Polish students relish life, medical research
Though Emilia Wasiak and a small group of friends cheered from Loud City at the Oklahoma City Thunder game against the Washington Wizards, she wasn’t supporting the home team. She doesn’t even like basketball.
Instead, she waved the flag of Poland for Wizards’ center Marcin Gortat, just because he is her countryman.
“We were waving for him and he didn’t see us,” Wasiak said. She asked an usher at Chesapeake Energy Arena if they could get closer so Gortat could see the flag. They were allowed to move to a tunnel near the team.
“Then he saw us and waved,” she said.
Near the end of the game, someone on the floor noticed the students and gave them passes. They were seated on the court, behind Gortat.
“And they were losing and it was sad,” Wasiak said. “Me personally, I was rooting for him.”
Winning team
Wasiak may miss her homeland, but she enjoys being in Oklahoma to score points for science. She is in Oklahoma City for Poland’s highly competitive Visiting Research Graduate Traineeship Program at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. Started by professor Zygmunt Derewenda at the University of Virginia in 2001, it gives master’s degree candidates 11 months in America for hands-on medical research training. It is open to students in their first or second years of eligible master’s degree programs.
Energetic and brilliant talent is being recruited from Poland, program coordinator and OMRF researcher Umesh Deshmukh said. He realized the program’s potential while working at UVA, where students helped him gain publication and grants. Deshmukh brought it here in 2013 when he came to OMRF, starting with two students. Four students came in 2014 and eight in 2015.
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and University of Chicago are also host institutions. Since the program’s inception, more than 200 students have participated. For 2015-16, 80 applicants vied for 30 spots. Selection criteria includes lab experience, a grade point average of 4.0 or above, awards, recommendations and peerreviewed publications. Fifty were chosen for interviews in Poland with faculty from all four schools. Deshmukh likened the process to a college application.
Aleksandra Perz, 24, of Poznan, learned of the program on the Internet. “When I knew I got accepted, I was very excited,” she said. “That was a huge step forward.”
Her work here has convinced her to go into bioinformatics, which she describes as the intersection of computer science and biology.
Wasiak is studying basic biology and science, cell cycles and cancer biology. Other areas of study include applications, immunology, cardiovascular
medicine and genetics.
Covering vast distances
Perz and Wasiak arrived last summer. They were struck by travel times to coffee shops and grocery stores and the lack of public transportation. When people say something is really close, Wasiak said, they mean a 20-minute drive, not five minutes on foot. She had to get a car and a driver’s license and learn to drive on highways.
Despite the challenges, Wasiak, 25, of Bialystok, described that summer as an idyllic time, like a vacation. She enjoyed learning new things and the warm weather. Neighbors and strangers on the street helped her adjust.
“It forces me to get out of my comfort zone,” Wasiak said. “I think I’m more open to understanding other people.”
Perz previously attended school in Germany, close enough to visit home, and admits to being homesick. She particularly misses cottage cheese, which is often homemade in Poland, and described the American version as too sweet, salty and gooey.
Yet she still finds comfort in Oklahoma.
“I hear people complain about it, but I really like the peacefulness,” she said.
Deshmukh said the students are very friendly. They like to cook, eat and learn about American foods.
Deshmukh, who came from India in 1994 with his wife, OMRF researcher Harini Bagavant, helped the students find housing. All live in the same complex, with some sharing apartments.
Perz and Wasiak said they mainly stay focused on work, 40 hours a week or sometimes more because their research can’t always be measured by hours. Students receive health insurance and stipends of $24,000 to $28,000 per year, depending on the cost of living in the host city. Each is assigned a scientist mentor at OMRF. Perz works with Jonathan Wren and Wasiak works with Gary Gorbsky.
The students socialize mainly with each other and co-workers. Recently some students invited OMRF staff to a party and cooked for them.
“Nobody had heard of pirogis before,” Deshmukh said. He was also dazzled by the different flavors of vodka.
Back in the lab, Deshmukh said, the program exposes students to cutting-edge health care research.
Deshmukh said the Polish-U.S. Fulbright Commission became involved about four years ago. Official talks with the commission are in the works to make future trainees Fulbright Scholars.
Following their time at OMRF, trainees return to Poland to complete their master’s degrees. Hopefully, some will come back, Deshmukh said. Past trainees have applied to the University of Oklahoma for Ph.D. programs.
And although Perz will not miss the cottage cheese, the students have discovered other dishes more to their liking.
“I like cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory,” Wasiak said.