K. Gaughan, alum 2010

"For a student who is looking to pursue a career in science and perhaps plans on getting a PhD then the Amgen Scholars Program is a definite must. The program manages to give scholars the opportunity to participate in quality laboratory work in a variety of different fields (such as biochemistry, robotics and neuroscience among others).  During the 8 weeks of the program I got to take on a particular project in the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry that was part of my supervisors overall work. This made the program quite unique compared to other summer programs which often don't offer participants a project. At the same time I got to learn new techniques that I wasn't exposed to from lab work in college. This was all culminated in a Symposium in Cambridge where I got to present my work in the form of a poster as well as get to see the conclusions of others work.

But the science aside the program was also a fantastic social experience. I got to meet over two dozen other students from all over Europe and from other parts of the globe. There was no weekend where we weren't off to see local sites, travelling to other cities like Berlin or Salzburg or running over to the near-by stadium to get a glimpse of a U2 concert. By the end of the 8 weeks I had become real friends with people in the program and I won’t ever forget how much fun we had."