It’s been quite a full week. On Monday, I officially started my position as a Process Development Engineering intern at Boston Scientific (BSC) in Coyol. From my recent understanding, process development engineers are generally responsible for designing product manufacturing processes, i.e. the systems of individual steps that employees follow to build and package medical devices. My particular division within process development (PD), which consists of five employees and me, works closely with R&D teams from other BSC locations to evaluate design concepts and build device prototypes. If the team thinks the concepts can and should be modified, it sends feedback to the R&D engineers so they can modify them.
So far, I have really enjoyed getting to know my PD teammates and learning more about their projects. My two immediate supervisors, Yeison (pronounced “Jason”) and Jeff, have been incredibly welcoming and have already taught me so much about the department and the projects. Another intern on my team, Steven, has started explaining a sphincterotomy project to me, and has also showed me all the ins and outs of the BSC campus (including where to find the best coffee!). As a culmination of all of the knowledge transfer and intra-team communication throughout the week, I submitted a list of “SMART” goals on Friday to Dr. Clifton, Yeison, and Jeff. I am excited to say that I’ll be working on three main projects: one related to the manufacturing of a gastrointestinal forceps device, another related to R&D of the sphincterotomy project, and another related to the writing of a translational research guidebook! I can’t wait to dive into these projects and learn more about this stage of the medtech design process.
Going off of what I mentioned earlier about my team being welcoming – Well, it seems as if pretty much everyone at Boston Scientific is quite welcoming! First, my team has been wonderful this week in terms of English/Spanish communication. As someone who is fairly fluent in Spanish, I almost always try to engage Spanish-speakers in Spanish rather than English in an effort to both connect with them more easily and improve my own Spanish skills. The downside with this is that sometimes I misinterpret people’s responses, which prompts them to switch the conversation to English. However, my team members in BSC have been patient with my Spanish and actively encourage me to practice with them since they genuinely want me to improve, and this could not make me happier! Another way in which the atmosphere has been welcoming is through the various meetings and events I have attended. During a PD meeting on Tuesday, the other GMIers in PD and I were given a friendly introduction and were asked to say a few words about ourselves. Then on Friday, everyone was invited to partake in a really cool event called BSCx, which was basically a spin-off of TEDx. TEDx is a community-organized TED Talk event, and BSCx was similar in that various speakers went on stage to share all sorts of inspiring ideas. My favorite speaker of the event? Epsy Campbell, Vice President of Costa Rica and the first black woman elected as vice president in all of Latin America! Not only was it incredibly easy for a non-native Spanish speaker to understand her (which I think all of the GMIers thoroughly appreciated), she spoke about her journey as a woman of color to becoming the country’s VP. It was such an awesome moment and I could not be luckier to have witnessed her!
Epsy Campbell, Vice President of Costa Rica speaking at Boston Scientific
Outside of work, life in Costa Rica has been fun and adventurous. Yesterday, our team took a day trip to the Irazú Volcano. The peak of Irazú is one of the highest points in Costa Rica, and according to my Costa Rica Lonely Planet book, you can theoretically see both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans from it (although unfortunately, there’s almost always some degree of cloud coverage blocking those views). The main attraction of Irazú is the bright blue-green pool of water in its crater, which apparently is due to the mixing of volcanic sediments with the water. It was quite a beautiful site to visit. Afterwards, our crew visited the historic Cartago City, which I read is one of Costa Rica’s oldest cities and was the capital until 1824. We enjoyed a pleasant lunch there at a place called “Tortillería.”
Irazú Volcano
A picturesque front door in historic Cartago
Anyway, tomorrow marks the beginning of Week 2 at Boston Scientific. I’m excited to meet with my team and begin diving into my projects for the summer!