Authors: Michael Daniel (MP3) and Andrew McKenzie (MP3)

Every year the members of the ISMMS MSTP put down their books, pipettes, and stethoscopes for a weekend and head to a relaxing location outside of the city, in a tradition that is known as the MD/PhD Retreat. This year our retreat was at the Bushkill Inn & Conference Center in Bushkill, Pennsylvania, a bucolic setting for a brilliant event. Vincent Racaniello kicked off the festivities with a wonderful keynote talk. In this talk, he first entertained us with his fascinating data on his work on neurotropic viruses, and then he spoke to the importance of communicating our science to the public. After dinner and student poster presentations, many of the students joined together for a Trivia Night. The questions at this event spanned the gamut from Olympic athletes to contemporary pop music to 1950’s science fiction movies, and, as your humble narrators can attest, required the full activation of one’s dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

The Annual MSTP Retreat was held the weekend of September 9-11th, 2016. Per tradition, the entire MSTP student body, invited alumni, faculty, administration, and keynote speakers in attendance took a group photo on Saturday morning

Following a lively alumni panel with Dr Rita Shaknovich, Dr Steven Seigel, and Dr Jeffrey Parvin, students chose which breakout sessions to attend. These are designed to appeal to students at different stages of the program and allow some of the faculty members that attend the retreat to impart wisdom in lively, interactive meetings. This year the breakout sessions included a session on how to choose the right lab, how to develop a good research project, how to write an NIH F30 grant, and how to plan for a residency application. After this, everyone had a break, during which some people went on a hike to the beautiful Bushkill Falls, some played a spirited game of ultimate frisbee, and some just relaxed. Finally, one of the highlights of the retreat every year is the student presentations — and this year was no exception — where senior members of the MSTP have forty minutes to present their research. All in all, the retreat was once again a smashing success, with 95.9% of respondents saying that retreat was at least “Good,” and 10.2% percent saying that it was the “Best Ever.” Until next year!