Don’t like your junior research proposal?  Did you put it together in a hurry and would rather do something else but you don’t know what to do?  I recently received an email from the director of the Delaware Biotechnology Institute, Kelvin Lee.  In the email he stated that they don’t really have many student research opportunities available at DBI but…

“We don’t have much of an infrastructure to support summer research projects at this time – except on an ad hoc basis. At this point, we could try to collect statements of interest from various Charter students and try to “shop them” to faculty to see if there is interest. An equally effective approach is to have interested students peruse the relevant websites of various faculty at our Institute and at UD in general, and then have them reach out directly to ask if those faculty are able to take summer research interns. Many faculty do host interns (some volunteer, some paid) during the summer.”

This is a great idea.  The university even has a ‘research’ link on their homepage that talks about research opportunities and internships for UD students.  Perhaps they would take Charter high school students as well.  It couldn’t hurt to ask.  So you should go to the UD website (www.udel.edu) and look around the site for opportunities and contact information.  Send a professor and email and ask if there are ways you can get involved.  It is a great opportunity for you to develop an excellent junior research project as well as a way to get your foot in the door at UD.