On August 18, the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology celebrated the successful completion of its inaugural High School Lab Skills Summer (HSLS) program.

This new program, a partnership with the Harvard Ed Portal, aims to provide an experiential learning experience for local high school students to improve their science literacy and equip them with basic life science, laboratory, and workforce skills. This summer five students joined Faculty Labs as research interns where they were paired with graduate student mentors and acquired essential laboratory skills.

“This program seeks to identify and support high school students who are not aware of STEM laboratory career options,” said Deana Reardon, Director of CCB. “For CCB, this program complements our collective focus on increasing diversity in our department, cultivating mentorship, and forging outreach efforts within the Boston community.”

The HSLS program began in the Spring when two graduate students, Rebecca Frank and Ranad Humeidi, taught a weekly class about science literacy and laboratory skills at the Harvard Ed Portal for a group of Brighton High School students nominated by their teachers. At the end of the semester, the students demonstrated the skills they had acquired in front of high school science teachers and guests from CCB.

Professor Jarad Mason, the faculty Program Lead, reached out to fellow CCB faculty members and identified five groups who were each able to host a high school student for six weeks this summer.

Each student was paired with a graduate student mentor who provided guidance and instruction to the high schoolers as they performed experiments, read scientific papers, and experienced scientific research in action. Over the six weeks, the high schoolers participated in laboratory research, attended group meetings, lunched with faculty and staff, performed experiments, and utilized the department’s X-Ray facilities.

“Graduate students are truly the key to make this program successful," Reardon said. "We could not have asked for a better group of mentors this year; they exceeded every expectation and rose to every challenge set before them.”

The students credit the program with exposing them to careers in the STEM field and new skills in chemistry research.

“I had never coded or soldered in my life, so it was really interesting,” said Wilmaris Gonzales, a high school research intern in the Ni Lab. “I coded to measure the voltage to Lab JackT7. I learned how to code and make circuits by soldering.”

The department plans to continue the program into the future.

“This is a program we are hoping to continue into the long-term,” Mason said. “We want to continue to match high school students with CCB labs during summers.”

The full list of research interns follows and photos are available below:

• Damilyis Gonzales, Betley Lab. Mentors: Ivan Arvizo and Claire Casaday.
• Maryam Abbaz, Woo Lab. Mentor: Angel Ni.
• Dayana Ulloa, Balskus lab. Mentor: Paula Pelayo.
• Roshaun Knight, Mason Lab. Mentor: Grant Stec.
• Wilmaris Gonzales, Ni Lab. Mentor: Conner Williams.