Co-operating for the Greater Good
4/10/2020 12:01:00 PM | Women's Rowing, Student Athlete, Features, Intellectual Development
By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Communications
There's a reason why Sophia Mayone became interested in science from a young age.
"My youngest brother was born with a chronic illness," she said. "I was eight years old, but started asking questions about biology, cells, genes and why he had this disease.
"Because I started asking those types of questions early in life, I feel like it stuck with me. My interest in science, technology and studying diseases grew from there."
Now a junior on the Lehigh rowing team, Mayone is a chemical engineering major at a prestigious institution. She's also in the midst of a co-op at pharmaceutical company Sanofi, an opportunity that began in the fall and will continue this summer.
As its website explains, Sanofi is a "global healthcare leader," and "present in 100 countries."
"Sanofi is headquartered in France," said Mayone. "They have many different divisions and I worked in their vaccine division, Pasteur."
During the fall, Mayone commuted to Swiftwater, Pa. (approximately 50 minutes each way), all while living on campus where she was a Gryphon and TRAC fellow. She worked 40 hours per week, Monday through Friday.
At Sanofi, Mayone was deeply engrained in important projects. It included researching new technologies that could improve the manufacturing process of the influenza vaccine.
"I communicated with vendors, spoke with people who worked in private sector companies and asked them about their technology," she said. "I was 21 years old, communicating with people who do this for a living.
"I asked valid questions and came back with concrete information I could communicate to my manager."
Mayone was a sponge, taking everything in, which is the purpose of any internship or co-op. Luckily for her, Sanofi proved as supportive an environment as she could have hoped. It was an environment that encouraged learning and growing.
"Everyone in the lab was so supportive of me as a student and encouraged me to ask questions," said Mayone. "They helped when I needed it, but also gave me space to learn how to do things on my own. I also gained a very beneficial perspective on how different education levels fit in the workforce."
Mayone has taken what she learned and is using it to help map out her future.
"After my first rotation in the fall, I realized I want to go to graduate school because I'm a lot more interested in the discovery and process development side of things," she said. "My co-op experience helped me make a very informed decision about my next steps after Lehigh."
Mayone isn't at that step, yet. She's still at Lehigh, and appreciative of every aspect the university – and athletics department – has provided.
"Our coaching staff is extremely supportive of us as students," said Mayone. "When I expressed interest in this program to our head coach, Brian Conley, I was very nervous because I was basically asking to be away for an entire fall season. He has always said we're here to get a job after school. We're probably not going to be a professional rower, but we'll have to get a job."
As Conley said, "We tell all our student-athletes that rowing is supposed to enhance their college learning experience. That means the coaching staff will work with athletes when they have a great opportunity like Sophia's at Sanofi."
It's a two-way street. Even though the co-op took Mayone away from the team (minus a random practice here and there), she knew it wasn't a free pass to forget about athletics.
"My teammates sent me pictures of the workout list and I completed them on my own in Taylor Gym," she said. "I also followed what Coach Conley outlined in a broad workout packet for students studying abroad."
It's hard to believe Mayone is just halfway done her co-op because she's admittedly already grown so much as a student, athlete and person.
"Sophia as a first-year versus Sophia now are very different people," said Conley. "She is a strong and confident young woman, who definitely takes charge and wants action. She has only kept enhancing that with what she chooses to do. For example, she had a few offers for internships and co-ops and chose Sanofi because it was going to challenge her the most and force her to grow. Sophia regularly seeks out a challenge, which has made her a great coxswain on our team."
Conley referred to Mayone's confidence, which has increased because of her Sanofi experience.
"I believe my increased confidence has come from having an impact and helping a process move forward at Sanofi," she said.
Helping something move forward is very similar to Mayone's role on the water as a coxswain.
"I'm a planner," she said. "Other coxswains could relate to this, but I very much like to look ahead, see the destination I'm pointing at and ask, 'How am I going to get from here to there most efficiently?'"
Mayone's increased confidence has also led to greater efficiency in everything she does.
"After being at Sanofi, I feel more confident in how I communicate my ideas with other people," she said. "This can extend into athletics, too. Obviously, our season was cut short. But for the part of the year we had, I felt more confident in laying out a plan and saying we should take steps X, Y and Z to reach this goal."
