James Onuffer

From 2009.igem.org

I personally understand the impact that this type of program can have. My 9th grade science teacher volunteered each summer in a research lab at a local community college. She would bring back that experience each year to her own classroom, presenting and demonstrating to the students what she did and implementing parts of this work into her curriculum. As a student, this really awakened in me the impression that science is real and alive, always advancing on unknown questions and changing paths depending on these advances rather than being something that is simply taught from a book where much if not all appears to be already known. This was my motivation for pursuing a career path into research and education; it provided me with an experience that I will never forget. We've done our job if this "light" is also awakened and nourished by the students that participate in our program.