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Avon High Students Help in Medical Research at Cleveland Clinic

Four students get chance to work under mentors in projects

When opportunity knocked, four students answered.

Seniors Hailey Havrilla, Allyson Barley, Brian Jaros and Kathryne Wagner participated in the Cleveland Clinic's summer internship program that had them working with doctors and other medical professionals and doing research projects.

While working for nine weeks at a prestigious medical facility is a sweet thing to put on a college application, the experience ended up becoming much more for each of them.

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Barley, who researched the impact of full shoulder replacement surgery on patients, said working in the adult world was a fascinating experience.

"In school, you're segregated by age," she said. "You don't have anything to do with people much older or younger than you. But when you're working, different ages work together on the same level."

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She also got to see leadership in action. At one facility, staff were not very welcoming to Barley and did not want her observing in the operating room. But her mentor made it known that observing was a part of Barley's internship and that they were not to interfere with that.

Jaros said the medical laboratory employees he worked with were very welcoming.

"It was great being part of a team and learning to work with others towards a goal," he said.

Jaros worked on research to help create a more effective diagnosis of Hirschsprung's Disease, a congenital condition where nerve cells are defective in the intestinal tract, which leads to trouble digesting and eventually stool getting blocked up.

"This was different than the average teenage job," he said. "You're working alongside highly educated professionals like doctors and nurses. It's amazing."

The experience gave Jaros reason to reflect on his career goals, and he's now considering majoring in microbiology or biochemistry.

Having nine weeks to complete a research project seemed daunting at first. Barley had to organize data from 250 patients. Havrilla researched music therapy for digestive heath patients so the Clinic could begin to evaluate if such a program would be worthwhile.

"It really showed how involved the research process is," she said. "It took nine weeks of work just to get this idea going. And they're going to be doing more research."

Barley said that her project, which focused on quality of life issues such as family relationships and hobbies for shoulder replacement patients, was submitted to the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons and that her mentor, Dr. William Seitz, will present it at the group's national conference.

Wagner said she spent half the day on her project, researching the knowledge base for pediatric asthma patients and their caregivers, looking to see how much they really knew about the condition and treatment. Through her research, she was able to help come up with an FAQ to help not only patients and families, but staff, find answers to basic questions.

"I was questioning if the medical field was right for me," Wagner said. "And I was hesitant to give up my whole summer for something that looked to be overwhelming. But I'm so happy I did. It was a great experience. I amazed myself that I was able to do this whole project. And I know I want to go into pediatrics."

Havrilla said her time at the Cleveland Clinic helped her decide her future as well. She'd wanted to work in a medical field involving children, she said, and now she knows she wants to be a nurse midwife.

"I got to see a labor and delivery," she said. "It was amazing."


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