Florida Outreach Grows

Scripps Florida's summer internship program, modeled on the La Jolla program, is now in its third year. This summer, the Florida campus hosted nine students and three high school teachers, thanks to support from the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust.

Florida's Science Saturday program—which gives high school students an opportunity to use modern biotechnology tools to isolate DNA and solve a "CSI"-type crime—is also catching on.

"Of the 20 public high schools in the Palm Beach County School District, 15 have had participants in one or more of our Saturday and Summer Intern education programs," says Deborah Leach-Scampavia, education and outreach administrator. "Our goals are to educate students about the promise of bioscience, and to raise public awareness about the important ties that exist between biomedical research and human health."

Top: 2007 teacher intern Mary Fish works with Scripps Florida scientist Louis Scampavia. Bottom: Students from Glades Central Community High School in Belle Glade, Florida, look at their own DNA, isolated from cheek cells.