The Mayo Clinic is inviting rising juniors and seniors in public or private schools in St. Johns and Duval counties to apply for the SPARK Research Mentorship Program.
The mission of the program is to provide local high school students with mentored research experiences in world-class laboratories at Mayo Clinic. The end goal is for the participating students to develop a basic understanding of scientific research and to produce a highly competitive science fair project. Students who are interested in biomedical science will ultimately be provided an opportunity to design and carry out research projects in the Discovery Translation Labs at Mayo Clinic.
The program will host its third cohort starting in June 2019, but applications are posted online now and are due by Friday, Feb. 1. The number of students in the program varies annually and is dependent on the volunteer faculty members. For the next cohort, Mayo Clinic anticipates that approximately 18 students will be selected.
Mayo Clinic expects that a minimum of 20 lab hours per week will be required during the summer break for a successful project to be completed for deadlines of the Science Fair. Should additional time be needed after school resumes, a flexible schedule will be determined and agreed upon between the student and faculty mentor.
Previous research topics have included “SSI4 as a New Therapeutic Target in Ovarian Cancer,” “The Effects of Induced TBI on a Line 61 Mouse Model,” “The Correlation Between nAChR and Drug Resistance in NSCLC Cells,” “Chemical and Genomic Inhibition of AURKA in HEK 293T Cells” and more.
According to the Mayo Clinic’s website, the following criteria must be met to apply:
• Enrolled as a junior or senior at a school in Duval or St. Johns County for the upcoming academic year.
• Minimum of 3.5 unweighted GPA
• Letter of recommendation from current high school science teacher
• Letter of recommendation from current high school guidance counselor or other personnel as determined by school district
In addition, students are required to write a one-page research abstract for the original research that they wish to pursue and are encouraged to submit a second choice in case the first one is filled.
For more information and to apply, visit https://www.mayo.edu/research/centers-programs/spark-research-mentorship-program.
