Quentin J.

I’m Quentin, and I’m going into my junior year at Garfield High School. I participated in session 2 of Explorers this year, and I was honored by the chance to take part in this incredible opportunity at Fred Hutch. Before Fred Hutch, I’d never had any lab experience, and the lab at Fred Hutch was a great place to start. They helped us every step of the way, while still giving us the freedom to create our own lab protocol and learn from our mistakes. My favorite lab was our CRISPR Cas9 lab, using CRISPR to cut a BRCA1 gene, and seeing the changes using a gel. This lab was my favorite because it related closely to what I wanted to do in my future, and it kind of fused together everything we had previously learned: micropipetting, gel electrophoresis, and PCR. It also felt the closest to something we might do in a future lab.

Me and my lab partner doing gel electrophoresis

Another part of this program I enjoyed were the lab tours. My personal favorite was the CryoEM lab tour, especially getting to move around the microscope to look around at ribosomes under it. The inside of the electron microscope was fascinating as well. The second part of the tour, a tour of Dr. Stoddard’s X-Ray Crystallography lab was very interesting as well, learning about the whole process of making a crystal, scanning it, then analyzing the results.

Us pranking Dr. G after a lab

Another part of this program was lectures from current professionals at Fred Hutch and PhD students. My favorite lecture was Dr. Raabya and Dr. Paul’s talk, I found it extremely inspiring, and I loved the attitude they had about life. I thought their stories were very inspiring as well, and I hope to someday find what I’ll work on and research through my life, as they already have. They also spoke on the power of teamwork and filling in each other’s weaknesses, particularly in biostatistics.

My notes for the lecture on CRISPR Cas9

In Explorers, I learned so much more about my future career and this helped me an incredible amount in knowing what I want to do with my life. But I also spent two weeks getting to know an amazing group of people that now mean so much to me. One other highlight of this program was the friends I made along the way. Playing mafia, doing puzzles, and performing an interpretive dance and rap about CRISPR all were super fun and I loved all of it.

Huge thank yous to all the alum helpers, Dr. G, the TA’s, guest speakers, SHIP students, and the labs for letting us walk through and see what they do at the Hutch. I loved my experience here and I hope that the Explorers program continues for many more years to inspire, educate, and provide lab experience to high schoolers who wish to learn more about the medical world.