Sophie Reinhardt

My name is Sophie Reinhardt, I am 21 Years old and currently doing a semester abroad at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. I am looking for an internship opportunity for the following fall for up to 10 months after I finish my bachelor’s in health science and technology at ETH Zurich. 

Over the last two years my interest in rehabilitation medicine and the treatment of diseases has grown, due to my scouting experience. I have been leading in a Team, of 12 other People, 17 Children with disabilities. Those kids have been teaching me patience, creativity, problem solving and a new perspective on life. The challenges they have to overcome, to make simple tasks as tying your shoes possible, has inspired me to dedicate my work more in the direction of rehabilitation medicine. Working in this Team has also taught me to step back and have a third perspective, for example in a disagreement. Then finding a solution suited best for the situation and the group, rather than forcing their own opinion on others.  

Learning on a spot and improvising was very important for leading these children, however this skill I learned mainly in my very first internship at Johannes Kepler University Linz. In this internship, my task was to test a tutorial for a major starting the following fall. I struggled with all three main tasks, programming, CAD and the underlying electronics. I managed to teach myself CAD and electronics in a reasonable timeframe, but programming was my biggest enemy. I have learned from this project, that it is very important to show stamina to figure it out. However, it is okay and important to recognize my own limits and seek for help to grow in my tasks. So, with more guidance from my supervisor, I was able to finish my tasks successfully. During my second summer internship I had the opportunity to expand my skills in a different direction. Together with 6 other Interns, we performed basic chemical tests on over 1’000 different earth samples, collected the Data and integrated them in a Database for further statistical analysis. These tasks taught me precision and time management, to enable reliable Data. 

In my current studies I focus mainly on cellular communication, their impact on genetic expression in tissues and the aging of cells. Additionally, in the last Semester I had the opportunity to take courses in Rehabilitation, Neural systems, and Spinal Cord Injury. This broad view allows me to adapt to new objectives and information easily, combining the analytical thinking of cell interactions with the attention to detail in engineering. I am eager to see the current advances in the Molecular health sciences adapted for real life application. To experience the progress in new drugs and hopefully a big step forward in treating degenerative neuronal diseases in the future.