Happy New Year from the GT Research Program! The students have been very busy. Jimmy Reeves (IR ’19) research focuses on the biofuel industry, in November his advisor, Mr Michael McAdams invited him to a national meeting of the Biofuels Association Board in Washington DC. During the day long meeting he had the opportunity to meet, network and observe energetic discussions of the hot topics in the industry by the top professionals in the field. In December Andrew Zheng (IM ’19) presented his NASA/Goddard research in a poster session at the National American Geophysical Union conference in Washington D.C. on Dec. 12th. Here at school ten Class of ‘18 researchers returned to share their experiences at our annual College Symposium. They discussed their classes, the transition from living at home to living on your own and the application process. The current RHHS research students peppered them with questions and walked away with even more questions! The symposium speakers came from UCLA, UMCP, Penn State, University of Austin, University of Chicago and Princeton to name a few.
Looking forward, January is when all the hard work of the first semester starts to pay benefits. Students in the Independent Research Program are compiling their site visits, interviews and professional background on such topics as Home Court Advantage, Environmental Activist Photography, Spinal Cord Injury Repair, Financial literacy for teens and Sleep Disruption in Hospitals. There is breaking news in the Intern/Mentor program too. Omar Niazi’s research proposal was just approved by the University of Maryland Medical school review board, Harini Kanan and Adam Luo are both working in different labs on preliminary data sets for their research at the Johns Hopkins Medical Center. Chidera Umeozulu research proposal was approved at UMBC in big health data. Here in Howard County Paula Shin’s is assisting her mentor in the HoCo Department of Health, with a multi high school public health campaign promoting better crisis mental health for teens in Howard County. Grace Kim interning with environmental engineers with the HCPSS, has advanced to the level of reviewing the middle school water testing site locations on her own. These are just a few examples of the research and experiences from the over sixty students in this program.
Do you think your student would enjoy these types of experiences? All students in the GT Research Program pursue a topic of their choice deeply and, by the end of the year, produce a product for the greater good. Some students take this course for one year others for three years. Application and FAQ’s are available at https://rhhs.hcpss.org/about/gifted-and-talented-education-program