august 2006
news features
the stentorian | ncssm
Spanning the globe
Summer spent researching, traveling, giving back
By Amy Bryson
Taking a trip to Japan, volunteering at the local hospital to complete the mandatory community service
hours, holding a summer job at the local grocery store to earn extra cash and participating in an educational
research program at Duke are all popular ways students spend the summer before their senior year. In the last
few months of school, students began making plans for the summer. Then, as the graduation ceremony came to
an end, each student left NCSSM to not only return to their homes across the state, but also to spread out across
the globe for their various summer activities.
Jason Hawkins
With a required 60 hour community service project
due by the end of the summer, senior Jason Hawkins
turned to the familiar Topsail Island and took an
internship at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and
Rehabilitation Center.
“My family has been going to Topsail Island [since]
before I was bom, so I’ve been to the hospital a couple
of times,” Hawkins said. “I was plaiming to volunteer
there for a couple of weeks anyways, so I decided to
work there for my community service as well.”
Hawkins worked an 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. shift doing
various tasks for the center July 9 - 22.
“We feed the turtles, clean the tanks, give certain
turtles soapy baths followed by a badadine bath, which
helps any damage to the shell caused by removing the
barnacles, give tours, then give some of the turtles shots
and cl^an their wounds,” he said.
Hawkins chose this type of work because of his love
for animals and his interest in marine biology, making
his community service project very enjoyable.
“I have loved it,” he said. “The turtles are so
amazing and I love working with them. It’s amazing
to see how the animals have their own personalities and
how they interact with people. You even get used to the
smell after a while. [This opportunity has taught me]
that I absolutely love animals, and I’m pretty sure I’ll
be working with them in the future. Plus I now have a
huge understanding of sea turtles.”
Angela Sarnie
Since the eighth grade, senior
Angela Samie has been going
on mission trips with the Grace
Youth Group, and this summer
she traveled with 43 other seniors
and 12 adult leaders to Miguel
Aleman, Mexico to work with
Faith Ministries.
“During the day we mainly
built houses, but that consisted
of many steps— digging the
foundation, pouring a concrete
floor, laying blocks for the walls,
tying rebar to hold up the house,
pouring the roof,” Samie said.
“At night, we held a vacation
bible school for the kids in the
neighborhood.”
Working in 112 degree
weather under a blazing sun July
2-9, Sarnie’s group built houses
for those with unmet needs.
“On Thursday night, the
church had a dedication ceremony
for the families that received
houses that week,” Samie said.
“It was really moving to see that
you were being used to answer the
Meghan Dwyer
While the majority of NCSSM students
were attending graduation, senior Meghan
Dwyer boarded a plane and flew across the
Atlantic to start her summer vacation. Along
with three friends she met through the Duke
Talent Identification Program (TIP) and the
family members of one of the girls, she spent two
weeks traveling through Italy, Switzerland and
France with a full schedule of touring, relaxing
and fun.
“Our typical day would start with breakfast
in the hotel, followed by some sightseeing or a
museum trip, lunch at an outdoor cafe,” Dwyer
said. “Then walking around the city or doing
some shopping before stopping for gelato, going
back to the hotel to get ready for dinner, going out
to diimer and then going out for the night.”
As a first-time European traveler, Dwyer
found she learned a lot about the European
culture, but also took in the sites and enjoyed
the relaxing time.
“[Some highlights of the trip were] staying
with [one of my friend’s] grandparents in a rural
beach town where nobody knew English, rock
climbing in the Swiss Alps, going on a gondola
ride, shopping in Paris and Florence, climbing the
Eiffel Tower, and going to the Moulin Rouge,”
she said. “It was a really amazing experience.”
Photo courtesy of Angela Samie
Angela Sarnie and Grace Youth Group leader Jejf Wooten stand in
front of one of the homes their group built in Miguel Aleman, Mexico
this summer.
prayers that these families have
been praying for years.”
Samie did the same mission
work last year in Mexico with her
youth group, but found her role
this year to be slightly different,
allowing her to get more out of
the trip.
“A friend of mine and I were
asked to write the devotional
guide for the trip,” she said. “It
was a humbling experience to be
able to guide our group during
their daily quiet times through
writing this devotional, but what
I was most amazed by was how
much I learned while writing it. I
also learned to focus my attention
on what I really want to do with
my life. I want to help people and
make a difference, and there’s a
lot of different ways I can do that.
This trip really opened up my eyes
to the beauty of a simple life.”
Photo courtesy of Allie Landry
Allie Landry extracts genomic DNA from mouse tail
tissue at her lab bench at the Jackson Laboratory.
Dorian Britt and
Allie Landry
The counseling department introduced a large number
of summer camps and research experiences to the junior
class as great options for their summer plans. One of these
programs was The Jackson Summer Student Program in
Bar Harbor, Maine.
Participants spend the entire summer, June 11 to Aug.
15, working Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the
Jackson Laboratory research facility on a sinnmer research
project to be presented during a research symposium at the
end of the program. Several students, including seniors
Dorian Britt and Allie Landry, took up this opportunity
and spent their summer in Maine.
“I thought this program would be a great summer
experience,” Britt said. “I thought it would be a good
opportunity to live in Maine for lune weeks in a three story
mansion, and be able to complete a research project uiuque
to me and that would later help make some scientific
advancement. The program would be a wonderful learning
experience and would help me to advance myself on an
academic level.”
Britt and Landry were accepted into the program
after completing a general application, writing an essay,
obtaining two teacher recommendations and submitting
their school transcripts.
Britt spent the summer using bioinformatics to
identify genes that are associated with complex phenotypic
traits in the mouse. Landry’s summer goal was to find
the gene that has a mutation causing mice to develop a
novel neuromuscular disorder, named SJD. While the
program demanded a lot of work, it also allowed time
for fun activities.
“Even though we work Monday to Friday, on the
weekends we are free to do a lot of fun and interesting
activities,” Britt said. “I especially enjoyed our camping
trip to Katahdin Mountain. It was my first time hiking and
camping and I had a great time.”
Landry also found ways to take a break from work.
“[We did] a lot of outdoor activities ranging from
swimming in the ocean or lakes, biking around Acadia,
white water rafting, kayaking and hiking,” she said. “One
of the best experiences was my hike up Mount Katahdin.
The terrain was very rocky and steep; some places were
nearly vertical. We crossed Knife Edge, which, as the
name implies, is a very narrow ridge between two peaks.
The trip was very tiring, but very satisfying and fun to
accomplish.”
Overall both said they enjoyed the knowledge, skills
and memories gained through this program.