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When I was young, my dad would read me a vocabulary word every day.
My parents just really wanted me to take advantage of an education
because they didn't have that opportunity.
My mother attended college but she didn't finish
and my dad he attended community college. My family is ecstatic
they think that it's wonderful that I'm pursuing science.
We applied for the Bridges grant because we really felt
that we were serving a population of students who hadn't in the past
had access to research in the stem cell field and we wanted to provide a vehicle
to allow our students to gain access to those wonderful research centers
that are doing cutting edge research.
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
or CIRM has given out sixteen Bridges awards.
The institutions receiving those awards include California state universities
and community colleges from Humboldt in the north
to San Diego in the south and we hope students who
participate in this program will go on to expand the
stem cell work force in California and carry out regenerative medicine
research at all different levels.
What we did is we brought together graduate courses such as bioethics,
developmental biology, reproductive technology,
writing and we built a curriculum that we think
will really support the students entering stem cell biology
Several hundred students will be supported by these awards over the three years
of the award program.
Part of the bridges program we do a year internship
It gives you a glimpse of what it would be like
to be in a Ph.D. program and I feel like this program
showed me that yes you can do it and you can handle it.
I knew these students would come in with different backgrounds that
would more closely reflect the diversity of the state of California
and in this way when they get trained in this cutting edge field
they'd have in my mind the kinds of diseases that reflect a large diversity of people.
And I think it will strengthen the economy of the state of California
to include this student population in the training for future jobs
Because I'm doing a great job in Dr. Bernstein's lab,
he's offered me a research technician position for the year
so it's just really great because I can continue on my project
and I'll be applying for M.D. Ph.D. programs in October.
They're all really shooting for very fulfilling careers,
all with a focus on stem cells.
You just get such an amazing opportunity to be right on the frontiers of this field
it's just it's great.
I love it and I think that I'll never turn my back on biology now.