This post was written by Nina Huynh and Aleksandra Kogalovski
The past two weeks at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have been incredibly inspiring, unique, and life-changing. Not a minute went to waste; every second of the past two weeks has been spent either listening to fascinating speakers discuss their work, working on fascinating labs as reactions happened right before our eyes, or meeting numerous remarkable people. Our mentors were amazing: they were always ready to discuss any of our questions, and they did an extraordinary job of guiding us through each lab and clearly explaining each concept no matter how initially confusing it was.
One of our favorite things about the Hutch was how welcoming and kind the whole community was to us. Some of our highlights of the program included seeing the posters made by the undergraduates currently participating in the Hutch’s SURP program and learning about the studies being conducted with worms and flies in the Basic Sciences division.
Out of many of the SURP posters that were presented, our favorite was by an inspiring girl named Naomi Yamamoto from the University of Chicago about a possible future treatment for an uncommon form of prostate cancer. We enjoyed her presentation because she explained everything very clearly, she went back to the basics of her topic to make sure that we were able to understand everything, and throughout her presentation, she asked us questions to make sure that we were following along and that everything made sense. She was impeccably prepared and knowledgeable on her topic; she told us that she had spent the upcoming days preparing to present to different audiences with varying levels of prior understanding of her topic, ranging from high schoolers to experts. Besides her extraordinary preparation, she was very calm, relaxed, and she simply was herself. Naomi was sweet and comfortable to talk to. After seeing her presentation, we were so motivated by her work, that we couldn't stop talking about how we couldn’t wait to someday be in her place: researching and presenting fascinating topics at the Hutch. Both of us are eagerly awaiting the day when we apply to the Hutch’s Summer High School Internship Program which will hopefully be the next step in our journey to pursuing our future careers. I, Aleksandra, am hoping to pursue a career in medical research. I love helping others and being a doctor would allow me to do that, meanwhile utilizing my love for science. Science is a passion of mine because it’s always changing, meaning that there’s always something new to learn. It’s also the place in this world where I truly believe that I can make a difference. I’m hoping to eventually work up to an MD/ Ph.D., because especially after this program, I have fallen in love with the research process and I really enjoy learning new things, and I want to continue to learn throughout the course of my life. While I, Nina, have the dream of becoming an Allergist and studying Immunology. As a person that has Autoimmune, I believe that I have the empathy to mentally and emotionally understand a patient that struggles with chronic allergies and other immunologic disorders. I wish to help other patients to live as full of lives as possible by earning an MD as an Allergist and Immunologist. I feel like this is a fitting career considering that I have had a love for medicine ever since I was a child.
Another part of this program that we really enjoyed was learning about the current studies on worms and flies in the Basic Sciences Division at Fred Hutch. It was fascinating to be able to see and observe them with microscopes as well. We thought that Jacob Decker’s talk about his work with flies was astonishing. It was genuinely eye-opening to learn about the importance of basic sciences and how it ties into our lives as well as more specialized research. Observing the flies in tubes was a lot of fun for us because we learned a lot of new information, including how flies have a directional preference and will always go up, no matter the orientation of the tube. It was also astonishing to be able to figure out the various possible mutations in each worn by observing their paths through the agarose gel. It was especially gratifying when we were able to guess the mutation correctly.
Overall, the Fred Hutch Explorers program has been awe-inspiring and exceeded our expectations. We are so thankful to have been a part of this incredible program, and we hope more high schoolers like us will have the opportunity to have this experience for years to come. We cannot wait to continue working with the Hutch. And of course, a huge thank you to every inspiring speaker that took time out of their day to come present to us, and a huge thank you to all of our lovely mentors!
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