Experience of a Lifetime

Well, I told you that our SEED adventure wasn't over yet. However, it is coming to a close. Tomorrow is our last day in Boston and the past two days have been nothing but amazing. We went to a Red Sox Game, got lost in a mall, rode trains in circles, all sorts of things that you wouldn't do in Pittsburgh. Trust me, this has been an adventure that I will never forget.

The night before we left, Amanda and I could not sleep. We were up until 2 a.m feeling nothing but excitement. It was her first time flying ever and my first time flying to another state. We stayed up talking about what we thought was going to happen while we were there. We talked about how we thought the poster session was going to go and we wondered what the other SEED students were going to be like.

Then, we arrived at the airport. Who knew that three teenagers could have so much fun in an airport? We were having a blast walking along the moving walkways, taking pictures of absolutely everything and anxiously waiting for the plane to get there. The three of us talked about the strangest things, but maybe because we were all still tired from waking up so early. It did not hit me we were really going until we got onto the plane.

We got onto the plane, found our seats and just waited patiently to depart from Pittsburgh. Flying is one of the best feelings in the entire world. It's something that not everyone gets to experience. We even had fun on the flight. We took pictures, talked and watched tv. It did not feel real until I looked out of the window and we were low enough to see the outline of the ground.

The view outside of my window was nothing that I have ever seen before. When I first looked out, I could only see the outline of the ground. Everything else looked microscopic. A few minutes later, I looked out of my window again. This time, I could see more environmental features. I could see islands, trees cars moving and some buildings. The sight of the islands were amazing. Then, I looked out again. I saw the beautiful city. The tall buildings, boats everywhere and water everywhere around us. That was when I knew we were there.

We went to the hotel , changed and got ready for the Red Sox game. That was one experience that I will never forget. Who gets to go to Boston AND see a Red Sox game? Us project SEED kids, that's who. Fenway Park was everything I thought it would be. I've heard so much about it but I never thought it was something that I would get to visit one day. It's breathtaking. Even though it rained the ENTIRE time, it was still worth it. The poster session was an experience of a lifetime. I loved having people look at my hard work and ask a ton of questions. The fact that I was able to answer their questions made me feel proud. I was proud of myself for all of the hard work. My favorite part had to be whenever someone would ask you about your research then ask, "So what are you studying in college?". When i would answer that I was only an upcoming senior in high school, all of the different looks that i got amazed me. Most people were unbelievably shocked that i was a senior in high school doing work like this. Some younger adults even told me that I was crazy for taking up my summer time for work like this. In general, I could not help but smile at these comments. It makes me feel accomplished for doing this type of work in just 2 short summers. It makes me so proud of myself as well.

Today, we attended the ACS luncheon and the Poster Session. The luncheon was not what I thought it was going to be. Us project SEED kids were mixed in with all sorts of important people. At first, it was pretty nerve wracking. Being forced to talk to a bunch of people I did not know did make me a little nervous.

I cannot express enough how grateful I am to have been given the chance to go to Boston. I got to have adventures with 2 great friends of mine and 2 great adults who took the time out of their summer to support and be here for me. I cannot thank them enough. I would not be here today if it were not for Dr. Cavanaugh and Dr. Aitkin. As my mentor, Dr. Cavanaugh did everything she could to prepare me for Boston and she took the time to give me an experience of a lifetime. Without the support of Dr. Aitkin, this trip would not have been possible. The things she does for us SEED kids is unbelievable and I thank her for that.

In general, Boston is beautiful. I may never get the opportunity for this again and I greatly appreciate it. Continuing my project SEED adventure was the greatest thing I could have done. I am so glad that I chose to do project SEED. It has been a big eye opener for me. It has lead me to a potential career path, got me in contact with important people and so many other things. I hope future SEED students do not take this for granted. As I have said plenty of times before, it is the experience of a lifetime.

Goodbye Duquesne University, Hello Senior year.

August 13th already? Wow. Where did the last 8 weeks go? Well, i'll tell you where. Let's start off at the beginning. I worked and became closer with three people from my school, became closer with a great person from Carrick, met one pretty awesome girl from North Catholic High School, met one great guy from Sewickley Academy and met another cool guy from Upper St. Clair, who wasn't even in SEED with us, but we adopted into our group.

