Jennifer Rote ’15 extended her experience as a lab researcher across the Atlantic by spending the summer researching in a lab in Montpellier, France. With the help of her professor, Larryn Peterson, Rote was able to create a program that was tailored to her interests within the chemistry field. She recalls, “Dr. Peterson wrote the proposal for an international curricular grant, allowing us to set up a collaboration between our bio-organic lab here at Rhodes and the Glycochemistry and Molecular Recognition Team at the Insitut des Biomolecules Max Mousseron in Montpellier, France.”
However, Rote’s immersion into a new environment was not without speed bumps. She recalls that she “arrived in the country not speaking a word of French, and was immediately thrown into a completely new lab environment.” This experience was obviously somewhat overwhelming and presented Rote with new challenges unlike those that she had ever encountered before. Yet, “despite the language barrier, [she] was able to learn from and form relationships with the talented chemists around [her].”
The aim of her project was to design a dynamic pH responsive polymer for DNA transfection. Rote attests that her time in the lab “exposed [her] to a variety of both technical and intellectual skills.” As a result, she has returned to her lab work at Rhodes with a newfound confidence. What’s more, beyond the laboratory, Rote was also able to fully experience a completely new culture. She took advantage of any opportunity to travel the country, meet new, interesting people, and sample the best of French food.
Rote reflects, “I found my time in France this summer to be both challenging and incredibly rewarding; although I oftentimes found myself in challenging situations, both academically and personally, I was able to leave the country with a feeling of complete independence and pride for what I was able to accomplish in just a few short months.”
At this point, Rote’s plans for the future entail pursuing a PhD in some branch of chemistry. She is particularly interested in organic molecules, and hopes that her career were be research-oriented. Above all, her time in Montpellier this summer “has confirmed [her] love of chemistry, and [she] feels certain that [she] would find a career in research to be extremely fulfilling.”