While many of their friends were out and about enjoying the summer months before the next school term, three local high school students dedicated their free time to conducting critical research in different laboratories at Stanford University.
Roxanne Ohayon, a 17-year-old senior at Oakwood School; Ivan Gonzalez, 18, a Live Oak High School alumnus and incoming freshman at UC Santa Barbara; and Krubeal Negash, a senior at Ann Sobrato High School, were selected among the 80 finalists of about 1,500 applicants.for the Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program.
“I didn’t think I’d be doing as much work under the lab hood as I did. I got a lot of really great experience and learned a lot of techniques,” said Gonzalez, who performed his research at the Department of Immunology and Center for Genetic Medicine.
Gonzalez’s work consisted of creating a platform to more accurately test the responses of vaccines in preclinical trials as well as well as a possible suitable platform to further immunology responses, he detailed.
Ohayon was looking at the role of exercise induced mitochondrial fission during ischemic injury or heart attack. In her conclusions, she determined that studies have shown that people who exercise regularly have lower risk of heart disease and less tissue damage during ischemic. However, the specific mechanisms that provide these protective effects in the heart are unknown, she concluded.
“I had always been really interested in research. It’s something that I’ve wanted to pursue,” said Ohayon, who found the Stanford research program while scanning for summer opportunities online.
Applicants had to write an essay about themselves and submit that along with letters of recommendation from teachers and their academic transcripts. They were accepted in late April.
“It was super exciting finishing up the (last) school year with that news,” said Ohayon, who performed her research in the Stem Cell/Cardiology Department at Stanford.
Each student researcher worked with an assigned director/mentor and a principal investigator as part of their research team on their projects, which were “self-driven and independent,” Ohayon noted. At the end of the five-day-a-week, eight-week research program, they had to give a presentation, including a poster diagram of their research, to family, friends and the entire Stanford University community, including faculty with PHds and MDs.
Negash, a varsity basketball player at Sobrato, was part of a three-day-a-week bioengineering program at Stanford, where he researched better ways to improve posture while sitting at work and alleviate back pain with an ergonomic chair.
“Almost every summer, I’ve kept busy with some kind of program, but this summer was definitely a special experience being in a lab and immersing myself in science,” said Gonzalez, who also was part of a three-year commitment to the SMASH (Summer, Math And Science Honors) program at Stanford. In that program, he studied engineering, science and public speaking.
This fall, Gonzalez will be a freshman majoring in bio-pyschology on the Pre-med track at UC Santa Barbara, while Ohayon and Negash will finish out their senior years of high school.
Ohayon, who participated in a bio-medical lecture series at the same college campus during her freshman year, said Stanford is where she would like to attend college with UCLA and UC Berkeley also on her radar.
“This summer is going to influence every career and life choice I make in the future,” said Ohayon, who plays varsity volleyball, is part of the speech and debate team and founder of the Healing Community Club at Oakwood. “This experience was absolutely invaluable. It took some major dedication.”
Gonzalez, who competed in track and field and was active in community service throughout his high school years at Live Oak, hopes that other local students apply for this program and search for other opportunities available to them.
“I’d tell kids to really reach out to these opportunities and look for work that needs to be done,” Gonzalez said. “They should take advantage of these opportunities that are there. If you have an interest, go for it. There’s opportunity everywhere.”