Hearing about growth that resonates across multiple disciplines is gratifying for Conley to hear. It's at the forefront of why the rowing program allows student-athletes to experience co-ops and internships in the first place.
"As a program, we set the expectation that our student-athletes should bring what they learn from their experiences to the boat and make their teammates better," said Conley. "Sophia has taken that philosophy and applied it to all aspects of her life. She brought back with her a further desire to lead by being in an environment where she had to take personal ownership of her job at the co-op, and that's making us better."
After Mayone graduates Lehigh in 2021, her goal is to earn her doctorate degree in chemical engineering.
"As of now, my plan is to go directly into a PhD program," she said. "I would like to do my thesis work in something related to the pharmaceutical industry."
With everything happening in the world right now surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, it has shined light on the value of young professionals like Mayone for the future of the healthcare industry.
A significant area of Mayone's interest is pharmaceuticals. A question she posed is, "How do I take this chemical, which I know has some reaction in the body, and put it into a pill or vaccine?"
Mayone hopes to one day be able to answer that question. She is certainly on the right track.
"I want to come out on the other side of a PhD program focused on pharmaceutical processes," she said.
Vaccines are in the news more and more nowadays, as the world fights the coronavirus pandemic. While Mayone didn't experience anything related to COVID-19 in the fall, she can understand the challenge of vaccine development.
"I saw with my own eyes the making of the influenza vaccine," she said. "Fast forward to today and all of a sudden, we're taking classes online and we lost our rowing season. Having been in a pharmaceutical company, they make vaccines to prevent things like this happening (and it was recently announced that Sanofi is exploring a COVID-19 vaccine).
As Mayone continued, "This summer, I'm excited to see how professionals in a company that makes vaccines against viruses is responding."
In a time of so much uncertainty about what the future will bring in all aspects of life, Mayone is grateful for what she does have and has experienced.
"I hope prospective Lehigh student-athletes who are really serious about their academics see my story as proof that Coach Conley is here to support us as students," she said. "I can't emphasize how lucky I am that a Division I student-athlete is able to experience a co-op.
"With Lehigh, I feel like I've found the perfect place to be a student-athlete."
There's a reason why Sophia Mayone became interested in science from a young age.
"My youngest brother was born with a chronic illness," she said. "I was eight years old, but started asking questions about biology, cells, genes and why he had this disease.
"Because I started asking those types of questions early in life, I feel like it stuck with me. My interest in science, technology and studying diseases grew from there."
Now a junior on the Lehigh rowing team, Mayone is a chemical engineering major at a prestigious institution. She's also in the midst of a co-op at pharmaceutical company Sanofi, an opportunity that began in the fall and will continue this summer.
As its website explains, Sanofi is a "global healthcare leader," and "present in 100 countries."
"Sanofi is headquartered in France," said Mayone. "They have many different divisions and I worked in their vaccine division, Pasteur."
During the fall, Mayone commuted to Swiftwater, Pa. (approximately 50 minutes each way), all while living on campus where she was a Gryphon and TRAC fellow. She worked 40 hours per week, Monday through Friday.
At Sanofi, Mayone was deeply engrained in important projects. It included researching new technologies that could improve the manufacturing process of the influenza vaccine.
"I communicated with vendors, spoke with people who worked in private sector companies and asked them about their technology," she said. "I was 21 years old, communicating with people who do this for a living.
"I asked valid questions and came back with concrete information I could communicate to my manager."
Mayone was a sponge, taking everything in, which is the purpose of any internship or co-op. Luckily for her, Sanofi proved as supportive an environment as she could have hoped. It was an environment that encouraged learning and growing.
"Everyone in the lab was so supportive of me as a student and encouraged me to ask questions," said Mayone. "They helped when I needed it, but also gave me space to learn how to do things on my own. I also gained a very beneficial perspective on how different education levels fit in the workforce."
Mayone has taken what she learned and is using it to help map out her future.
"After my first rotation in the fall, I realized I want to go to graduate school because I'm a lot more interested in the discovery and process development side of things," she said. "My co-op experience helped me make a very informed decision about my next steps after Lehigh."
