Standard Process Inc. Whole Food Supplements Since 1929.

Standard Process Welcomes Interns
to the Research & Development Lab

Katie Caillouette and Brian Kuklinski

The Research and Development department at Standard Process Inc. continues its commitment to the academic community and students who are interested in science-based careers by welcoming two new interns, Katie Caillouette and Brian Kuklinski, to its internship program.

Caillouette and Kuklinski are students at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (UW-Whitewater). Kuklinski, a biology major, chemistry minor, hopes this internship will give him career experience. Caillouette graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) with a double major in biology and psychology and is pursuing her teaching licensure at UW-Whitewater. She chose this internship to prepare for a teaching position. "I wanted to gain lab experience," said Caillouette, "and experience firsthand the material I'll be teaching my students."

Both interns are finding this opportunity helpful for their academic course work, as well as their future careers. "My emphasis is biotechnology and that's the type of career I'd like to pursue," said Kuklinski. "In my courses, it's a rush to learn things, so you learn the principles behind something but not the real world applications." Caillouette added, "It's a helpful experience. A lot of the things I'm doing in this lab coincided with material I learned in my classes this semester and it helped me understand both the course material and the reasons why we're running certain experiments at Standard Process."

The Standard Process internship program offers students a unique chance to develop their skills in analytical chemistry and molecular biology. Additionally, interns get their hands dirty by harvesting samples on the company's organically certified farm, and their assignments change day to day. "There's a lot of interesting things going on in that lab," said Caillouette, "We don't just help one person; we help everyone, so we get to work on everything."

Started in 2001, the program is designed to give students majoring in science a chance to gain hands-on experience in a research lab. Over the past eight years, this opportunity has been offered to 12 students from four schools including UW–Whitewater, UW–Madison, Madison Area Technical College (MATC), and Hillsdale College in Michigan.

Caillouette and Kuklinski are the latest in a list of bright and rising students who worked to perfect their skills as Standard Process interns. Other interns have gone on to attend graduate school in the sciences, train for a career in Chiropractic medicine, or work at Standard Process. Chris Scholl, currently a Researcher in the Research and Development lab, started as an intern in 2005. As a UW-Whitewater junior, Scholl applied for the internship to supplement his academic knowledge. "I chose this internship to gain diverse research experience," said Scholl. "I think industry research experience is invaluable for any student who wants to pursue a career in scientific research."

Amber Thompson, a Quality Control Microbiologist, also started as an intern in 2006. "I was in the biotech program at MATC," explains Thompson, where real world internships are a graduation requirement. "Working with the equipment, being able to do cell culturing, and being able to see things applied was nice," said Thompson.

But not every intern stays at Standard Process. Some, like Amber Nelson, choose a different path. As a student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Nelson studied nutrition. During her internship she became more drawn to the idea of chiropractic medicine, and decided to attend Logan Chiropractic College. "I loved it," Nelson says of her Standard Process internship. "I really liked working in the lab – it has instruments I probably wouldn't have been able to use anywhere else." Nelson says what influenced her most was the continuity between the science and the end result. "The best part was collecting samples from our test beds at the farm and running assays on it in the lab," said Nelson. "You could see it grow from a seed into the plant and know it was going into a product."

Manager of Discovery Science and intern coordinator, Dr. Paul Hanlon is proud of the internship program and the value it brings to both Standard Process and the interns. "We're really proud of the fact that we've brought in a bunch of students with different backgrounds and these students have gone on to a variety of careers," said Dr. Hanlon. "Even if they don't become research scientists, I hope the time spent in our lab taught them something about the scientific process, how to critically evaluate problems they may come across, and also expose them to the fact that Standard Process is really putting a lot of effort into understanding as much as we can about our products."

For information on the Standard Process Internship Program, contact Dr. Paul Hanlon at phanlon@standardprocess.com.