Anastasiya Buryak

Over the summer 2024 I was honored to get a spot at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center summer internship. I got to work with great mentors at Brandizzi lab at Michigan State University working on bioengineering energy sorghum to facilitate biofuel production down the line. When I first saw the email of acceptance, I thought I would mainly work in the lab, but that was not the case. I got to work a lot directly with plants of interest such as sorghum, Arabidopsis, and Brachypodium. Previously, I have not had a lot of experience with tending to plants, especially transgenic plants, but this was a great opportunity for me to learn about it and I enjoyed it a lot. I also got to attend many different career workshops which helped me a lot to determine my future career path. Throughout my time at MSU I was able to meet a lot of great people, not just from the scientific community but many undergraduate students from all over the states who I have become great friends with. I had an opportunity to work on a scientific poster which helped me practice talking about scientific research with audiences with different levels of scientific background. Even though it was very hard to say goodbye to everyone in the lab and people in my cohort, I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to better myself as a person, as a scientist, and being able to see a clearer career path for myself, as well as having an unforgettable experience in many other aspects of this trip to Michigan State.