Sydney Sillart, CBC Undergraduate student, has spent the summer in Germany (and beyond) interning through DAAD’s RISE program, a German Foreign Exchange Service that offers summer research internships in Germany for undergraduate students in North America, Great Britain and Ireland. Students are matched with doctoral students who they assist, and who serves as their mentor.

Sillart is currently working in Dr. Waldvogel’s lab at the University of Mainz, where she is using electrochemistry for various organic syntheses, specifically involving oxidative coupling and generating large heterocyclic compounds. “Working with such a prestigious lab group in Germany has been an enlightening experience”, Sillart stated of her research experience.

While taking a German language course during her first few weeks there, she learned just enough phrases to get by during her travels on the weekends. So far she’s been to Lisbon, Stockholm, Prague, Amsterdam, Belgium, Copenhagen, Madrid, and many cities in England, Scotland, and Ireland! Sillart plans to hit Budapest, Krakow, Switzerland, Italy, and Paris before flying back to the Buckeye state! She has traveled with the many other interns she met throughout this experience and has met a number of OSU students, too! “It is cool to meet new people that go to the same school as me whose paths I might never have crossed otherwise”, Sillart stated.

Sillart did not know what to expect this summer, but she seems to be soaring! “It has been a wonderful experience meeting people from around the world and getting to understand German culture… I did not know what to expect but this was the best decision I have made and I am having a lovely summer, and I honestly am not sure I ever want to leave!”