We’re in the last quarter of the year, which means that it’s time for the students of Arizona College Prep High School to plan ahead for the upcoming school year of 2023-2024. For seniors, such as myself, who are soon leaving to explore the real world, we leave behind a responsibility and obligation for juniors to step up next year and carry on the legacy that graduated classes have left behind. We’ve seen many of these juniors already in action as they not only study for their ACT, which the week of April 6th, but finalize what they want to do with their lives after high school.

For juniors, such as Swanuja Godasi, they are already exploring their main career choice, and for Swanuja, it is through the KEYS Research Internship. The KEYS Research Internship is conducted by the University of Arizona and the Bio5 Institute for high schoolers from all backgrounds who are at least 16 years old, such as herself, who have taken science classes in school such as, but not limited to, biology, chemistry, or physics. The interns will partake in interdisciplinary bioscience research using biotechnology and data analysis techniques as they learn and develop new scientific knowledge, science literary skills, and how to communicate their research to a varied audience this summer.

As a member of the Class of 2024, Swanuja partakes in many activities such as being a talented member of our Speech and Debate team, and learning Indian Classical dance outside of school. In her free time, she likes to read and take walks when the weather is nice. While she has not been assigned to a lab yet, she is still eager to be interning with university professors and fellow students and hopes to gain experience in the biotechnology research field and to strengthen her determination and curiosity for science. Swanuja wanted to gain more exposure with scientific research and took the opportunity to apply in the winter through an online application form before being interviewed in March of this year.

While Swanuja has not done much prior research in biotechnology or data analysis, she has recently joined a biotechnology project and is looking forward to working on it. “I am very excited to be able to join the science community and do research this summer!” she says ecstatically.

While the actual internship takes place during the summer, Swanuja and the other interns will have weekly assignments preparing them for the research they will participate in with their labs before being paired, as Swanuja mentioned earlier, to a lab based on the interests shown in their application and exhibited in their respective interviews. We wish Swanuja the best of luck on her internship, her ACT, and her upcoming senior year, and I’m sure many of us at our school are excited to see the Class of 2024 step up, carry on our ACP legacy, strive for the impossible, and be extraordinary!