Werner H. Kirstin student intern Ben Freed was one of 40 finalists to compete in the Intel Science Talent Search in Washington, DC, in March. “It was seven intense days of interacting with amazing judges and incredibly smart and interesting students. We met President Obama, and then the MIT astronomy lab named minor planets after each of us,” Freed said of the competition.

Janine Bahsali and Esther Shafer are Middletown High School seniors who go to school in the morning and spend their afternoons taking blood pressure, assisting with physical exams, learning how to draw a blood sample and stitch a wound closed, and generally assisting the staff of Occupational Health Services (OHS), a health care department serving more than 2,000 employees at NCI at Frederick.

The category was “General Science,” and the clue read: “Named for an Italian scientist, it is the scientific number of molecules in 1 gram mole of any substance.” Everything depended on knowing the correct response and wagering enough points.

Thirty-five Werner H. Kirsten student interns toured the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda in August to learn about the services and opportunities available.

More than 50 Werner H. Kirsten student interns and college interns presented their research at Summer Student Poster Day on August 6 in the Building 549 lobby. Joseph Bergman, a high school intern in the Center for Cancer Research Nanobiology Laboratory, participated in the event “for the opportunity to present my summer research. It allowed me to meet people and get the experience of sharing and explaining my work.”