Mayone isn't at that step, yet. She's still at Lehigh, and appreciative of every aspect the university – and athletics department – has provided.
"Our coaching staff is extremely supportive of us as students," said Mayone. "When I expressed interest in this program to our head coach, Brian Conley, I was very nervous because I was basically asking to be away for an entire fall season. He has always said we're here to get a job after school. We're probably not going to be a professional rower, but we'll have to get a job."
As Conley said, "We tell all our student-athletes that rowing is supposed to enhance their college learning experience. That means the coaching staff will work with athletes when they have a great opportunity like Sophia's at Sanofi."
It's a two-way street. Even though the co-op took Mayone away from the team (minus a random practice here and there), she knew it wasn't a free pass to forget about athletics.
"My teammates sent me pictures of the workout list and I completed them on my own in Taylor Gym," she said. "I also followed what Coach Conley outlined in a broad workout packet for students studying abroad."
It's hard to believe Mayone is just halfway done her co-op because she's admittedly already grown so much as a student, athlete and person.
"Sophia as a first-year versus Sophia now are very different people," said Conley. "She is a strong and confident young woman, who definitely takes charge and wants action. She has only kept enhancing that with what she chooses to do. For example, she had a few offers for internships and co-ops and chose Sanofi because it was going to challenge her the most and force her to grow. Sophia regularly seeks out a challenge, which has made her a great coxswain on our team."
Conley referred to Mayone's confidence, which has increased because of her Sanofi experience.
"I believe my increased confidence has come from having an impact and helping a process move forward at Sanofi," she said.
Helping something move forward is very similar to Mayone's role on the water as a coxswain.
"I'm a planner," she said. "Other coxswains could relate to this, but I very much like to look ahead, see the destination I'm pointing at and ask, 'How am I going to get from here to there most efficiently?'"
Mayone's increased confidence has also led to greater efficiency in everything she does.
"After being at Sanofi, I feel more confident in how I communicate my ideas with other people," she said. "This can extend into athletics, too. Obviously, our season was cut short. But for the part of the year we had, I felt more confident in laying out a plan and saying we should take steps X, Y and Z to reach this goal."
Hearing about growth that resonates across multiple disciplines is gratifying for Conley to hear. It's at the forefront of why the rowing program allows student-athletes to experience co-ops and internships in the first place.
"As a program, we set the expectation that our student-athletes should bring what they learn from their experiences to the boat and make their teammates better," said Conley. "Sophia has taken that philosophy and applied it to all aspects of her life. She brought back with her a further desire to lead by being in an environment where she had to take personal ownership of her job at the co-op, and that's making us better."
After Mayone graduates Lehigh in 2021, her goal is to earn her doctorate degree in chemical engineering.
"As of now, my plan is to go directly into a PhD program," she said. "I would like to do my thesis work in something related to the pharmaceutical industry."
With everything happening in the world right now surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, it has shined light on the value of young professionals like Mayone for the future of the healthcare industry.
A significant area of Mayone's interest is pharmaceuticals. A question she posed is, "How do I take this chemical, which I know has some reaction in the body, and put it into a pill or vaccine?"
Mayone hopes to one day be able to answer that question. She is certainly on the right track.
"I want to come out on the other side of a PhD program focused on pharmaceutical processes," she said.
Vaccines are in the news more and more nowadays, as the world fights the coronavirus pandemic. While Mayone didn't experience anything related to COVID-19 in the fall, she can understand the challenge of vaccine development.
"I saw with my own eyes the making of the influenza vaccine," she said. "Fast forward to today and all of a sudden, we're taking classes online and we lost our rowing season. Having been in a pharmaceutical company, they make vaccines to prevent things like this happening (and it was recently announced that Sanofi is exploring a COVID-19 vaccine).
As Mayone continued, "This summer, I'm excited to see how professionals in a company that makes vaccines against viruses is responding."
In a time of so much uncertainty about what the future will bring in all aspects of life, Mayone is grateful for what she does have and has experienced.
"I hope prospective Lehigh student-athletes who are really serious about their academics see my story as proof that Coach Conley is here to support us as students," she said. "I can't emphasize how lucky I am that a Division I student-athlete is able to experience a co-op.
"With Lehigh, I feel like I've found the perfect place to be a student-athlete."
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