leading country in the field. With this in mind, I emailed several professors at Swarthmore and decided to join the Fera lab in the Biochemistry department, which proved to be an excellent decision. Since September, I have been laying the groundwork for studying the structure of an immune protein called Lyn for over one year in the lab. I learned many methodologies that I had been unfamiliar with and enjoyed working with lovely lab mates. Besides bench work, I was fortunate to present my research at a couple of conferences outside the college. Among them, the Intercollegiate Student Chemists Convention (ISCC) was the most memorable. Over 50 undergraduate students from colleges in Pennsylvania gathered in ISCC and gave a presentation about their own research. To my surprise, I was awarded the best presentation in the Biochemistry division. This prize boosted my confidence and assured me that what I had done thus far was not wrong and that I could be competitive even among students in the U.S.
In addition to a one-year long project at Swarthmore, I got a research volunteer position in Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston during the winter break. I joined the Liss lab, which primarily focuses on pancreatic cancer, the deadliest cancer ever. Although I knew little about pancreatic cancer, I eagerly dived into the opportunity to explore a new field. The project I was given was to develop a system to quantitatively compare the state of cells with varying resistance levels. I successfully established a method to quantify a specific parameter of the cells, for which the lab members praised me, saying it was a breakthrough. I was so glad that I was able to make a small, yet meaningful contribution to the lab in such a short term and establish a good connection at one of the best hospitals in the U.S. When I participated in Digestive Disease Week (DDW) in May, a huge conference that more than 10,000 doctors and researchers attended, I saw Dr. Liss for the first time in four months. I caught up with Dr. Liss and talked about my experiences at Swarthmore and their research progress. I hope this connection will last for long, and I dream of seeing him again in ten years, by which time I will have hopefully matured even more.
Now, one week after the end of the spring semester at Swarthmore, I work as a temporally research staff member in the Betts lab in the Microbiology department at the University of Pennsylvania. My research topic is the epigenetics of latent HIV, a serious public health challenge that the entire globe has being facing for a long time. While my journey in the U.S. continues until the end of August, I am grateful for all the research opportunities I have fortunately had during this study abroad period. I appreciate the great mentorship and support from Dr. Fera, Dr. Liss, and Dr. Betts, as well as the wonderful lab members in all the three labs. When I return to the University of Tokyo, I am keen to apply everything I have learned from this experience, and narrow down my research interests to pave my own way for the future researcher.
The second goal was to experience small, discussion-based classes at Swarthmore. Swarthmore is famous for its small student size, with only 400 students per year. I intentionally chose one of the smallest courses to build immediate relationships with professors and peers and to enhance my discussion skills. Since I was used to lecture-style classes with a big class size, I initially felt puzzled and nervous. I worked hard to adapt to the environment and keep up with class, until I felt comfortable speaking up and actively engaging with the teacher. I barely managed to get through the fall semester with good grades, earning A+ or A in all four courses I took. This motivated me to challenge myself further in the spring semester.
At Swarthmore, students typically take four courses per semester, which I did in the fall. In the spring, I decided to take five courses plus a lab credit, totaling 10 credits during the year, which is the maximum number of credits a student can take per year. Even though this seemed daunting at first, I was optimistic because I knew the credits I would take at Swarthmore cannot be transferred to University of Tokyo. The five courses were Advanced Experimental Chemistry, Neurotoxicology Seminar, Fluid Mechanics, Math Modeling, and Ethics and AI, all in different departments.
In the chemistry course, I learned a lot of techniques that are currently being used in biomedical research such as NMR, crystallography, and quantum dots. With only four students, one professor, and one lab assistant, I received immediate mentorship and detailed feedback on my weekly lab reports, which were usually about twenty pages long. The neurotoxicology seminar was a typical seminar style I already experienced in the fall semester. There, while I learned how to dissect academic papers and critically analyze them, I honed my presentation skills and discussion skills. I am sure that these constant trainings in this seminar and the two seminars I took in the fall lead to the award in the ISCC conference I mentioned earlier. Fluid Mechanics was an extremely small class with only three students. I took this course because I thought that understanding fluid dynamics would be invaluably helpful for medical research. Whether it is drug delivery in the body or protein dynamics within cells, a comprehensive understanding of fluid mechanics will be vital for my future research endeavors. I took Modeling with similar motives. In this course, I learned how a simple mathematical equation can explain real-world phenomena including population dynamics, economics, and chemical reactions. In the final paper, I modeled the dynamics of a type of molecule called kinase in cells. I am satisfied with the result of the model, and I received high praise from the professor. It was eye-opening to discover how many phenomena can be modeled so easily, particularly in the context of medicine, which holds significant implications for me. The last course I took was AI and Ethics. I was required to write two philosophy papers throughout the course, which was completely different from any paper I have written so far. They had a specific format that I had to follow, which troubled me a lot. Writing these two papers was the most challenging experience, yet I could get much out of it.
A week into the summer break, I checked my grades for the spring semester. I made one course pass or fail, but it turned out that I got A or A+ for all the other credits. Although GPA is just one metric that does not matter as much as what you actually take away, I am proud that I maintained the highest GPA while taking more courses than normal students usually do. Throughout the past one year, I always tried to push myself beyond my comfort zone, which brought me fruitful achievements I never even imagined. I will carry this mindset back to the University of Tokyo and continue to strive for further personal and academic growth.
On a final note, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Friends of UTokyo, Inc. for generously supporting my journey at Swarthmore. Without their financial assistance, none of my accomplishments during this study abroad period would have been possible. I also thank everyone who has played a role in making this life-changing year a reality.
