UVA biomedical grad students show high schoolers the ropes

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - A group of UVA graduate students spent the day teaching high-schoolers about research and getting into the biomedical field.

“The biggest thing is just to introduce them to all the opportunities out there,” UVA graduate student Ariana Sabzevari said. “When I was in high school, I didn’t know that a PhD in biomedical sciences even existed, and also just understanding the power of bench to bedside research.”

Sabzevari is a fourth-year biomedical graduate student.

“We have these students here today to introduce them. What are potential career paths, or academic paths into the biomedical sciences,” Sebzevari said.

Sebvezari, and others, showed students what it looks like to work in the biomedical field. Students traveled all the way from Brooke Point High School in Stafford County, each for their own reason.

“I want to become a neurosurgeon in the future, and I’m looking, I’m going through this biomedical research to find out what this would mean for me to become a neurosurgeon,” Brooke Point High School Freshman Jibril Iman said.

Iman says getting into biomedicine can be intimidating but experiences like these help change that.

“It makes it seem more achievable, because it’s not as difficult as it seems like,” Iman said. “When you do a hands-on experience, you understand it more and more.”

Graduate student Katherine Haro says research is a key component of working in this field and it includes a wide variety of topics.

“There’s cardiovascular research, there’s research about diabetes, there’s research about, like, how your blood gets to your heart and all stuff like that,” Haro said. “So it’s very important not to be focused on just one type of research, but like all of them, because they’re all very important.”

Haro says most students don’t know all the opportunities available in biomedicine.

“I hope that this helps broaden their point of view, or just help broaden their mind,” Haro said. “Like there’s not just one linear path to your end goal. There’s a bunch of different paths that you can take in order to be a researcher or a doctor.”

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