Peijun Zhu was just settling into his first year at Shanghai University in China when his parents made a rather startling announcement: They were all moving to the United States.
That was two years ago, and while Peijun has once again found himself sitting in a college classroom, the circumstances couldn't be more different.
Peijun is now one of 16 students from the Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day High School (MCNDHS), a unique institution in Manhattan dedicated to students who have recently immigrated to the United States and do not possess the same language or cultural fluency of traditional U.S. high school students. MCNDHS partners with other educational and cultural institutions in the city to create unique learning environments for their students. One such partnership resulted in a five-week summer science program for MCNDHS students at Weill Cornell Medical College.
Named the Summer Academy in Molecular Biology and run by the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, the program offers non-traditional high school students access to state-of-the-art scientific equipment and facilities, with the added benefit of instruction and mentoring from Weill Cornell graduate students.
"This is a wonderful opportunity for our graduate students to teach what they know and for the students from MCNDHS to learn from them," said Dr. Randi Silver, associate dean of the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. "When they go to college and take science courses, they will be way ahead of the game."
The program has been a resounding success since its creation in 2005. Of the past 54 participating students, all were accepted to college, with 30 percent of the students in premed programs, 30 percent in the biomedical sciences and 2 percent in engineering.
But it is not an easy program. MCNDHS students had to arrive at Weill Cornell four mornings a week and then return to their regular high school classes in the afternoon and evening. Their mornings were spent with doctoral students who helped students conduct experiments and learn the basics of how to carry out scientific research. The program concluded with each student delivering a final report on a scientific issue of their choosing.
"This is such a great opportunity to learn something they can't learn in high school," said Dr. Xiaoai Chen, fellowships and outreach director for the Graduate School, who oversees the summer program.
It's also an excellent opportunity for the graduate students themselves, many of whom are pursuing careers in academic medicine and are gaining valuable teaching experience with the MCNDHS students.
"If you want to go into academia, this is the kind of thing you need to be doing," said Chris Kloss, a third-year Ph.D. student who served as the lead instructor for one week of the program. "And the things they're learning, I personally didn't get to until my junior year of undergrad."
For Peijun, this summer has helped him with more than just his English.
"I am really considering science for a career now," he said. "This has been awesome."
Photography by Amelia Panico.