Berik Kaliullayev

21 years old, originally from Ust-Kamenogorsk (East Kazakhstan), an undergraduate of Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University (General Medicine).  Berik did his research internship in May-August, 2015 at the Mycobacteria Research Laboratories of the Colorado State University.

1. Why did you choose medicine?
Actually I was interested in many professions. For example, I was always keen on learning foreign languages. I also thought about the profession of an art critic. Eventually, in high school I decided that I would do medicine that would combine my interests – the medical profession rests upon science, and healing and saving lives is an art in itself.

2. How did the competition on a US summer internship?
It all happened in a fairly short time. Aigul Sapargaliyeva, my academic supervisor told me about the contest of the Shakhmardan Yessenov Foundatation. She is head of the Pathological Anatomy Department of the Univeristy.  There was an immediate desire to win this internship. The Dean, Rahima Djumasheva, helped me to collect documents and submit them on time.

After passing the first stage I started preparing for the interview. It proved to be a challenge to explain why I deserve the grant. At the second stage of the contest we did a number of assignments that were designed to assess our personal qualities, skills, IQ, logical thinking, etc. But I successfully passed the stages and was amongst the ten lucky winners out of 130 applicants.

3. Any interesting and memorable experience from the internship?
I learnt to work in a high-tech laboratory.  I also learnt first-hand the organization and process of research work in highly biohazard conditions.  From a future-medical-professional standpoint, knowledge of and working with the latest methods of research is certainly of great value to me.  In addition to the scientific training I had had, I also had a language practice I did not plan for.  That is, both my professor and my host family are native speakers of Spanish. So I improved my Spanish quite considerably.   

4. What would you say about the results of the internship?
I definitely intend to apply what I had learnt from my internship in my medical career.  It goes without saying that I gained the experience while interning in one of the leading labs in research of TB, which is a pressing challenge for Kazakhstan.  The internship became possible thanks to the Yessenov Foundation.  I have got plans to apply my knowledge to conduct research at my University and later apply for Ph.D.