ResearcHStart

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] I was in the very first research start class in 2015 here at the University of Chicago, and since then, I've acted as a peer mentor for students in the program each summer.
As the hub of a group of local universities on the cutting edge of cancer research, the University of Chicago takes the initiative to expose the particular strengths of each institution's cancer research programs to gifted local students.

We started with maybe seven or eight students and had a couple of different universities we wanted to include. So it was University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and University of Illinois Chicago, and then eventually brought in Northwestern.

ResearcHStart is a cancer research training program that's designed for high school students. It's a one year program, so students come to us for eight weeks in the summer. And the main component and most important component of this program is this intensive research experience.

Being able to actually experience what research is like, have the day-to-day work of being in a lab, learning how to interact with your lab mates, how to present your work made it really clear that I was on the right track and that this is what I wanted to do.

We try to complement that research experience with a number of career development and skill building, workshops, and opportunities.

The one non-lab skill I took away the most from was the ability to network. It teaches you how to meet with professionals, how to connect with them, how to email a professor. If I really like a professor's work, how do I let them know that? How do I let them know I'm may be interested in working for them?

Increasingly as ResearcHStart has developed, we've been trying to educate our communities about the advances in cancer research that are going on across our four institutions, and using specific examples from the research that they've been doing in the summer.

The return is in the heart. And when you see these kids go through this and talk about it, their experience, and talk to their families, to me that that's what it's all about.

To have this experience, where she actually spent eight weeks, 40 hours every week in research, really ignited a passion in her, which she has now continued, and I don't know that she would have known that was the right path for her until she actually was able to have this kind of experience.

So to see them go through and tackle problem after problem and overcome hurdle after hurdle as they learn new things and learn to develop confidence in themselves is really amazing. So to hear them speak about their work and about research at the beginning of the program and at the end of the program is like night and day. It's remarkable to see how sophisticated and confident they become in just a few weeks.

Before ResearcHStart, the biggest issue I had was like a math problem, and there's always a simple answer to that. Whereas in research and in life, there's not always a simple answer to the problem that you're addressing. Your research is going to take you in paths that you don't expect, and so ResearcHStart really taught me how to deal with the challenges that are thrown at you in research, and how to address them, and how to move past them, how to develop more questions from almost nothing.

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ResearcHStart is a multi-institutional program welcoming high school students from the Chicago and Urbana-Champaign areas to explore exciting careers in cancer research. Participants work full time in the laboratories of established cancer researchers, gaining hands-on experience in areas at the forefront of the field: cancer immunology, bioengineering, experimental cancer therapeutics, cancer disparities and more.

Rigorous research training is complemented by career development and skill-building workshops, a cancer-based faculty lecture series, and a network of faculty and peer mentors dedicated to students’ success. The program culminates in a research symposium for family, friends and members of the scientific community. Participants receive a taxable stipend of $3,000.

About researcHStart

Program Goals

Benefits to Students

Participating Institutions

Program Dates

Eligibility Requirements

Admission

Admission to researcHStart is highly competitive. No more than 30 participants will be selected, based on their demonstrated passion for science, interest in careers in biomedicine, and capacity to perform in a professional research setting.

Applications for the summer 2025 program are due by 11:59 p.m. CST on Monday, January 20, 2025.

To apply:

Review the applicant information packet, accessible here.
Submit the online application form, accessible here.
Identify two individuals (at least one of who much be a teacher) to complete the online applicant recommendation form, accessible here. An instruction sheet for recommenders is available here.
Applicants who advance to the second round: Complete an in-person interview with the site leadership team, scheduled for February 2025.

Conflict of Interest Policy: The selection of applicants is managed by the site leadership teams. Immediate family members of the site leadership teams or of the researcHStart Advisory Committee are ineligible for the program. Immediate family members of faculty from a given site are ineligible for that site. All applications will be subject to the Conflict of Interest Policy.

Contact

Program Team

University of Chicago

researcHStart@bsd.uchicago.edu

Eileen Dolan, PhD
Professor of Medicine, Section of Hematology/Oncology
Deputy Director, UChicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center

Sam Armato, PhD
Associate Professor of Radiology
Associate Director for Education

Megan Mekinda, PhD
Director for Education, Training, and Evaluation
Director, researcHStart

Rosie Huggins, PhD
Assistant Director for Cancer Education

Michelle Domecki, BA
Cancer Education Coordinator

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

University of Illinois at Chicago

cancer@uic.edu

Larisa Nonn, PhD
Professor of Pathology
Associate Director, Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination

Paul Grippo, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Early Pipeline Lead, Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination

Ifeanyi Beverly Chukwudozie, MBA, MPH
Director, Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination
University of Illinois Cancer Center

Julia Henkins, MPH
Senior Research Specialist, Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination
University of Illinois Cancer Center

Northwestern University

Rush University

Advisory Committee

The researcHStart Advisory Committee provides strategic guidance regarding the program's continued growth and development.

Members include representatives from each participating program site, program donors and other members of the Illinois cancer community.