For Appa Salvi, Faculty Mentors led to Dream Internship
Appa Salvi 13S recently completed an internship at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, and credits his Hampshire faculty advisors for helping him secure that position.
For Salvi, Hampshire College is a flourishing scientific community with supportive faculty guiding him across a diverse set of studies: “I feel I wouldn’t have been able to get into that internship without the help of Hampshire faculty,” he said. “It’s competitive, and they only accept twenty students each summer. I don’t think I would have gotten in without the help of [biology professor] Megan Dobro and [chemistry professor] Dula Amarasiriwardena.”
Salvi also praises biology professors Lynn Miller and John Castorino, chemistry professor Rayane Moreira, and cell biology professor Chris Jarvis, chair of his Division II.
“I’ve been supported by the faculty here in a number of ways. They’re always there to spend time with me, to show me how to do certain procedures or explain the science behind what I’m trying to do,” he said. “That’s what gives you experience and nurtures your intellectual development.”
After he graduates from Hampshire, he hopes to pursue a research technician position in the neurology department of Brigham & Women’s Hospital.
Salvi is also interested in environmental health, healthcare reform and policy, and entrepreneurship in the healthcare industry.
In spring 2015, Salvi will begin his Division III (senior) project, with Professor Amarasiriwardena chairing. Salvi will attempt to use nano-sized iron particles to remediate mercury-based pharmaceutical preservatives, making them safer to dispose in a more environmentally-friendly manner.
“When mercury is used in the manufacturing process, it gets deposited in public wastewater and streams, eventually undermining the health of the community,” Salvi said, pointing out the environmental and biomedical implications of their study.
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