A member of the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps looks at zebrafish embryos during a tour of the Gallagher Lab.
It's hard to pursue a path in environmental health when you have no idea what that path looks like. Multiple times a year the University of Washington Superfund Research Program (UW SRP) hosts campus visits and lab tours for students to show off the science of UW SRP scientists while providing career development and support.
On August 20th, the UW SRP partnered with the EDGE Center to host just such a campus visit for a group of 13 interns from three different student groups- eight interns with Zero Waste Washington (seven of whom were also members of the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps), three BRANCH interns from the Urban Indian Health Institute, and two SURE-EH student research assistants funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Throughout the day-long tour, the students watched zebrafish embryos developing under a microscope and viewed videos of behavioral tests in tours of the Gallagher and Xia labs hosted by trainees Margaret Mills and Megumi Matsushita.
Because the students ranged from high school to master's level, they also broke out for age-appropriate career development activities. The older students heard from Vanessa Alvarez of the Go-Map program about applying to and navigating graduate school as a first-generation college student and/ or member of an underrepresented group.
The younger students had an interview skills training workshop with Temo X Madigral-Sanchez of Total Talent Management within the University of Washington's Department of Human Resources.
Participants rated the experience highly, with all activities indicated as a favorite by at least one student.