Student blogs

A question many prospective students have is whether there are opportunities to work in a lab or do an internship during your time at Karolinska Institutet (KI). In this blog I want to introduce the Bergendorff Scholarship. This scholarship is for toxicology master’s students who want to do a summer internship between the first and second year. This year I’m one of the scholarship awardees, so I wanted to share more about the process of applying and doing an internship in a toxicology lab at KI!

Note: This particular scholarship is only available for toxicology master’s students, but there are of course also internship opportunities for other students! Check out Karolina’s blog to learn more about her experience doing a summer internship last year.

The application process

Information about the scholarship and application was sent to us at the beginning of February. Afterwards, we had 2 months to apply. The application consists of three parts:

1. Project Description: The first thing you need to do when applying is to find a supervisor and a potential project at the Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM). The project can be either laboratory- or risk assessment-based. You decide together with the supervisor what your project will be, and you write a project plan based on this.
2. Motivation Letter: You need to motivate why you should be awarded the scholarship.
3. Transcript of Grades: Although grades generally don’t matter as much at KI/in the toxicology master’s programme, they can sometimes be used as a deciding factor for applications like this one.

Finally, we found out who received the scholarship at the beginning of May.

The internship

The internship itself takes place during the summer between the first and second year of the master’s program. It has to be a minimum of 8 weeks, but the starting and ending dates are flexible and decided between you and your lab.

My internship is laboratory-based and I’m working with zebrafish embryos. Although I already have some lab experience from my previous studies, I wanted to take this opportunity to learn some new methods. For my project, I’m evaluating a new line of zebrafish models to see if they can replace the existing mouse models. The final part of the internship will be a presentation to share what I’ve done during the summer!

Things to consider

• Since the final decision comes in May, it might be difficult to plan out your summer before that. If you’re applying, it’s important to discuss with your lab group which dates you’d be working. Also, depending on how many people apply and how many they award the scholarship to (so far it has been 4 people per year), you might not get it — so it’s good to have a backup plan!
• During the programme, there’s only one course that includes practical lab exercises. Although it’s a good way to get some experience, it’s completely different when you have a project of your own in a lab.
• Of course, there are other ways to get internships, either at KI or elsewhere. Since this scholarship is for toxicology master’s students only, it might be easier to get it compared to independently contacting random lab groups/companies. Both options are possible; it just depends on what exactly you want to do!
• The internship is not only a good way to get some extra money and experience, it also allows you to meet new people. You might even get a better idea about what you would like to do after the programme!

Final words

Personally, I had a great time doing this internship and would highly recommend anyone interested to apply! I gained new knowledge/skills and met some wonderful people along the way. If you’re passionate about toxicology and research, the Bergendorff Scholarship is a great opportunity to gain some valuable experience!

Thank you so much for reading and see you in the next blog! ❤️