Name: Sophia Kim
Class Year:  2027
Major: Neuroscience
Minor: Biology
 
Internship Organization:  Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Center for Autism Research
Internship Title:  Student Clinical Research Assistant
Location:  Philadelphia, PA
 
What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!  

This summer, I had an invaluable opportunity to continue my position as a Student Clinical Research Assistant at CHOP’s Center for Autism Research, specifically with the Infant Synchrony team. Our team, consisted of four student interns this summer, aimed to develop a novel screening method using interactional synchrony in hopes to detect earliest signs of autism.

In simple terms, interactional synchrony refers to the temporal coordination or alignment of individuals’ behavior, emotions, speech, during a social interaction. A common example of this would be smiling back at someone who is smiling at you or making eye contact during a conversation. As research has shown various differences in the manifestation of interactional synchrony between neurotypical and autistic individuals, a core study of our team was to further study how interactional synchrony could be used as a tool of detecting early signs of potential autism in infants.

As part of the IS team, a big part of my work included watching infant and caregiver videos taken from earlier clinical study visits and annotating the audio/video data prior to computer analysis. Following the guidelines that indicated which quality factors could potentially impact the analysis, I worked both individually and with my co-interns to encode impacted parts of the video data. Further, throughout my time at CHOP, we were given the opportunity to shadow in-person study visits and observe how developmental and autism assessments (Mullen, ADOS) were conducted through live video footage.

This experience, along with our weekly career talks hosted by the Center for Autism Research alumni and faculty, allowed me to further branch out my interest in clinical research. Lastly, during the last few weeks at my internship, I completed an independent research project studying the “The Role of Culture in Interactional Sychrony and its Relevance to ASD Diagnostic Assessments”, and presented at our annual Student Trainees in Autism Research (STAR) Presentation day. 

Why did you apply for this internship?  

I decided to apply for this internship because I was seeking an opportunity to gain experience in clinical research, specifically in the field of pediatric research. As my ultimate goal is to go to medical school and become a pediatrician, I was particularly drawn to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), as it is a renowned institution known for its excellence in both medical and behavioral research, as well as its quality in patient care. Hence, when I came across this opportunity on Handshake, I immediately knew that I wanted to apply. Given that autism is an area of research that holds personal relevance for me as well, I believed this internship would offer a valuable opportunity for both my personal and academic growth.
 
What has been your favorite part of this internship?
 
My favorite part of this internship was participating in the STAR Speaker Series, a weekly panel featuring alumni and faculty from CHOP’s Center for Autism Research. Each week, professionals from a variety of fields and professions (i.e. clinical researchers, research assistants, medical residents, etc.) shared their career journeys and the specific work they were currently doing. I particularly appreciated the QnA session after every talk, as it opened up the floor for the students to network with the speakers, and was a great chance to learn from my co-interns as well. This opportunity, along with several other research/career talks hosted at CHOP were incredibly both helpful and insightful, and allowed me to learn more about different paths within research.  

Can you talk about the skills you are learning and why they are important to you? 

A technical skill I gained from this experience was learning how to navigate REDCap. Since most of our data encoding was done through this web-based application, I spent a lot of time organizing and managing data in this platform and troubleshooting when needed. Secondly, communication was a critical skill I was able to strengthen during this internship. We were given a lot of flexibility and independence with our day-to-day work, and while support and supervision was given, it was mainly up to the interns to ask questions, seek advice, and network. Hence, over the course of my time here at CHOP, I was able to become more comfortable asking for help when I needed it, speak up during professional meetings, and utilize my time wisely to complete given work at my own pace. Although these skills aren’t directly related to my future career or my current research (which focuses more on fundamental laboratory techniques), I believe they are highly valuable and transferable. Being able to manage data efficiently, conduct research and work independently, and communicate with both my co-workers and supervisors are all essential skills that will benefit me in any work environment moving forward.  

What is most rewarding about your internship? 

A major aspect of autism screening development involves not only early detection but also improving accessibility and availability of autism evaluations. For this reason, along with working to develop a novel technologies to better detect early signs of autism, our teams is focused on reducing disparities in access to screenings, particularly by integrating evaluations into pediatric visits at local clinics in Philadelphia. Hence, knowing that my work directly contributes to these efforts are very rewarding, as it plays a critical role in making early intervention for autism more attainable for children.