Campus News
March 22, 2010
RISE boosts high school scientists
The Research Internship and Science Education (RISE) program gives gifted students from inner-city high schools hands-on experience in the epigenetics lab of biology chair Victor Corces. Since Corces brought RISE to Atlanta three years ago, the program keeps growing and the awards keep coming.
Thirteen RISE students competed in metro-Atlanta regional science fairs. “There were 10 gold keys given out for Atlanta Public Schools and RISE students won half of them,” says Margaret Rohrbaugh, who manages the Corces lab. The two RISE students competing from DeKalb schools also won gold keys.
The gold key winners will compete in state science fair in April. Two RISE students also took grand prizes for Atlanta and DeKalb schools, giving them the chance to compete in an international science fair in San Jose, Calif., this May.
“I’m extremely pleased with the commitment level of the RISE students,” Rohrbaugh says. “They are doing true research, studying things that now one has ever looked at before. We help them learn the techniques, but ultimately they are doing the experiments, and they find that exciting.”
Maza Rose Tchedou, a high school senior who has participated in RISE for two years, won a spot in the state science fair and an international science fair with her project, “The Role of Nlp in Drosophila Oogenesis.”
