Summer Internships Give Students Real-World Experience

Over the summer, nearly 30 Harker students participated in internships at a number of different universities and businesses, including Stanford University, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (also known as CERN) and the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Students worked in a wide variety of disciplines. Paulomi Bhattacharya, grade 11, and Jay Reddy, grade 12, worked on nanochemistry projects during their stint at UC Santa Cruz, while senior Shival Dasu, another Santa Cruz intern, helped restore a telescope at the James Lick Observatory. Aranshi Kumar, grade 12, analyzed occurrences of diabetes in Santa Clara County teenagers during his internship at Hunter Labs, and Akshay Ramachandran, grade 12, worked on the development of electroactive polymer materials at Artificial Muscle.

In late August, science department chair Anita Chetty visited Santa Cruz to see several students present on the research they performed during their summer internships. “I was so proud of our students,” she said. “They were poised, eloquent and I felt as though I was listening to graduate students talking about work that had been done over a long period of time.”

On Sat., Oct. 15, several Harker students from grades 11 and 12 will accompany advancement director Joe Rosenthal to Santa Cruz’s Evolutionary Revolutionary event, which will feature several speakers from the university’s science faculty in addition to an audiovisual performance by Symphony Silicon Valley. The event will be held at Cupertino’s Flint Center.

October 10, 2011Tags: Featured Story, Science