Failure isn’t just a possibility, it is a certainty; yet failure is what leads you to success. Above all else, that is what I will retain from my experience in the Werner H. Kirsten Student Intern Program.

The winners of the 2014 Spring Research Festival, held May 7 and 8, were recognized on July 2, and included 20 NCI at Frederick researchers: Matthew Anderson, Victor Ayala, Matt Bess, Cristina Bergamaschi, Charlotte Choi, Rami Doueiri, Laura Guasch Pamies, Diana Haines, Saadia Iftikhar, Maria Kaltcheva, Wojciech Kasprzak, Balamurugan Kuppusamy, James Lautenberger, George Lountos, Megan Mounts, Uma Mudunuri, Martha Sklavos, Gloriana Shelton, Alex Sorum, and Shea Wright.

Every year for the past three years, student interns Madelyne Xiao and Nikhil Gowda have competed in the Scientific Library’s Student Science Jeopardy Tournament, the annual science event for students that mirrors the popular TV show “Jeopardy.” And every year, for the past three years, Xiao and Gowda, who work with Randall Johnson, Ph.D. bioinformatics analyst, Basic Science Program Center for Cancer Research Genetics Core, have finished in one of the top three positions.

Joseph Barchi, Jr, Ph.D., calls teaching “the noblest and most important profession.” So it makes sense that Barchi, senior scientist and head of the Glycoconjugate and NMR Section, Chemical Biology Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research, NCI at Frederick, would encourage his lab to offer a fun, educational program at Take Your Child to Work Day (TYCTWD).

Robin Winkler-Pickett has known Jim Cherry, Ph.D., scientific program director, and Craig Reynolds, Ph.D., director, Office of Scientific Operations, both NCI at Frederick, for many years. “We’ve been friends for a long time.” So when she heard about the chance to dunk each of them at Take Your Child to Work Day on June 25, Winkler-Pickett, a research biologist in the Laboratory of Experimental Immunology, NCI Center for Cancer Research, knew she had to make time to participate.