Elizabethtown College English Department

by Carly Miller

Hi! My name is Carly Miller and I am a junior Professional Writing major. Over the summer of 2021, I had the opportunity to participate in SCARP here at Elizabethtown College. If you’re unfamiliar with SCARP – don’t worry. So was I!

The Summer Scholarship Creative Arts and Research Project, or SCARP, program is sort of like an internship job opportunity. Students selected for the program work alongside their faculty mentors on a research topic and then present their results at the end of the project. It’s a great experience for the student to learn and grow, and also looks great on a resume.

Before I begin telling you about my experience with SCARP, let me give you a little background on who I am! I promise – I won’t turn this into a diary entry.

In high school, I jumped around a lot with what I wanted to pursue in college. My plan for a long time was to enter the medical field. I loved helping people and I really wanted to make a difference. Then I took anatomy. Needless to say, after dissecting a mink and struggling to remember which bone was where, I realized the hands-on doctor approach I had planned wasn’t what my future held for me.

I fell back on one of my lifetime passions – writing. Still, I held such an interest in the medical field, but was confident in my skills as a writer. That’s when I realized I could have the best of both worlds! Medical writing. I had found my pursuit.

So now let me take you back to SCARP!

My mentor, Dr. Tara Moore, approached me at the end of my sophomore year to ask me if I wanted to take on the SCARP opportunity with her. Even better yet – she wanted to conduct research into the medical writing field! I was so excited.

That’s one of the great things about the SCARP program. It can serve your interests as a student. For me, I got to explore medical writing in a way I hadn’t been able to before.

As an English major, I initially felt a little insecure about my role in this program.

“Do I fit here?”

“Will my work be meaningful?”

“What are others expecting out of me?”

These were all questions I was facing in the beginning of the project.

But the beautiful thing about research is that all research is important. Without it, where would we be?

Over the course of my project, I worked alongside Dr. Moore to research into the medical writing field. I studied types of medical writing, did a few interviews with alumni medical writers, and researched into medical writing graduate programs. Check out my blog post on those programs here!

Through my research on graduate programs, I actually found a program I am super interested in! I also got the opportunity to write my own pieces of medical writing, which was great experience for me.

The second portion of my project was to assist Dr. Moore in creating a healthcare writing course for future Etown students. I think this was my absolute favorite part of the project. I assisted in creating assignments and then completed them through a student lens to show what we can expect from future students. This involved watching lots of TED talks (um – yes please!) and of course, the typical researching and writing assignments.

What was so rewarding about the project was how independent it was. Dr. Moore was such a helpful mentor and gave me guidance along the way. But she also held confidence in me as her research assistant, so I really got to cater the project to my interests.

The presentations at the end of the project was like the cherry on top. Of course – I was nervous! – but being able to show others the work I had done was so gratifying. All of my initial doubts about my role in SCARP had disappeared, and I was so proud of what I had accomplished.

Looking back, I am so happy I accepted the challenge and created something meaningful within my SCARP project. I am so excited for what the future holds for myself and other students in this program. My advice? Don’t hold yourself back because of doubt. You might miss out on something great.