Biophysics Research for Baltimore Teens

BRBT gives Baltimore City teens a chance to do basic biomedical research in Johns Hopkins biophysics labs on both the Homewood and JHMI campuses. BRBT is offered through the Johns Hopkins Program in Molecular Biophysics (PMB), and PMB graduate students on both campuses mentor BRBT interns. The interns’ exposure to laboratory research is augmented with a weekly course in basic laboratory skills taught by graduate students and overseen by PMB faculty.

Centro SOL Programs (Center for Salud/Health & Opportunities for Latinos)

Centro SOL’s mission is to promote equity in health and opportunity for Latinos by advancing clinical care, research, education, and advocacy at Johns Hopkins and beyond in active partnership with our Latino neighbors. Centro SOL’s Youth Pipeline establishes educational support programs for parents and students to build the next generations of healthcare. SKCCC staff and faculty have linked with these programs with the goal of creating cancer-specific programming for students across these activities:

Summer Scholars Program

The Summer Scholars Program’s mission is to expose bilingual and bi-cultural youth to careers in medicine, research, and healthcare and equip them to make informed decisions about their education and their careers. The program exposes bilingual high school students to the medical field by offering meaningful opportunities to work with JHU School of Medicine faculty in clinical settings that serve Latino patients with limited-English proficiency. In addition, students also have the opportunity to shadow faculty mentors in their research labs.

Mentoring and Tutoring Program

With the Mentoring Program, Centro SOL aims to empower Latinx youth by connecting them with passionate mentors that can offer meaningful guidance and support. More specifically, the program aims for mentors to enlighten students about the college application process, financial aid, course selection, homework help, employment opportunities, and other topics as deemed necessary. Through this Program, motivated Baltimore youth are exposed to careers in medicine, mentored at a leading medical institution, and empowered to pursue further training that on their Spanish language skills, while improving services to our Latino patients.

Henrietta Lacks Day

Since 2012, the annual Henrietta Lacks High School Symposium invites over 300 Baltimore City high school students to Johns Hopkins in an effort to introduce students to real-life research initiatives, career paths and discussions based around HeLa stem cells, biotechnology and bioethics. The day includes forums with members of the Lacks family and discussions led by bioethicists on issues related to consent and clinical trials.

The Ingenuity Project

The Ingenuity Project at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute is a four-year high school program for talented and motivated students who excel in mathematics and science. Through the program’s Research Practicum, Poly High School students have the opportunity to work closely with Johns Hopkins faculty mentors to develop their own independent research projects. Recent students who have worked with SKCCC faculty include Raekwon Williams (Read his Student Spotlight)