One year ago, Rachel Sahm submitted the application that led her to landing the job she has already secured, following graduation in May 2024.
Sahm, who expects to graduate from ACPHS with a bachelor’s in microbiology and a master’s in molecular biosciences, has accepted a job as senior scientist at Eli Lilly and Company. She got the ball rolling following a presentation by Lilly representatives, including Robert Haluksa ’20, Jasmine Uzzell ‘22 and Mike Hendershot, in Prof. Meenakshi Malik’s microbiology class in October 2022.
“I’m definitely very happy about it,” said Sahm (pictured above, right).
The visit by Lilly reps has been an annual tradition in ACPHS classes since 2018, when a Lilly representative approached Dr. Malik with the idea. The company later broadened its area of interest to pharmaceutical science students, with skill sets in bioanalytics that complemented microbiology as well, said Associate Professor Dr. Richard Dearborn.
Lilly reps will be back on campus this Friday, October 20.
While an internship at Lilly does not guarantee a job offer, it is considered something of an extended interview. That’s true for the company as well as the students, who get to hone their skills in the real world while evaluating the environment during what is often their first experience in the pharmaceutical industry.
Five ACPHS students interned at Lilly for three months last summer: Sahm, Valerie Carrillo (pictured above, left), Michaela Clark, Ezra Nelson and Hayley Swint.
Sahm’s assignment involved calculating the bioburden, or microbial count, on an unpurified pharmaceutical product in the upstream part of the manufacturing process. She experienced the difference between performing those tasks in the classroom, with faculty mentors to oversee her work, and performing them on the job, knowing her documentation had to be pristine, as her reports would be submitted to regulators like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Carrillo, who is also pursuing a dual major in microbiology and molecular biosciences and expects to complete her degree programs in May 2025, helped gather data intended to streamline sterilization processes by putting different contaminated drug products through a variety of tests. She knew her results would be used by managers to consider changes to the manufacturing processes. Was it intimidating at first? “Oh yeah,” Carrillo said with a hearty laugh, then added that by the internship’s end, she was excited to have contributed to a real-world quality control investigation.
Both ACPHS students gained valuable information about biomanufacturing, they said. But there were other, invaluable, lessons too. They discovered they had the skills to assimilate into a professional setting, perform competently and ask smart questions. They learned that in the pharmaceutical industry, their collaborators would be other research scientists and also engineers, machine operators and process specialists.
“It really was a confidence booster for me,” Carrillo echoed. “And I didn’t realize how much you can do in the pharmaceutical industry until I was there.”
Sahm, of course, additionally learned that Lilly was a place she would like to work. Carrillo agreed it would be a good place to launch a career, so she’s pursuing a second internship there next summer, to learn more and also strengthen her chances of getting an offer.
Both students recommend the internships for students wondering if a career in the pharmaceutical industry is right for them. They called it a great environment for the curious and collaborative.
“It’s great if you’re a team player,” Sahm said. “If not, it wouldn’t be a good fit.”
Kaitlyn Strumski Rehberg '23 also secured a position at Eli Lilly through her internship. Read more