For the second year, the ZSR Library has teamed up with the Wake Forest Lab Experiences: Academics and Professions Program (WF LEAP) to offer a Campus Tour, ZSR Library Tour, and Research Instruction Workshop to these awesome 19 high school students!

WF LEAP, led by the Associate Director of Community Engagement at Wake Downtown and double deac, Alana James, is a paid 6-week internship that brings local high school juniors and seniors to explore STEM with hands-on experience in labs and research. Students have the support of two Wake Forest mentors who will introduce them to the foundations of their discipline, lab etiquette, and research.

ZSR with LEAP

On Tuesday, June 20th, Hu led a fast Campus Tour and ZSR Tour for these students, focusing on spaces that were available for study, recreation, and contemplation while the students were on campus for their internships! On Tuesday, July 18th, Colleen Foy conducted an instructional session covering search strategies and building a search string. Denice followed behind Colleen and discussed the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), data science, and information literacy and reviewed different AI tools. Subsequent Personal Research Sessions were scheduled with some students to prepare them for the LEAP Summer Research Symposium held at Wake Downtown on Friday, July 28.

LEAP Summer Research Symposium

This was an amazing exposition of the culmination of student work to family, friends, peers, mentors, and coaches. Each student gave a brief (and emotional – Colleen wasn’t crying, you were crying!) introduction to an audience of nearly 200 attendees. Presentations and posters covered topics such as red blood cells under oxidative stress, carbon dot synthesis from food waste, connections between satellites and ocean health, and the molecular structure of Rotavirus. The Symposium displayed impressive accomplishments from these high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

Kudos to Alana, the rest of the LEAP team, and the Biology, Chemistry, Health & Exercise Science, and Physics faculty mentors for fostering this level of work in the upcoming generation of undergraduates! Thank you to the ZSR Library Dean’s Office for the Innovation Grant! The grant helped us to purchase a copy of the book “Research Methodology and Scientific Writing” 2nd edition for each student.