MLSC apprenticeship

A competitive summer apprenticeship awarded by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, structured as a hands-on training program in foundational biotechnology lab skills.

About the program

The MLSC High School Apprenticeship Challenge places selected high school students in Massachusetts life sciences labs to give them direct exposure to research environments. My placement at UMass Dartmouth was structured around technique training rather than a single project — the goal was to build a working foundation in the methods that underlie modern biotech research.

Techniques I trained on

Across the apprenticeship I trained in core wet lab skills used across molecular biology, cell biology, and biotechnology research:

• •Pipetting and accurate solution preparation
• •PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and gel electrophoresis for DNA amplification and visualization
• •Mammalian cell culture — handling, maintenance, and aseptic technique
• •Light microscopy
• •Standard scientific documentation and lab notebook practice

Why it mattered

Walking into a research lab as an 8th-going-into-9th grader, almost everything was new. By the end of the summer, the techniques themselves had become the easy part — the harder, more interesting work was learning how researchers actually think: how they design experiments, troubleshoot when things fail, and decide what's worth measuring. This summer is what made the next one (the Sheriff Lab field research) possible.

Techniques used

• Pipetting
• Solution preparation
• PCR
• Gel electrophoresis
• Mammalian cell culture
• Microscopy
• Lab documentation