Page 40 - Gates-AnnualReport-2017

EDUCATION
THE GATES SUMMER INTERNSHIP PROGRAM
Final day Gates Summer Internship Program (GSIP) poster session and reception
Thanks to a generous gift from the first “Charlie’s Angels” awardees, Rhondda and Peter Grant in December 2014 (see page 52), The Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine inaugurated what has become one of the center’s hallmarks: the Gates Summer Internship Program (GSIP). With the Grants’ ongoing support and additional help from others, the summer of 2017 marked the program’s third year, and by fall 2017, our three dedicated program directors and others were working hard to prepare for the summer of 2018.
This has become an increasingly competitive program, attracting undergraduates from colleges and universities across the country. We received 135 applications for 20 internship positions in the 2017 program—a 260% increase over the prior year, and there is likewise a growing waiting list for Gates Center members hoping to serve as mentors. Annual surveys of interns and mentors regarding every conceivable
aspect of the program show that we are meeting our goal of encouraging outstanding undergraduates to consider careers in stem cell and regenerative medicine research by providing state-of- the-art training opportunities at the Gates Center. When asked how they would rate the program, 40% of the Class of 2017 called it “excellent,” and 60% deemed it “outstanding.” While we will institute an official survey in summer 2018 to gather follow-up information about our former
interns’ subsequent academic and professional paths, we are heartened to hear through the grapevine that a number of program graduates are applying to or pursuing medical and graduate school paths. We were also encouraged to hear that an intern from our first class matriculated in the Anschutz Medical Campus’s Cell Biology, Stem Cells and Development Graduate (CSD) Program in the fall of 2017. Other testaments to the success of the program are the touching intern “thanks” we assembled into a booklet for donors who collectively contributed over $100,000 toward our 2017 program. See one of these quotes on page 43 and the GSIP 2017 Summer Internship Program Thank You Booklet (http://gatescenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/GSIP_ ThankYouBooklet2017_FNL.pdf).
Class of 2017 interns were assigned to individual mentors’ labs during the 11-week program and attended bi-weekly
40 Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine