Ananya Srivastava

AT A CROSSROADS

Chemistry student Ananya Srivastava uses her B.E.S.T. internship to explore her passion for medicine

Ananya Srivastava is passionate about medicine. The Chemistry major from Mississauga, Ontario, has immersed herself in many extracurricular activities both on and off the Bishop’s campus to gain exposure to the field, including a volunteer position at a hospital and several academic clubs. During her 2nd year, Ananya took an exciting new step in her journey.

‘‘I was surfing the Bishop’s website and found the experiential learning link. I saw that the school offered several opportunities including B.E.S.T. At the time, I knew I wanted to do an internship abroad, so I thought this would be an amazing opportunity to help me achieve that goal,’’ she explains.

Ananya conducted research on anti-cancer agents at Braunschweig University of Technology in Germany. Before her internship, she learned German while staying with a host family in Frankfurt. She was paired with another student who didn’t speak English – a truly immersive experience that helped her during her 2-month long internship.

She adds: ‘‘It’s amazing that Bishop’s is willing to support me financially so I can follow my dreams and figure out what I should do next.’’

For Ananya, these experiences outside of the classroom are the best way to learn. ‘‘Classrooms are very controlled environments. All the experiments given by my professors are known to work. And if they don’t work, then I know it’s because of something I did or that something went wrong that can be explained. Whereas when you’re researching, you don’t know what the outcome will be. My internship allowed me to explore my skill and test how much I’m learning in the classroom,’’ she says.