The students that volunteer their time and knowledge on Reach a Student are eligible to receive community service hours. We are looking to expand our roster of academic and athletic mentors, interviewers, and video editors to help inspire and answer school-related questions. Join Us!
What Is Reach a Student?
Reach a Student is a website established to give students direct communication access to student mentors in various grade levels. Students will be able to reach out to other students and ask any questions they have regarding student and campus life. The site will also stream videos of students sharing their experiences at Windermere Prep as well as activities around campus. Find Out More
Having recently come back from the Summer Science Program, which I detailed in my last blog, I have begun to deeply miss the late nights working in the lab conducting research - singing along to music with my peers while still working diligently on assignments sometimes through the entire night. The countless lectures on Natural Transformation, ribosomal pathways to antibiotic resistance, and bioinformatics will be missed - but I know I will keep in mind what I have learned and apply it in both current and future research.
Furthermore, though we experienced setbacks in the form of brand new morbidostats - the cutting edge devices we used to culture bacteria - needing software fixes, as well as getting contaminated, the data we collected will still contribute to understanding and solving the world-wide problem of antibiotic resistance. Furthermore, as the first SSP Genomics group, I hope that there will be fewer obstacles for future years' groups to overcome - and future young scientists will uncover more and more about the genomic origins of antibiotic resistance.
This summer, over 6 weeks, I will be immersing myself at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, conducting genomics research using an automated chemostat bioreactor to develop antibiotic resistance in the bacterium Vibrio natriegens. A total of 24 students were selected globally to participate in the inaugural program in Genomics -organized by The Summer Science Program (SSP). SSP runs programs in Astrophysics and Biochemistry but this is the first year they have implemented a program in Genomics.
To have been selected, to say the least, is an incredible honor and I am very much looking forward to this experience.
I fly out to Indiana this Sunday, fully aware that I will be engaging in higher level academics for most of the summer. The student handbook poignantly states "Alumni often say that college is easier than SSP....yes, even Harvard, MIT, or Caltech."
Finding volunteering opportunities was tough going during the early COVID-19 waves but as cases have subsided, along with increased vaccinations rates in Florida, those elusive opportunities to give back to our community have emerged once again.
Full IB Diploma students are required to earn 150 hours of service and most WPS IB students accumulate that in a single year - at least the ones I have spoken to. But the real benefit of service goes far beyond scholarships and IB requirements.
The benefits of volunteering and giving back include:
Social: You can use service to meet new friends and build relationships within your community - beyond your school and extracurricular activities/sport
Physical: Most service requires a degree of physical movement and that's a good thing - especially if the pandemic has reduced a lot of your typical activity
Mental State: Meeting new people will almost always boost your own self-esteem and confidence
If you are looking for volunteering opportunities this summer, I have a network of people around Windermere/Winter Garden that are looking for teens like us to give back. Contact me for more information!
