NCI Frederick recently bid farewell to its 33rd class of Werner H. Kirsten student interns. Having completed their senior year of high school—and a rigorous year-long internship—the students are off to confront their next big challenge. The campus recognized them all in the program’s first in-person closing ceremony since 2019.
This year’s Scientific Library student Jeopardy! game again embraced a virtual format, like the 2021 and 2022 games, to accommodate interns competing from remote locations. The competition was an enjoyable match, involving 23 participants, including the seven contestants interning at NCI at Frederick from various high schools or colleges, and a fast final round with a high-totaling winner.
Building 549’s atrium was abnormally crowded one late summer day. Like the cicadas buzzing just outside the building, the room thrummed with excitement, dozens of conversations going at once. The noise was so loud that it was hard to hear someone speaking even a few paces away.
Student Poster Day had returned to the NCI Frederick campus, making its first appearance since the apprehensive days of early 2020
Former Werner H. Kirsten (WHK) Student Intern Program participant Lea Jih-Vieira followed a narrow path of interest and discovered a plethora of possibilities. When she first learned about the WHK internship from an information session at her high school, Jih-Vieira wasn’t sure about applying because it seemed geared toward laboratory work, which didn’t capture her interest. But, with some encouragement from her mom, Jih-Vieira applied and was accepted for an internship with NCI Frederick’s Office of Scientific Operations (OSO).
The Werner H. Kirsten (WHK) program, a long-standing institution in Frederick, recently graduated its 32nd class. This unique internship opportunity continues to catapult many high school seniors on the path to STEM careers. Before the 2023 WHK student interns concluded their internships, WHK Program Manager Carrie Wagerman wanted to ensure they were recognized for their achievement in completing the rigorous program. She asked them to share a little about themselves, their plans for the future, and some takeaways from their experience. Read their responses below.
NCI Frederick has a new reigning trivia champion. Alison Murphy, a third-year student at University of Maryland, took first place in the 15th Annual Scientific Library Student Jeopardy! Tournament.
NCI at Frederick’s latest class of student interns continues to telework under pandemic protocols. While that means not working in laboratories or offices as they would in a normal year, it doesn’t mean a lack of opportunities to make a difference in science. In fact, according to Kedar Narayan, Ph.D., volume electron microscopy group leader at the Center for Molecular Microscopy, one opportunity is quite unique.
Overcoming obstacles that caused the cancellation of the Student Science Jeopardy! Tournament last summer, Scientific Library staff used a virtual platform to hold the 14th annual tournament earlier this month.
During the 2020–2021 academic year, the Werner H. Kirsten (WHK) intern cohort experienced the first entirely virtual WHK program. Given the uniqueness of the situation, we, Yasmine Zouhairi and Leslie Hilares, interns working with mentor Cathleen Cullen in NCI’s Education Outreach Program, felt it was important to collect data about the changes in our scientific education and what it could mean for the future of learning.
A potato, puffin, pineapple, orange, and lemon stood behind small electronic scoreboards. White text, read aloud by the Scientific Library’s Alan Doss, materialized on a blue field above their heads. “Every action has an equal and opposite…”
