Science Department Selects New Members for Research Programs
By Forrester Hammer ’10
News Reporter
On Friday, April 4, the Science Research Program (SRP), a Choate program that gives students experience with professional-level laboratory research, announced the names of the current sophomores who will enter the program in fall 2008. The programme expanded this year from 8 students to 16.
Each year for five years, juniors in the program have begun an experiment in the fall and by the end of spring term have designed a research project that they will work on over the summer under the guidance of a professional scientist. In the fall of their senior year they present their findings.
While the eight juniors currently in the program decide what they will work on in labs over the summer, the sophomores recently admitted look ahead to next fall, when they will enter the program. Selected by Mr. Deron Chang and Dr. Rachel Gritzer, the sixth SRP group from the class of 2010 will be Caroline Bazinet, Aakash Bhattacharya, Henry Davidge, Cynthia Deng, Julia Discenza, Rachel Green, Lizzie Gromet, Nikita Iyer, Chris Holt, Anne Lee, Josh Muniz, Michelle Nam, Yuliya, Oumarbaeva, Parker Poliakoff, Derek Smith, Geoff Van.
This year Mr. Chang and Dr. Gritzer, the directors of the program, received 36 applicants—the highest number they have yet had. They pride themselves on their rigorous selection process: Chang says, “We don’t really take the students with the top GPA, who are taking the most honors, advanced, or AP classes, etc. Those things aren’t good indicators of success in SRP.”
In an interview for admission to the program, “we look at students’ strengths but also their weaknesses,” Chang explained. “We test them psychologically: how they deal with novel situations, time restrictions, and other stressors. We do a lot of things most people would call pretty unconventional.”
In a more conventional interview, Chang believed, all of the candidates seem like the same person—they all know the supposed correct responses. Considering, however, that the students admitted to SRP must work together on solving lab-related problems, working through journal articles, and critiquing each other’s projects, Chang said, “We need to have a group of students who have different things they bring to the table.” He adds, “The students end up teaching just as much as the teacher.”
Chang and Dr. Gritzer made their choices without looking at gender or race, or boarding versus day. In the past a balanced group has seemed to emerge well on its own.
In confirmation of this pattern, Chang described the group selected this year as extraordinarily diverse: “We have three-sport Varsity athletes. We have theater and musical types. We have a student from Hong Kong, and we also have one from Hamden. There’s no way to define SRP kids, except that they are all science whizzes—and all looking for a really significant challenge, different from any challenge they’ve had to deal with before.”
Future SRP students seem to agree with Chang’s characterization of their reasons for applying. Caroline Bazinet said, “I applied to SRP because it is such a great opportunity for those considering a career in science. My parents aren’t scientists, so I don’t have the same connections that others might have; therefore, the program at Choate is a great way to explore my interests more in-depth.”
For her part, Anne Lee explained, “I applied because I’ve always been completely in love with biology, especially on human anatomy or neurology. I thought SRP would be amazingly fun, since it’s all about science!”
Knowing that SRP offers much more than a simple school curriculum, candidates recognized they had a unique chance. Derek Smith said that, in applying, he wanted to “try something new” that would not have had the opportunity to experience at his previous school. Lizzie Gromet commented, “Doing research on actual diseases and medical disorders sounded so interesting and so much more exciting to me than any regular science class.” For Michelle Nam, the opportunity to work in a college lab over the summer was “too sweet to resist.”
Not only do SRP participants learn from specialized scientists’ journal articles, but they also find things out for themselves. “The SRP program drew me in because I was very impressed that the kids who participate in the program actually do make scientific discoveries (although minor),” said Bazinet. “I see science as one of the greatest ways to impact and change the world.”
Chang reminded the student body that students not accepted into SRP should in no way feel deterred from pursuing a career in science, nor should SRP students feel required to stay in that field. “Even if I don’t end up in going into a science pathway in the future, I think SRP is a great experience either way,” remarked Lee.
Bazinet concluded he was looking forward to completing long-term projects with peers equally interested in science: “It’s neat to see how our different strengths and weaknesses will complement each other.”
However disparate their backgrounds and personalities, all sixteen of the 2008-09 SRP students feel bound together by their love of science.
Current SRP Students with Teacher Deron Chang . Elizabeth Needham ‘09
