Saturday, February 16, 2013

DESERT > JUNGLE > GENETOWN - Lunch Seminar with Amanda Kennedy (’12)


DESERT > JUNGLE > GENETOWN
Lunch Seminar with Amanda Kennedy (’12)


Monday, Feb 25th, 11 am, MH 539
Pizza and Drinks--All Departments Invited

How does an aspiring science student go from high school in the “middle of nowhere, New Hampshire” to the desert, the jungle, and finally the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard? Just ask someone who sat at your lab bench—only one year ago! Amanda Kennedy (’12), one of our very own BioSociety alumni, will take a break from “playing with blood and quantifying DNA using an army of robots” to have lunch with us, share her story, and offer advice for students dreaming about their own futures. (She will also be inviting students, on a space available basis, to visit the Broad Institute for a tour later this semester.)

Amanda Kennedy served a lot of drinks at Gulu Gulu Café to fund her studies in Cell and Molecular Biology at Salem State University. She also studied field genetics with Operation Wallacea and the Bedouin people of Sinai, Egypt where she learned to collect biodiversity data and extract DNA from a variety of organisms. After graduating in 2012 with her B.S. in Biology, Amanda was briefly drawn to another field project -- this time in the jungle of Honduras. Between DNA extractions, Amanda applied for jobs back here in Genetown USA (Cambridge, MA), and landed her first full-time position as a technician at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. The Broad is a nonprofit research institute that uses genomic data to address a variety of medical questions such as “puzzling out autism's genetic clues, and uncovering common melanoma mutations.”

It is helpful to RSVP on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/events/417597658315320/
Biological Society Hosts: Eric Silva, Jennifer Sawyer, and Victoria Gillespie
Faculty Hosts: Tracy Ware and Sheila Schreiner

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