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HHMI grant funds Summer Science at CC
HHMI grant gets these science students off to a bright start
September 04, 2003
On an August morning, with the fall semester still ahead, some new students are already gathered in Brown Auditorium. They are listening, rapt, as chemistry professor Marc Zimmer describes his research on GFP - green fluorescent protein - in jellyfish. Scientists can insert the GFP gene into another organism, Professor Zimmer explains, and use its green glow to track what's happening (with a tumor, for instance).
Soon questions fly. "If you put the gene into a pig, how do you know it won't have side effects?" someone asked. Prof. Zimmer notes that GFP is now used widely, with no reports of side effects.
A few more questions and it's time to go. Everybody needs a few minutes to prepare for the next activity, a boat trip to explore the ecosystem of the Connecticut River. This is Summer Science at Connecticut College, the start each year of a remarkable program, funded by a generous grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which attracts and assists potential science students, particularly from underrepresented groups, such as women and minorities. The students say that the Hughes program is a boon to them. Zimmer, who heads the program, sees it as a boon to science.
"We'd like to change the profile in science, have proportional representation," he says, "because if we have diversity in science, we have diverse ways of thinking, of approaching problems."
The Hughes program at CC began in 2000 with three students. This year 14 freshmen - from California, Hawaii, New Mexico, New York and New England states - arrived for the two-week Summer Science session of refresher courses, faculty lectures, campus tours, field trips and other activities. "The students can get to know each other and know the science faculty," says Zimmer, noting that they also get help choosing courses and finding their way around. "The idea is to make them comfortable."
The program provides room, board, tuition and a stipend for the summer. It also pays for first-year books, provides mentoring and tutoring, and offers summer internships. "The students get to work with faculty and other students; they get to see how research is done;" says Zimmer.
"What didn't this program do for me?" asks Candace Griffith '06, a biology major who wants to be a dermatologist. She appreciates that the Hughes program paid for her books, introduced her to professors, and has kept on going. "It has stayed with me," she says.
Heidi Alvarez '05 recalls her first summer. "We had mentors; they helped us. You could establish connections, ask science questions," says Alvarez, a biology major who recently completed an internship working with apparatus used in studying cellular structure and who plans a career in research.
Both she and Griffith now act as mentors to incoming students. "I call them 'my new kids,' " Alvarez says.
The "new kids" are looking, learning, getting into the swing. "It's wonderful to get to know people, to get prepared," says Alex Avila '07. Nicholas Rivera 07 says he's just happy to be here. - Carolyn Battista
For media inquiries contact: Amy Martin (860) 439-2526; a.martin@conncoll.edu