Service academy students finish lab internships at OMRF (Gu '27, Palmer '27, Fullenwider '09)
Four military academy students arrived at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation expecting their summer internship to provide lab skills. They left having learned lessons that will benefit them far beyond the lab.
For the Air Force Academy’s Hayden Ward, that lesson was perseverance. For West Point cadet Joey Shi, it was attention to detail. Naval Academy midshipman Aaron Gu experienced firsthand the cutting-edge nature of biomedical research. For his fellow midshipman Shawn Palmer, it was the value of learning from co-workers.
All four completed OMRF’s John H. Saxon Service Academy Summer Research Program, which provides hands-on research conducted with senior-level scientists at the Oklahoma City foundation.
Among those who can attest to the value of a Saxon internship worth is U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Connor Fullenwider. The Muskogee native served as one of the program’s first two scholars, even before it bore the Saxon name.
After graduating from the Naval Academy in 2009, Fullenwider attended medical school at the University of Oklahoma. Today he oversees the pain clinic at Naval Medical Center San Diego.