An Internship At The University of Michigan

An Internship At The University of Michigan
                                   In Ann Arbor, USA

       Department of Internal Medicine - Nephrology
       Written by an biologist

„On my way to the internship!“

During my diploma thesis I decided to do an internship in an English-speaking
country before I´ll start a PhD program. The aim was to improve my English
knowledge even faster as well as my skills in the lab. Since there were only 3 months
of my diploma thesis left, I asked my Professor Dr. Ruth Brack-Werner for any
contacts to an English-speaking lab with a different focus than hers. Fortunately, she
has a friend, who is leading the Nephrology Division at the University of Michigan in
Ann Arbor. After a view emails I could start an internship in a lab at the Department
of Internal Medicine – Nephrology Division conducted by professor Matthias Kretzler
M.D. He connected me to Markus Bitzer M.D., who is leading one of the labs in his
department. My research advisor Markus Bitzer M.D. connected me to the
responsible person to apply for my visa. The International Center of the University of
Michigan is authorized by the US Department of State to raise the DS-2019
document for the trainee visa. Due to this authorization the application for the
required J1-visa doesnt´ have be accomplished through a specific paid organization
(this saved me a lot of money!). For my appointment at the American Embassy I
needed the so called SEVIS number but since the latency for an appointment was
approximately 2 weeks I called the Embassy. They advised me to use the SEVIS
number N0000000 to apply for it and get my appointment on time for my flight. Since
my DS-2019 document didn´t arrive on time for the interview they told me to go to
this interview and present all the documents I have so far and redirect all the missing
documents. In the interview at the Embassy they asked all the usual questions (they
just want to be convinced of the non-immigrant intent and that you´ll return back to
Germany). They were very kind and patient. You really don´t have to be nervous for
this interview. Unfortunately my DS-2019 arrived too late (3 month for all the visa
documents are definitively insufficient!!!) and I didn´t make it for my flight. But I was a

lucky one and could rebook my flight. A few days later I got my visa and was allowed
to enter the USA. My roommate offered to pick me up from the airport Detroit
Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW - it´s the closest airport to Ann Arbor), but
if you have to get to Ann Arbor by yourself use www.michiganflyer.com, cabs are
expensive (about $50 one trip).
For my accomodation I used the website http://annarbor.craigslist.org. There are
some available rooms listed. In Ann Arbor it is easier to find a room thru early
August. In September all the students are coming back to town and the city is quiet
crowded. Since I wanted to live with al least one native American roommate I chose
a flat share with one female roommate grown up in Michigan. For the Michiganders
my flat wasn´t close to the central campus (approximately 4 miles) but it was cheaper
than living on campus ($420 vs. minimum $550).

Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan with about 110,000 inhabitants.
Student represent approximately 40% of its whole population. Ann Arbor is the home
of the University of Michigan, which is a public research university. Living in Ann
Arbor as a student is really interesting for a few month. During summer the city is
really quiet and the streets are quiet empty. But during the semester, which lasts
from September to May, all the students are in town and everything (streets, buses,
cafés, bars, gyms…) is really crowded. Compared to Munich there is a real campus
in the center of Ann Arbor and nearly everything is close enough to walk. But I rented
a bike for the time I spent in Ann Arbor at “studens bike shop” for $85/semester. The
rent includes a monthly service and free repair for everything.

My internship
Since I´ve never worked with lab mice before, my aim was to get used to the proper
handling and work with these mice. For this I had to attend some lectures and hands-
on courses offered by the University of Michigan for the proper handling of these
animals. I got my own project for the whole time of my internship. We compared
specific knockout mice with wildtype mice using Immunohistochemistry, Western Blot
and quantitative Realtime PCR. Furthermore we analyzed the response of both mice
to a specific surgery. Some of the methods were already established in this lab but
some others had to be established by me. All the required laboratory equipment and

all the things I had to buy were easily provided by the lab and I had all the
possibilities to try different variations of a certain method. The mixture of establishing
new methods and using already existing techniques was a perfect combination to
learn how to run experiments independently. Besides the work in the lab there were a
lot of interesting seminars I attended. Since there are lots of different fields of
research at the University of Michigan various presentations were held every day. I
used the chance to get familiar with other research interests than my lab and really
enjoyed the selection of plenty talks. During my internship I had to give several talks
to present previous results of my experiments. The support not only for the
presentations I had to give but also for planning and running the experiments was
ensured by the assistant professor leading this lab as well as by the two lab mates
(PhD student and postdoc) and other colleagues in this institute all the time. All of the
lab mates were very kind and helpful especially for troubleshooting. All in all I learned
a lot of new techniques and how to plan and run experiments independently. For me
it was a really enriching time in a new lab.

