Gifted Scholars

Summer Internship Draws the Finest Undergrads for Unique Research Experience

Training the next-generation of cancer experts is a top priority at UMGCC. With help from our philanthropic partners over the past year, we continue to educate these bright young scholars, starting as early as undergraduates.

In 2013, the Nathan Schnaper Summer Research Intern Program at UMGCC was again in full swing. Funded through contributions from generous donors and friends and family of the late Dr. Schnaper, a beloved UMGCC faculty member, the program gathers a small group of outstanding undergraduates to do handson cancer research each summer. Over the course of eight weeks, students work with a mentor in the lab, research a specific topic, and attend weekly symposia, where they hear from other interns and cancer researchers. Over 200 interns have participated in the program to date; most have entered medical or graduate school.

“It was such a fantastic research experience,” says former intern Vicki Yang, now a student at the Medical College of Georgia. UMGCC director Dr. Kevin Cullen agrees. “The students get to do real work in real labs with real researchers, and UMGCC gets eager, motivated students who contribute significant work to the lab. It is not uncommon for a question from an intern to push our research in a new, fruitful direction.”