When Jackie Stewart accepted her dream job with the Frederick National Laboratory’s Laboratory Animal Sciences Program last year, it wasn’t the first time she had set foot on the sprawling campus owned by NCI at Frederick, the national lab’s government sponsor and partner. Stewart had spent the 2007–2008 school year and every summer and winter from 2008–2011 as a student intern at the Frederick National Laboratory and NCI at Frederick.

In the Building 549 auditorium, 20 student interns recently gathered to participate in the Scientific Library’s 13th annual Student Science Jeopardy Tournament, with an audience of other interns, mentors, and NCI at Frederick employees there to cheer them on.

As part of Occupational Health Services’ ongoing workplace wellness program, Poster will highlight employees who are committed to health and wellness. The first edition features the current OHS interns.

At the annual Spring Research Festival on Fort Detrick, they placed first in the First-in-Development Cell Biology category. At the Frederick County Science and Engineering Fair, they won the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair Award of Excellence in Computer Science and placed second in the Molecular and Cell Biology category. Yet despite these accomplishments, Alexis Adkins and Jacqueline Chung said they didn’t consider themselves “real scientists.” Maybe that’s because they lacked a science degree—or, until very recently, even a high school diploma. However, they are indisputably real scientists.

NCI at Frederick’s newest student interns smiled for a group photo outside the Advanced Technology Research Facility. Forty-eight young faces stared at the camera, looking excited but slightly overwhelmed. Later that same evening, the students took part in the Incoming Ceremony, the official start to what many in the past have considered one of the most meaningful journeys of their lives.