Every summer, undergraduate students from around the world are given the opportunity to experience premier research through the Amgen Scholars Program.
The Canadian branch of the program accepts only 10 students and this year, Ashtyn Mowbray-Mcmillan, a Behavioural Neuroscience student at Laurentian University, has been selected to participate in the prestigious Amgen Scholars Program in science and biotechnology.
The 10-week summer program will be held at the University of Toronto, where Mowbray-Mcmillan will have the opportunity to collaborate and support research alongside world-renowned researchers.
The program offers the opportunity to learn the value of teamwork and social responsibility from networking and community-building events and is capped off with a final symposium where research is presented to the academic community.
“The program is a great opportunity to get even more hands-on research experience before graduating,” Mowbray-Mcmillan said.
“To apply, I chose a member of the faculty at the University of Toronto and had to explain why I wanted to do research in their lab in particular. Now I actually get to work with that faculty member, learn from them, and collaborate on research. It feels unreal to have been selected for this program, it is very competitive.”
As he enters his final year of his undergraduate program in the fall, Mowbray-Mcmillan looks forward to bringing new research skills from the summer program back to Laurentian to incorporate into his own thesis research. Mowbray-Mcmillanis interested in memory systems of the brain and consciousness and hopes to carry on his undergraduate research into a Masters and then a PhD.
“Neuroscience is a real life application of chemistry and psychology concepts that I could use day to day. Learning about how the brain works is incredible,” he said. “For example, the amount of circuitry and mechanisms that go into something as simple as saying this sentence right now is so interesting. I love learning about it.”
Mowbray-Mcmillan is particularly excited about this experience because it not only builds on his practical skills but also on his resume.
With an ambitious future goal to one day teach Neuroscience at a university, Mowbray-Mcmillan is eager to network and absorb every moment of this opportunity.
“I’d love to work as a professor and researcher and hopefully teach at an institution,” Mowbray-Mcmillan said. “I know that involves a lot of hard work and many more years of school but I feel really inspired and I know my Bachelors of Science at Laurentian and this Amgen Scholars Summer Program are just the beginning for me.”
