Throughout the school year, 16 students from 14 Montgomery County high schools have rushed from school to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to don lab coats and pursue medical research. They are participating in the MCPS Student and Teacher Program, sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), with headquarters in Montgomery County. In addition, eight secondary and middle school teachers did internships in NIH labs as part of the same program last summer.

Through the program, the student interns take a summer course in laboratory principles, techniques and practices, then work side-by-side with NIH scientist-mentors throughout the school year. The paid teacher internship includes two weeks of training and six weeks of laboratory work.

Eighteen students and 10 teachers have been selected as interns for this coming summer and the 2000-2001 school year.

HHMI honors student and teacher participants at a research symposium and dinner each May.

The students who will present their research at the May 4 symposium are:

Coralyn Atwell-Albert Einstein High School

Desiree Bayonet-Northwest High School

Juan Fernandez-Montgomery Blair High School

Shruti Gandhi-Thomas S. Wootton High School

Andrea Hebert-Col. Zadok Magruder High School

Sara Henningsgaard-Damascus High School

Erica Kaye-Walter Johnson High School

Benjamin Koshy-Gaithersburg High School

Shailesh Nikki Kumar-Sherwood High School

Janet Lin-Thomas S. Wootton High School

Sylvia Ngwa-Damascus High School

Tejas Pathak-Watkins Mill High School

Sukhaynah Said-Rockville High School

Gustavo Suarez-Seneca Valley High School

Lillian Wang-Springbrook High School

Edom Yared-John F. Kennedy High School

Teachers who completed internships last summer are:

Jacqueline Bragg-Northwest High School

Jill Garrison-John F. Kennedy High School

Tamara Jennings-John F. Kennedy High School

Marie Gabrielle Paul-Wheaton High School

Deanna Schmidt-Francis S. Key Middle School

Melanie Hope Toth-Walt Whitman High School

Mei Wang-Walter Johnson High School

Robert E. Turner, James H. Blake High School

Since the program's inception in 1990, HHMI has provided more than $3 million in support of student and teacher internships.