There's 104 Days of Summer Vacation...

By Emma Mueller

While Phineas Ferb may have spent their summer building rockets, fighting mummies, and climbing the Eiffel Tower, Biotech students were doing a bunch of awesome activities! College visits, research labs, and even beauty pageants kept us busy this summer. 

Jessie Liu, Senior 

"I visited some friends doing summer classes/volunteering at their respective campuses. I went around to a few schools in Pennsylvania and the Boston area to stay with my friends overnight for a day or two. I basically followed them around on days when they didn't have classes. This was over the span of about a month in July...it offered a much better feel for the school and campus than general admission tours did. I had gone on the general info sessions and tours before I visited my friends there, and the atmosphere was always different when I was with my friends, who had already been living on the campus for at least a year. Staying with my friends meant I got a better perspective of what life was really like and how the students all interacted with each other. I felt like the only takeaway from the general admission tours were the shapes of the buildings on campus, because it's extremely difficult to truly know what a school is like unless you basically become one of the students. It also impacted me because I realized that college offers a much wider range of different kinds of people as opposed to high school, and that it's going to be a very exciting experience." 

Anna McDonough, Junior

"I spent the summer serving as a research assistant at Monmouth University. I was selected to work on a computer science project that utilized radio­frequency identification (RFID) to keep track of people in the Multipurpose Activity Center (located on campus), which housed over 1,000 displaced people for nearly three weeks after Hurricane Sandy devastated our community. During this experiment, I used a ThingMagic reader to determine the distance of several passive tags placed randomly in an open area. I then used the collected data to create an equation that yielded the location of a tag. The purpose in doing this was to establish an organized system that could be used to identify the unknown location of shelter inhabitants, if the MAC should ever be used as a shelter again. I worked closely with approximately 15 other students, and we each had different components to complete, ultimately leading to a successful experiment. I learned a lot of beneficial skills; I even learned to code! The internship ended with a symposium where I proceeded to present the project I worked on with my fellow researchers."

Sim Tatuskar, Junior

"This summer, I got to spend an amazing 3 weeks at the Brown Precollege Summer program, taking a course called "Neuroscience in Health and Disease". Taught by two professors who led their own neuroscience labs, we were able to learn basic brain structure and functions, as well as view and read actual MRIs and CT scans. The class was extremely interesting, and I learned a lot. However, much more of my learning was spent outside the classroom. I had some pretty fun and crazy adventures, and I learned a lot about myself from the three weeks of independence. The people I met and the places I went showed that things can truly affect you in different ways. I learned more than I think I ever did, while also having some unique experiences. From 5 AM reading on the main green, class in a freezing classroom at 8 AM, getting weird Starbucks drinks at 1 PM, going to shadow a neurologist at 3 PM, laughing with friends at 7 PM, and baking brownies at 10 PM with utter strangers, each day I did more than I ever did in a month before. It's impossible to describe what the experience meant to me in mere words, but I truly did get a new perspective on things."  

 Akansha Khurana 

"This summer in August 2015 I had the opportunity to compete in the National American Miss New Jersey Pageant Junior Teen division. The National American Miss pageants are designed for "Today's Girl" and "Tomorrow's Leaders". The program is based on inner beauty as well as poise and presentation. Emphasis is placed on gaining self confidence, learning valuable communication and interview skills, learning good attitudes about competition and setting and achieving personal goals. During this competition the contestants were graded on a formal wear competition a personal introduction, an interview session, and community service. I was placed fourth runner up out of a talented group of 103 girls. I have the opportunity to compete in the Nationals being held during Thanksgiving week in Anaheim, California.

To find out more about National American Miss you can go to www.namiss.com" 

Ricky Pati & Mike Abelar, Juniors

In the first semester of sophomore year, every student must participate in a research project, which can encompass projects about plants, bacteria, DNA, and more. Students use this project as an opportunity to explore real world problems in a school lab setting, and that's exactly what Ricky Pati and Mike Abelar did. The pair tackled world hunger and the lack of farmland, redesigning the traditional greenhouse using a vertical structure and metal reflectors (making it less expensive to develop). For their efforts, Ricky and Mike obtained a provisional U.S. patent for their prototype, which is an outstanding achievement! It just goes to show how classroom research can be transferred to the real world, and how much of a difference some creating thinking can make. 

Ethan Seltzer, Senior

"This summer I achieved that rank of Eagle Scout after being a member of the Boy Scouts of America for the past six years. In order to become an Eagle Scout, I was required to design and carry out a service project. For my Eagle Scout project, I constructed a garden for the preschool students of Temple Beth Ahm in Aberdeen. The garden consists of four 5'x5' wooden planting boxes, a stage for the children to play on, and a rain barrel that collects rain water from a gutter on a nearby shed to water the plants. I completed the project over the course of two weeks with the help of friends, family, and other scouts from my troop. I wanted to create something with a purpose, rather than just something to satisfy the requirement. I'm glad that my project can serve as a teaching tool to show children where our food comes from, and the importance of reusing and conserving water. My scouting experience has taught me many valuable life lessons that I hope to carry with me for life."  

If there's something interesting you've done this summer that you want to share with the Biotech community, email emueller@ctemc.org.