Jefferson Van Wagenen

Yesterday I had the pleasure of talking with Alyssa Ricketts about her educational and
extracurricular interests. She began briefly by elaborating upon the latter, mentioning soccer and
her involvement in UWs Hip Hop Dance Team. But then she really went in depth about the
goals she has for her education and her long-term plans. She is in the bioengineering major, and
she wants specifically to research prosthetic design. I believe it is a great way to give people
opportunities in life they may not have otherwise, she said, showing just how deep that passion
goes. She also presented an interest in working with children, and that she would be open to a
path after college that integrates both of those interests for a future career.
As for what she could do to further her education with respect to those pursuits, she
already presented one extracurricular point of involvement in which she is seriously interested:
Joan Sanders Lab (see http://depts.washington.edu/jsweb/). From that webpage, the lab clearly
looks to satisfy her interest in working with prosthetics and prosthetic design. However, she
expressed reservations about being able to be a part of the lab as an undergraduate, noting that
Professor Sanders rarely allows non-graduate students to join; still, shes going to try.
Unsurprisingly, internships are a great way to get involved with prosthetic design as well.
One organization I found that may have such an internship available (perhaps even at the UW
medical center) is the Department of Veterans Affairs. Their Center for Limb Loss Prevention
and Prosthetic Engineering has an External Advisory Board made up entirely of UW Medical
Center professionals, and among its key services listed on its webpage
(http://www.amputation.research.va.gov/about_the_center.asp) includes internships available for
the department, though it is perhaps unclear whether those internships go directly to the
aforementioned Center for which Alyssa would certainly be applying.
Research is a third method of becoming involved before and as well beyond graduation.
This is a pursuit, however, that requires looking for future opportunities rather than open
positions, but places such as, in our backyard, UWs Department of Rehabilitation Medicine,
which looks to frequently coordinate research within the desired fields (see the home page at
http://rehab.washington.edu/research/studies/orthotics.asp).