According to a UNM press release, UNM Chemistry Professor Ramesh Giri has started a program centered around inviting local high school students to his lab to learn about chemistry in interactive ways.
“I grew up halfway around the world and I never had the chance to learn a lot about science when I was a child,” Giri is quoted as saying in the release. "I feel like I can relate to these students in some way, so I wanted to give them an opportunity to grow in an academic setting.”
Giri, who began teaching at UNM in 2012, initially started the program last summer, inviting three students from South Valley Academy to work and learn in his lab, according to the release. This year, through a grant from a National Science Foundation, Giri was able to offer the program again and brought three new students in to work side-by-side with his graduate students.
According to the press release, the students will be learning chemistry techniques typically done by first-year undergraduate students working in a lab.
This includes: running columns, checking thin-layer chromatography and setting up samples for an analytical method called gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, according to the press release. These are all techniques that must be mastered if a student plans to continue working with chemicals.
“When I see them learning these techniques, I feel very proud,” Giri is quoted as saying in the press release. “They’re doing something that Ph.D students do, and they’re working alongside them every day.”
According to the release, benefits of this effort reach beyond the academics.
All three of the students say they’ve built relationships with graduate and doctoral students in the lab and, according to the press release, many have even offered help with applying for college and tutoring for future chemistry classes.
According to the release, after the summer, all the students have the opportunity to continue working in the lab during the school year through an unpaid internship.
“If every principal investigator starts doing what we’re doing here, I think it will be a tremendous help for students in our community to learn more about opportunities they have in college,” Giri is quoted as saying in the release.
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