On July 27, Rhodes College will serve as the host for a community exhibition featuring science research conducted by college students and area high school students participating in summer programs at Rhodes, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC).
The event will be in held in the McCallum Ballroom from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and wraps up research conducted by high school students participating in the High School Research Immersion Program at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Project SEED at Rhodes College. It also will feature research conducted as part of UTHSC’s Summer Research Scholars program and Biostatistics Internship.
“This is a great occasion to showcase the amazing work conducted by talented students in the City of Memphis,” said Karen Mosley, Project SEED coordinator and mentor. “Many of these students otherwise might not have had the opportunity to experience cutting edge translational research. The community exhibition gives the student a chance to show friends, family, and members of the Memphis community what they learned and hopefully develop a heart for scientific research.”
Made possible due to the generosity of the American Chemical Society in 2022, Project SEED is hosted by the Rhodes College Department of Chemistry and allows students from diverse identities and socioeconomic backgrounds to conduct research under the supervision of Rhodes faculty and students. Dr. Larryn Peterson, associate professor of chemistry, and Dr. Liam Hunt, assistant professor of biology, are faculty mentors. In addition to the event on July 27, Rhodes students and Project SEED participants will showcase their summer research in the McCallum Ballroom on July 26, from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.
The programs at UTHSC provide research experience to qualified undergraduate and graduate students. In the Summer Research Scholars program, students are matched with UTHSC faculty and receive hands-on research experience in the biomedical sciences labs. The Biostatistics Internship program, established in 2016, provides training to undergraduate and graduate students in which interns work with faculty members in the department on a statistical project.
The High School Research Immersion Program at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital offers a unique opportunity for rising seniors in the Memphis-Shelby County area to participate in mentored research projects in St. Jude laboratory, psychology, epidemiology, clinical, or data science research programs.
“The HSRI program, now in its third year, continues to provide eight-week immersive research opportunities that are both engaging and encouraging, through mentored experiences,” said Dr. Gwen D. Alexander, program manager for St Jude’s STEMM (science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine) Education and Outreach Program. “We are very pleased to have 50 Memphis area rising high school seniors representing over 22 public and private schools this summer. Inspiring this diverse group of students to pursue STEMM degrees and future careers in biomedical research is our focus. We are excited to see where their scientific journey takes them.”