Undergraduate Education

From WSU to the Mayo Clinic: my summer as an undergraduate research fellow

by Pierce Claassen, a microbiology undergraduate student in the WSU School of Molecular Biosciences Walking quickly through an underground tunnel that stretches nearly a half mile, I carried samples frozen on dry ice between two buildings on the Mayo Clinic campus to be tested as part of a clinical study on irritable bowel syndrome, or […]

Pierce sitting on the steps next to a statue outside the clinic.

The next generation: Educating our undergraduates for careers in science and veterinary medicine

James Bonner loves science. As a freshman, James knew he wanted to major in biochemistry, so when he was selected to be part of the new hands-on Science Education Alliance biology lab, or SEA lab, in the WSU School of Molecular Biosciences, he was thrilled.

“The lab brings abstract scientific concepts into everyday learning,” said Bonner, one of 24 randomly selected freshmen admitted to the SEA lab in fall 2011, the program’s pilot year.

(l-r) Students Amy Nusbaum and James Bonner with Julie Stanton, clinical assistant professor in the School of Molecular Biosciences.