When SEED first started this year, I have to admit that I wasn't too sure of how it was going to be compared to last year. I didn't think that all 7 of us were going to click like we did. Some of us were shy. We didn't know what to expect. Amanda, Tristan and I certainly didn't know what to expect. Within a few days, Mary introduced us to the new addition of her group, Chris. Even though Chris wasn't one of us, we took him in with open arms. Weeks went by and I began to notice how close we were becoming. From making all kinds of jokes at lunch and playing frisbee on the field afterwards to the hilarious car rides on fieldtrips, we had a blast. From working with these different people, I have learned so much. I've learned a lot not only about them, but myself as well.

These past eight weeks have gone to a great load of hard work. In my two years of working in Dr. Cavanaugh's lab, I have worked harder than I ever have. When I arrived back on the first day, I was so excited to be back in the lab. Being in a lab with college students and professors really opened my eyes. Whether I was treating cells with different compounds, doing a protein assay or running a western blot, it all required so much patience and focus.

Project SEED has opened so many doors for me. I'm extremely grateful for being given this opportunity for two years in a row. Not only has SEED given me the experience of working in a lab and getting an early college experience, but it has provided me with a great deal of responsibility. I’ve learned to manage time and have patience with what I’m doing. SEED has helped me grow as a student and person in general. It has showed me to to prepare for just about anything that comes my way. Since I’ve been here two years, my experience has just been continued. I feel like being in SEED these past two years has really prepared me for college. It has also influenced my career choice extremely. To be honest, I really thought I knew what I was going to do after high school. I thought I had my mind set and everything. Boy, was I wrong. After this year, I changed my entire mind on what I want to do after high school. Since I’m now a senior in high school, that means a lot to me. You’d be surprised about how much one thing can just open your eyes. SEED has shaped and changed me into a better person as well. By making new friends, meeting important people and being counted on by important people, it changes you. Making new friends allowed me to bond and become friends with other kids who may or may not have the same interests as me. Meeting important people gives you this sense of pressure, meanig that you don’t want to say the wrong things to them. Presenting my work is a prime example of this pressure. It’s very nervewracking presesnting to people that you are not familiar with and that do not know the subject you are talking about. It adds more pressure if the person you’re working for is there because you don’t want to say the wrong things.

Aside from the nerve-wracking and time consuming stuff, we did have a lot of fun times. Out of all of the field trips we took, I’d have to say that the college visit to Washington & Jefferson really opened my eyes the most (not saying that none of the others opened my eyes too because they did). Being in another college atmosphere really brought this different feeling to me. This field trip really influenced both my college and career choices.

All in all, Project SEED was one of the best things I’ve ever decided to participate in. When I first started, I had no idea what to expect. I came in knowing that it was going to be a good bit of work, but I had no idea that it was going to grow on me so much. I was fascinated with what I was doing and I was very interested to see what my co-workers were also doing. In my second year, I sort of got off to a rough start.


To Dr. Cavanaugh, Darlene, Erika, Mayur and Katherine, thank you for everything over the past two summers. The time that you have all put in to make my experience that much better really means alot to me. I hope to keep in touch with you all.


To Dr. Aitkin and Mr. Lucas, thank you for all of the support you have given me the past two summers. There isn't a day where I won't appreciate everything that you have done for us. Without you, the program wouldn't run as smoothly. I thank you for the opportunity of a lifetime.


To Ian, Mary, Tristan, Amanda and Chris, i'm really going to miss you guys. We've made some great memories that I will never forget. Believe it or not, you guys have really changed me. I'm really going to miss my early morning workouts with Ian, our early morning talks in the batcave, taking pictures on the imacs, having little birthday parties, chilling in the batcave, our hilarious lunch times, the elevator rides, the field trips, learning how to play frisbee, watching the boys play soccer..I could go on and on. I'm honestly going to miss it all. I really hope that we all can stay in touch through the school year.


To Liz and Marissa, i'll miss you two as well. You two better hold it down for the SEED II students. I know you guys will be great role models for everyone else. Just have patience and keep your focus and you both will do great. Don't worry, we'll all be back to visit. =)


To the newcomers of SEED, appreciate what you’re about to participate in and don’t take it for granted. There are a lot of students that are dying to be in your position. With hard work, patience and responsibility, you'll succeed greatly.

As I sit here and write this final blog post, it's really hitting me that this is my last year at SEED. No more paper revisions, poster making, cell treating. Nope, it's all done. It was a lot of hard work and determination to get through it. To tell you the truth, i've never felt so accomplished. By doing this, I know I did something that I can be proud of myself for. Luckily for Amanda, Tristan and myself, our SEED experience isn't quite over yet. We get to travel to Boston for the ACS meeting and I couldn't be more excited. I think of how all of my friends tell me that i'm crazy for giving up my summer to do this. But, they won't ever understand why I chose to give up my summer for this. It's so much more than hard work. It's an adventure.

