We had for the last 2 weeks, 1st to 12th of July, Carolina Spencer in our Lab, a high school student that chose to take 2 weeks of her vacation doing job shadowing with our scientists. Carolina spend every mornig in our lab helping and following a different researcher. During this time she had the opportunity to meet several researchers and students with different academic backgrounds and different projects. She has 17 years and just finished the 11º year.

In the end she told us that this experience had great utility and value since it allowed her to know the general operation of a research team, from its management to the experimental work.

It showed me that to get results, it takes a lot of work, which involves research, analysis and much persistence. As a high school student, still uncertain about what course I should take in college, I believe this was an exceptional opportunity for me to decide how to pursue my studies.
We could not let Carolina go without asking her what she liked most: What I liked the most was to follow all the steps of the SCENT project: the production of the different variants of the gels, the observation of the samples under the microscope and their operation in the electronic nose. I also enjoyed the lab environment since everyone was very welcoming.

We hope this alternative summer plan helped Carolina along with her academic and professional choices and we wish her all the best to her further studies but now, we also wish her a great summer vacation.