Ruby D.

My experience during my internship at Fred Hutch has opened my eyes to different fields in health science research and what I want to do with my future career. I learned a lot about various types of labs at Fred Hutch, from Flow Cytometry to Zebra Fish. My favorite part of labs was doing gel electrophoresis, and using micropipetes. We used gel electrophoresis to see how gene editing affects cell size, and used gel electrophoresis to measure molecule size, as well as determining molecule charge, which helps with identifying what the molecule is. 

My second favorite part was meeting so many amazing people, and becoming friends instantly. The bond my cohort has made is special, and I’m so grateful that I got to be part of the community we made. This program wouldn’t have been as fun as it was without the instant connection that we had.

Everyone posing on our last day at the lab

Every day, we played a game named Mafia, which was super fun. And the game definitely helped us become comfortable with each other. Almost every day, Alumni from past Explorer cohorts would eat lunch with us and we asked them a lot of questions. Some alumni were from The Summer Highschool Internship Program at Fred Hutch, being able to give tips for that program application. They also shared advice about their Freshman year at UW. We were so grateful that the alumni shared their experiences and knowledge with us. 

Here I am looking at worms in a lab

We learned a lot about non-science things. One of my favorites was about imposterism - doubting one’s abilities and feeling like a fake - among high achieving individuals. It made me realize that my high standards for myself is an imposterism characteristic. We learned how to detect self doubt and change the way we think about ourselves. I'm so grateful to have been able to be empowered by an Imposterism lecture.  

Me using cool technology in the lab

We learned many lessons during our internship at Fred Hutch. Related to health science research, we learned about basic biology, the hallmarks of cancer, and how labs work at Fred Hutch. We also learned many life lessons, such as how our future careers should be something we love doing, something we are good at, something the world needs (and hopefully something that pays well). Although I don’t know what my future career will be yet, this program truly fed my love for learning about science, and I’m so grateful that I got to be a part of this amazing program and cohort. If you would like to learn about biology, cancer, and research, this program will serve you well.

Me and Grace mixing something