The Michiganders
Since my roommate was a native Michigander I had a lot of contact to Americans.
She was really kind from the first second on. Within the first few days I got to know
her family and her friends and everyone welcomed me very friendly. All the people
were very interested in Germany and its culture. Even some of them took German
classes in school and therefore could speak a few words German. All in all I had the
feeling that most of the Americans I met were really keen for Germany.
Most of the time my roommate and her best friend took care of me. They showed me
the Ann Arbor area since they grew up in an area close to Ann Arbor. They took my
to some bars and most of the weekends we spent at some festivals (e.g. the popular
Michigan Renaissance festival, the Ann Arbor Octoberfest, HalloWeekends at Cedar
Points in Ohio and some other local festivals) in the area. One time we went to a
fundraiser dinner for a woman who´s health insurance didn´t pay for a necessary
surgery. For me it was amazing to see how the people take care of each other and
how the family organized a huge dinner with some games to collect money. Also a lot
of companies spent things like kitchen utilities, framed pictures, electronic devices
and groceries, which could be sold in a game.

For me the biggest problem was food. Since I don´t like most of the fast food I always
had to cook by myself, which wasn´t the problem, but the healthy food was quiet
expensive compared to Germany and compared to fast food. Therefore I had to
spend a lot of money only for food. I talk to a lot of Americans about this and they
agreed that this is one of the reasons for the high percentage of obese people. In
Michigan approximately 60% of the whole population are obese.
All in all the Michiganders are really kind and friendly. At no time they had any
prejudices. It was amazing to see how cosmopolitan they are and how helpful
they´ve been all the time.

SOME MUST DO´s (of course there are much more sightseeing tips)
   -   Football game at the Michigan stadium including tailgating party (there is a
       students section and tickets are really cheap)
   -   Main street in Ann Arbor (bars and shopping)
   -   Trip to Chicago and Niagara falls (each trip about 4 hours to drive, but it´s
       worth it!)
   -   If you could afford it: book a flight to New York City for a few days- It´s
       amazing
   -   Cedar Point in Ohio (the Millenium Force is voted for the best rollercoaster IN
       THE WORLD) - you really shouldn´t miss it
   -   Baseball game at the Detroit Tigers stadium
   -   Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn

Tips for living in Ann Arbor
   -   You should get a Kroger´s Card to get discounts for food (healthy groceries
       are quiet expensive)
   -   In Kerrytown, Ann Arbor, there is the Farmers Market every Saturday and
       Wednesday, where farmer sell local fruit and vegetables for appropriate prices
   -   Use http://annarbor.craigslist.org to find a flat, used cars and bikes, furniture,
       tickets….
   -   If you don´t have a car, use www.michiganflyer.com to get to the Detroit
       airport DTW
   -   Sports: UofM offers a huge variety for different sport, you should use these
       courses

-   Public transportation: http://www.theride.org, students and employees of UofM
        get a M-Card, which allows to use buses for free

Conclusion
    -   4 months are enough to improve the language very well (it depends on your
        basic knowledge) but for me it wasn´t enough to learn a perfect American
        English (although I had an English teacher as a friend!)
    -   A healthy life in Ann Arbor is quiet expensive (1,500€ per month)
    -   Michiganders are very kind and helpful and interested in Germany and its
        language
    -   I did my internship from August to December and it was pretty much a perfect
        time since there are a lot of feast days to celebrate (Halloween, Thanks giving
        and Black Friday, Christmas and its decoration) and I enjoyed 3 out of 4
        seasons (summer-fall- winter; from 40°C to -12°C)

Figure 1: The Department of Internal Medicine - Nephrology is located in this building, Medical
Research Building II, at the Medical Campus.

At the end I want to thank Mr. Hoch from Student und Arbeitsmarkt for providing the
scholarship and a very uncomplicated und fast procedure. For me it was very helpful
since these few months has been very expensive – but it was worth it.