Rafal Gulej’s grandmother cried when he told her he was going to Oklahoma for a year to do research.
“I thought she was sad about me leaving home,” says Rafal. Actually, she told him, hers were tears of joy. Ever since her grandson had applied for the chance to come to OMRF, she’d been praying he’d get to travel to the U.S. for this new adventure.
This year, Rafal and nine other master’s degree students came to OMRF as part of Poland’s Visiting Research Graduate Traineeship Program. The initiative brings the country’s best and brightest master’s degree candidates to the U.S. for a year of hands-on research training. Along with the University of Chicago, the University of Virginia and the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical Center, OMRF is one of four American host institutions.
“It’s been a great addition to OMRF, because it brings motivated, energetic students to our labs,” says Dr. Umesh Deshmukh, who brought the program with him when he joined OMRF’s scientific staff from the University of Virginia in 2013.
The program is extremely competitive. Hundreds of students from Poland’s top universities apply, but only a handful are ultimately selected to train in the U.S.
Once chosen, this year’s trainees, all from different cities in Poland, formed a Facebook group so they could get acquainted online. It helped to get to know each other in advance and to connect with some previous program participants still in Oklahoma City.
At OMRF, students are paired with a scientist mentor, who supervises them as they work on high-level research projects. The science is not new to them, as all have previously spent time working in labs. But there are some notable differences between Oklahoma and their home country.
“People are so friendly. They’ll even wish you good morning,” says Bujana Allushi. “That doesn’t happen much in Europe.”
Many ride bikes from their apartments, where the 10 students share five units. They like to jokingly refer to the two-mile daily commute as “free cardio.”
Since the program began five years ago at OMRF, growing numbers of scientists have requested the chance to host students in their labs. “They work very hard and are quite trainable, so it’s little wonder the program continues to flourish,” says Umesh.
In addition to their scientific contributions, says Umesh, “they also bring a little bit of Poland with them by sharing their culture and traditions.” OMRF’s Research Café has even added Golabki—cabbage roll—to its offerings. “So they’re very much part of us now.”
