PHOTOS
TESTIMONIALS
Janerys Rodríguez Montalvo, an undergraduate student at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, was a 2024 SPUUR scholar and created a blog about her SPUUR experience. Read all about it HERE.
As an undergraduate student interested in pursuing a PhD, the SPUUR program was perfect for me. I knew I was interested in research but had never experienced what it was like to be in lab full time. In my summer as a SPUUR student I was given the opportunity to attend multiple professional conferences, lead an independent research project, learn valuable laboratory techniques, gain skills writing and speaking about my work, and much more. After the program, and researching with Dr. William Ricke, I felt confident in my ability to succeed in graduate school. Dr. Vezina and Dr. Penniston do everything they can to help you succeed and have contagious enthusiasm about benign urology that will stick with me forever!
– Natalie Boucher, UW-Madison summer urology program, 2024
Before getting accepted to and attending SPUUR, I knew very little about benign urology. I went into college wanting to be a medical doctor studying the “cool” sciences, such as neurology or cancer biology. SPUUR broadened my horizons and led me to where I am today. Through working with Dr. William Ricke during the summer and into the school year, I gained invaluable experience as an undergraduate researcher. I learned many laboratory techniques, including tissue staining and animal handling. I also met my current PI at Duke University through the CAIRIBU annual meeting, in which I continued to conduct research in the field of benign urology. I strongly recommend this program to any undergraduate students that are interested in pursuing medicine/research, one thing I know for sure is that Dr. Penniston and Dr. Vezina will always look out for your success!
– Stephanie Li, UW-Madison summer urology program, 2023
I was a SPUUR student during the summer of 2018, and feel very fortunate to have been placed in the labs of Alejandro Roldán–Alzate, PhD and Diego Hernando, PhD. Together, they have affiliations spanning the UW departments of biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering, radiology and medical physics. Having no prior experience with engineering, this placement inserted me into a brand new world, and I absolutely loved it. I was introduced to engineering software that could translate medical imagery into computational data. Specifically, my project involved using pelvic MRIs to create 3D models of the human bladder and prostate, from which we could extract information on a wide variety of parameters. Afterwards, we analyzed the data for trends. This work left me fascinated every day of the internship.
– Lucille Anzia, UW-Madison summer urology program, 2018
I participated in the Summer Program for Undergraduate Urology Research (SPUUR) in the summer of 2018. As a proud Latina and immigrant student majoring in Biochemistry at UW-Madison, I bring along with me a unique set of characteristics and experiences to STEM-related programs, such as SPUUR. Prior to starting this program, I had little experience and exposure to intensive research opportunities such as the one SPUUR offered. At first, I felt out of my comfort zone and experienced self-doubt as I questioned whether I would be able to succeed in this program. All of these fears and doubts vanished as I started conducting my summer research. I was welcomed into an incredibly supportive and encouraging laboratory team. I am so thankful to have been able to expand my social network through this program, while also being able to form new friendships. Overall, this opportunity served as a meaningful academic “growth spurt” for me, and raised my interest in urologic research and urologic clinical practice. Today, as a first-generation medical student at the Medical College of Wisconsin, I can confidently say the SPUUR program played a critical role to my path to medical school.
– Ana Maria Viteri, UW-Madison summer urology program, 2018
SPUUR introduced me to the fascinating field of urological research and taught me the necessary skills to be a strong student and undergraduate researcher. During my time in the program and laboratory, I contributed to three publications and when I matriculated to Vanderbilt for college, my strong scientific background inculcated through SPUUR helped me find a position in a similar laboratory. Now as an applicant to medical school, I firmly believe that my participation in SPUUR contributed significantly to helping me gain admission to several competitive programs. And as I continue to pursue a career in medicine, urology remains a field that I am heavily interested in pursuing.
– Anoop Chandrashekar, UW-Madison summer urology research program, 2017
Being accepted into the SPUUR program was an important milestone in my professional growth and development into a scientist. This program taught me to develop research questions into concrete presentations and be a thoughtful investigator. Moreover, as a student from a middle class background, this internship provided me with a paid immersive experience that furthered my career. Further, the SPUUR program’s emphasis on research seminars and team learning, was very different than a typical research experience in an undergraduate lab. The skills I learned in the SPUUR program have helped me to excel in renal and anatomy block courses, which have become exceedingly difficult due to the online environment in which they are taught. Overall, I would highly recommend this program to any student interested in a career in medicine. Over the course of the SPUUR program I learned a slew of technical skills that are crucial to my career, and position as a medical student including surgical technique, immunohistochemistry, microscopy, data analysis and scientific presentation. As a physician I hope to continue to advance progress in the field of urology, through clinical research. The SPUUR program is an extremely valuable program that will help populate the field of urology with a new generation of qualified research scientists and clinicians.
– Samuel Tesch, UW-Madison summer urology research program, 2016