Even though i'm saying goodbye to Project SEED, i'm saying hello to my senior year of high school. I know the program will always be there and i'll always be back to visit. So, goodbye Duquesne, hello senior year.

Amazing Amanda Anderson

Since the veterans are sticking together we must have Amanda showcase her works. Amanda is testing dietary supplements and the dangerous elements in them. These supplements come from companies that could possibly have contamination in them. Her goal is to find those contamination's such as lead, cadmium, and even arsenic.




In this picture Amanda is prepping Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS). The ICP-MS is used for analysis of the blanks, standards, and samples involved in this project. Before the processing is started, a calibration curve is made to help determine how much of certain dangerous element is in the supplement. And the results are mind blowing!

Amanda has done incredible work over the past two summers to expose the companies of their negligence and making a safer enviornment for buying supplements. Nice Work!

Tristan Lee Freeman, the science guy!

So, the veterans are working together on this one. =) This is Tristan. He's a summer II SEED student and he is a senior at Pittsburgh Carrick High School. We've gotten to work with him over the past two summers and believe me, it has been fun. Last year, his project was pretty interesting but, we seem to like his project this year better. We've gotten to spend a good bit of time just hanging out in the lab with him and see what he does.

This year, Tristan is continuing off of last years project. He is using droplet-based microfluidics to create continuous droplet flow using oil and aqueous phases. He is applying ratios to achieve this droplet flow.

In this picture, Tristan is looking into a microscope at a PDMS chip and analyzing the microdroplets flowing through the channel that is chemically etched into the chip. The droplets are formed from t-junction of the aqueous and oil phase. Tristan sets ratios in attempt to achieve the droplet flow that may or may not be successful.

Trip to Bayer!

Today we took a field trip to Bayer. It was actually pretty interesting. We were able to see how bowling balls were made. (which was my favorite part) It was cool to see how these different things in our everyday lives are made. It's not something that everyone gets to see. It's also interesting to see the other side of what goes on in the world considering we're in an area of academia most of the time. It's nice to see the jobs that the people at Bayer do and it's cool to learn about how they got there.

Interview!! =)

So, I decided to interview Liz's grad student, Chelsee Krushaar. Let me say that Liz's lab is very funny and they have soo much fun in there.

Chelsee went to Canon-Macmillan high school and graduated in 2005. She then went to Carlow University for her undergrad and double majored in Biology and Chemistry. She specialized in autopsy technology. She then started at Duquesne.

Chelsee said that during her school life she was a nerd in high school. She was in band (which is awesome! =]) and she was very quiet. She didn't talk to many people. Once she got into college, she opened up a lot more by doing tours at Carlow University. If she could have changed anything, she would have been much more open in high school. I asked her what Canon-Macmillan was like considering it's a very big school and it's very different from where I attend high school. After hearing her opinion, we got into a discussion on opinions about different schools and how their educations differ from one another. Aside from having Chelsee's opinion, I also had some opinions of others in her lab. Chelsee, Tom, Shawn and I discussed the advantages and disadvantages of colleges and their educations. We also talked about the social aspect of college and the advantages and disadvantages of being on campus or commuting from home. Believe it or not, hearing all of their perspectives helped me a little bit.

I asked Chelsee what got her interested in what she does now and she said that there are many reasons. She has always been interested in biology and chemistry. It's something that she has always been good at. She has always been fascinated by the human body and how it works. Another thing that got her interested is that her mother is sick and that got her interested in the human body while she looked at what was wrong with her.

Finally, I asked Chelsee what her future plans and goals were after she was done with school. She said that after school, she would like to go into teaching. She'd like to be a professor at a college.

So much to do, so little time!

Well, it's that time again. This is when things start to get hard. As the days go by, it gets closer and closer to the symposium. Since I have band camp, I have to have my poster done by next week. This means that I really need to get to work. I'm still in need of results and i'm hoping to have them soon. This is where things get somewhat stressful. Doing work, getting results and getting drafts for my poster done are alot to do in the little time that I have. On the plus side, I can't wait to see how the next few weeks turn out. Us SEED kids have some field trips to attend. It's going to be so much fun. The symposium is going to be a good experience for all of us as well. It will allow us to meet new people and show them the hard week we've done over the past few weeks.

