More than 50 percent of Vermont high school students attend a rural school, and geographical constraints limit their access to state-of-the-art science facilities. Beginning this year, the UVM Cancer Center will help overcome this barrier with a new high-tech mobile laboratory—the BioMobile Discovery Lab—that will visit rural high schools and provide students with a comprehensive research experience. Students will participate in the entire scientific process: from generating hypotheses, to conducting experiments in the mobile lab, to sharing their findings in a community event.

The project, which the Cancer Center hopes will inspire students to pursue careers in cancer research and treatment, is just one result of a culture of faculty mentoring—a hallmark of UVM’s Larner College of Medicine—that takes a personalized approach to every student, according to Katie Queen, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, who facilitates the UVM Cancer Center’s science educational outreach and communication initiatives.

Read the full story on mentoring in Vermont Medicine magazine

“Our faculty are really good at seeing how things have changed and adapting their mentoring to the needs and career goals of individual students.” — Katie Queen, Ph.D.