[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNaNzKX1Mgs[/youtube]Judith Mendez ’14 is doing real lab work as an undergraduate.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute Future Scientists and Clinicians program, which is offered through the Office for Undergraduate Research, awards fellowships that allow Carolina Covenant Scholars to do full-time research during two consecutive summers under the guidance of faculty advisers and graduate student mentors.
Through her summer work, Mendez also found an opportunity to do work in a lab on campus during the school year. The work she does now is on evolutionary biology, and she studies small marine creatures called copepods.
Although she does not plan to work in evolutionary biology, Mendez said this experience has given her the confidence and experience to pursue a career in the research field.
She said, “It’s not about the type of research that you do, but it’s more about the mentors that you have, how much time they dedicate to you, and how much you’re learning in their lab.”
[ Story and video by Beth Lawrence ’12 ]
