Every summer for the past forty years, thirty to fifty high school and university students have spent ten weeks conducting original biomedical research at City of Hope. Most of them seek a career in the health sciences but are unsure what path to take. Should they aim at medicine, nursing, public health, bioengineering, bioinformatics, or scientific research, perhaps even aspiring to earn a doctorate at the City of Hope Graduate School of Biological Sciences?

Spending a summer at City of Hope helps them to discover their aptitude and interests, and can serve as a foundation for their future career paths in medicine or biomedical research.

The Way to Learn About Research

"The way to learn about research is to do research,"
says Paul Salvaterra, Ph.D., academic adviser of the Eugene and Ruth Roberts Summer Student Academy. Unfortunately, even students taking biology and chemistry courses with a lab component rarely spend more than a few hours a week at the bench, usually following protocols designed by their instructors. At City of Hope, by contrast, the students are given their own projects and enjoy the challenge this provides.

To learn about the research being conducted at City of Hope, browse the departments and lab sites at http://bricoh.coh.org/Dept.asp and faculty members at http://gradschool.coh.org.