Students Pursue Enriching Summer Opportunities

For two months this summer, Mafalda von Alvensleben got a hands-on look at what it’s like to work in medicine.

 

As a research intern at Cedars-Sinai, the current Crossroads senior worked in a lab to search proteins for potential biomarkers of gastroenterological diseases and cancers linked to alcohol abuse. In particular, Mafalda analyzed a compound involved in lipid transport.

 

“I was able to learn not only how to perform techniques such as western blotting but also how to write and present the research that I did,” she says.

 

Mafalda’s internship was one of many opportunities that Crossroads students pursued across disciplines this summer, including health, education, the arts and more.

 

Seventh-grade sisters Arden and Farol Seretean traveled to Africa and visited the Tujatane school in Zambia, where they interacted with peers during an art project, toured the campus, met with a classroom of eager kindergarten students and watched older drama students learn to recite lines of Shakespeare.

 

The trip inspired the sisters to dedicate service projects to the school.

 

“These new experiences made us feel more open-minded and more aware of what is happening in the world and what people may be going through,” Arden says.

 

Fifth-grader Zachary Zwelling made his Broadway theater debut by joining the cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “School of Rock” musical, which is based on the 2003 film of the same name. The young musician—who performed at Crossroads' annual Alley Party in 2016—played the role of guitarist Zack in shows at Winter Garden Theatre in New York.

 

For Mafalda, the Cedars-Sinai internship concluded with a competitive workshop during which she and about 50 other interns had presentations judged by researchers and professors. She finished with the top score.

 

“The best part was just to be able to share what I had been working on that summer with people who were truly interested in the same subjects,” she says.