Chris came to visit! =)

Today, Chris Sidun, a former SEED student and current Duquesne student, came to visit and share his experience with us. He talked about his time in the SEED program, what he's doing currently, what he would have done differently in the past and any advice that he could give to us. Overall, I found it very beneficial. Hearing the perspective of someone who was once in the spot that I'm in now really helped me. It really got me to think about what I want to do and where I want to be.

Back in the Lab!! =)

It's so nice to be back in the lab for the summer! To be honest, I really missed it. I'm so glad to have been given this opportunity for a second time. It was great to see Tristan again and I got to meet some new people. Mary and Ian are pretty cool =). I can't wait to see what this year has in store for all of us. I know that we"re all going to have alot of fun. I hope Mary and Ian enjoy this as much as I did last year. It's an experience that won't be forgotten.

Farewell Project SEED

Well the day has finally come...it's the last day of Project SEED. There's so much that I could say about my entire experience but, i'm going to make it short and sweet. This program has done so much to better me as a high school student and an all around person. Throughout the summer, i've learned, i've laughed, I've made new friends, added on to previous friendships and at one point I completely stressed myself out to no end. I've learned to be patient with what i'm doing and to be patient with other people. Time is such a precious thing no matter what it's dealing with. I've learned how to take responsibility for myself and for others. Responsibility is a big deal whether one knows it or not. I know for a fact that I will be able to take my newly found knowledge in Project SEED and apply it to the classroom. I'm very appreciative for being given this oppurtunity. I thank all the people that made this program possible and for all of the people who helped me make it through. Farewell Project SEED and I hope to be back again!

The end is near

Wow. Where has the summer gone? Now that it's the last week of work, time is going so much slower. Since I have no more results to add to my project, i'm just working on my final paper which isn't too bad. Once I got it started, it wasn't too hard to do. The six of us are finishing up or projects, getting final results and writing these papers. I think that we are all really close now. We got to know each other throughout the summer and we even made a new friend! This is going to be an emotional week.

Symposium=]

So, Friday was quite an experience. After all the stress I put myself through, the symposium was nothing. I talked to a lot of people and I realized that I really knew what I was talking about. Having my poster there to use as a reference helped me but once I got through the first few people, I felt more confident in what I was talking about. Once Friday came around, I was pretty nervous. As the day went on, I felt so much better. Before I knew it, the hour was just about over and it was time for me to head back to band camp. All in all, it was a great experience. People that I didn't know were challenging me about my newly found knowledge and I feel as if I succeeded.

Symposium Poster=Insane!

This symposium poster has given me quite a headache this week. I really want it to be exceptional. It's a little hard not having my professor here to help me, but fortunately I do have Darlene. I'm pretty nervous for this symposium. I know I should do some extra research in order to prepare myself for questions that are bound to come next Friday. I'm also excited because i've never done anything like this before and it sure is going to be a new experience. After today, only 3 weeks left of SEED. Where has the summer gone?!

My First presentation for Project SEED

My first time presenting for Project SEED wasn't that bad. I was extremely nervous at first. Knowing that I was presenting my new found knowledge of my project in front of my fellow SEED students and professors, made me even more nervous. Looking through my presentation, I saw that I have already learned and done so much and made a big accomplishment. At the end of our group meeting, I think that Terrance, Becky and myself did very well on our presentations. Good job to Terrance and Becky for doing great presentations!!

My Pet Cells!!

I finally got my pet cells!! As Mr. Lucas likes to call them and they're pretty sweet. Yesterday, I had to plate my cells. That means that I took one dish of BT 474 cells which are human cells and one dish of MMC cells which are mice cells and I seperated them into eight 35mm dishes. Today, I took all 16 of the 35mm dishes and I treated 14 with a different compound. The 2 that I had left over received no treatment. I also ran a protein assay on the cells today which unfortunately didn't turn out so great. I'm going to have to run the Protein assay again next week. So far, i'm having a great time and i'm learning so much!

Starting Off Slowly and Working My Way Up

For my project in the Project SEED program, I am working with inhibitors of Breast Cancer Proliferation. Truthfully, i'm still yet to figure out what exactly that is. So far this week, i've managed to successfully learn how to do a Protein Assay, which tells you how much protein is in a cell. Recently, I did one with MMC cells, which are mice cells, and BT474 cells, which are human cells. Tomorrow, I will receive 2 plates of my own cells to feed and take care of. Tonight, I have plenty of reading to go through. Yes, I understand about 10% of the information I've been given. No, I'm not going to just give up on it. I'm highly interested in how my project will turn out and I'm very excited to see what I learn at the end of this summer.