Youth
www.SanTanSun.com
Sept. 19 - Oct. 2, 2015
27
BASIS junior devotes summer to scientific research BY ALISON STANTON
For many high school students, summer vacation means hanging out with friends by the pool, walking around the mall or taking in a movie. Sixteen-year-old Isaac Mordukhovich eschewed the typical teenage hangs and found a way to pursue his passion for medicine and science. Following family tradition, the BASIS Chandler junior visited his grandparents in Michigan for the summer. Isaac spent the first half of his summer interning at Glacier Hills Senior Living Community in Ann Arbor. For the last part of his break, Isaac volunteered at the University of Michigan. While interning at Glacier Hills, Isaac worked about three hours a day doing a variety of jobs, including helping to set up activities, speaking with patients, playing music on the piano for the residents, walking with them and taking residents where they needed to go. “I also used my experiences at the various volunteer stations that I worked at to update the volunteer position descriptions,” Isaac said. “I also made a flier promoting MindCrowd, a Web-based memory study researching Alzheimer’s disease, for Glacier Hills. The flier was then posted on their bulletin boards to spread awareness.” Isaac said a lot of the work he did at Glacier Hills was similar to the tasks he does when he volunteers in Arizona at
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Hospice of the Valley. While working as an unpaid research assistant at U-M, he spent seven hours a day in the Barmada Lab in the university’s neurology department. Isaac said he did many interesting tasks at the Barmada Lab, including analyzing the survival data of rats’ cortical motor neurons and a gene that is suspected to have a hand in ALS. “I analyzed data of the tiny neurons to identify their times of death, and my work also made use of genes that coded for GFP, nRFP and CFP, which are proteins that each fluoresce in a different color,” he said. Isaac’s mom, Regina Shnayderman, said her son’s volunteer work not only gives him the satisfaction of knowing he is helping others, but will also help him grow into a more responsible and appreciative adult. “Isaac has shown an interest in helping others from a very young age, but I do not think that his kindness and compassion are entirely innate qualities,” Shnayderman said. She said Isaac was inspired by his grandparents. When her parents immigrated to the United States, volunteers helped them learn their new language of English. “My parents greatly appreciate the assistance they received from the local volunteering organizations during their first years in the United States, and it was probably my parents’ positive remarks
Isaac Mordukhovich, a junior at BASIS Chandler, spent part of his summer volunteering in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Submitted photo
and their respect toward volunteers that triggered Isaac’s interest toward volunteering,” she said. “Isaac did a good job in both his internship and his unpaid research
assistant position, and I am very proud of him.” Alison Stanton is a freelance writer who lives in the East Valley. She can be reached at Alison@SanTanSun.com.
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