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AHFMR gives Alberta students the coolest summer jobs ever

(Province-wide, AB) Monday, July 04, 2006... The Heritage Youth Researcher Summer (HYRS) Program is now underway at the province’s three main Universities - giving exceptional Grade 11 students an opportunity to conduct research this summer with top scientists. The six-week HYRS Program, funded by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR), will run concurrently at the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, and the University of Lethbridge beginning the first week of July.

"AHFMR is recognized around the world for supporting excellence in health research. The HYRS program is just one example of that excellence, providing top Grade 11 students a hands-on research experience with some of the finest scientists in Canada. The HYRS program gives students unique knowledge that will help them in their future education and future choices,” says Dr. Kevin Keough, President and CEO of AHFMR.

HYRS participants receive a grant to work on research projects supervised by AHFMR and other university research mentors. The HYRS Program also offers guest lecturers, poster sessions, field trips, and an opportunity for the HYRS participants to invite their high school science teachers to join them for a day. AHFMR also offers teachers’ workshops which are designed to give high school science teachers cutting edge research training and ideas at the Universities of Alberta and Calgary.

This year, the HYRS Program received 171 applications from Grade 11 students from 81 schools throughout the province. Forty-five students from 43 schools were selected by an adjudication committee made up of teachers from Sherwood Park, Spruce Grove, Lethbridge, Calgary, and Edmonton. Fifteen students come from towns and rural communities across Alberta other than Lethbridge, Calgary and the Edmonton / Capital region.

A complete list of the HYRS 2006 students, their communities, schools, and research mentors can be found at: http://www.ahfmr.ab.ca/HYRS/bulletin-2006.php

For further HYRS information, or a chance to interview one of the participants, please call:

Jackie Leithoff at (780) 492-7673 for the University of Alberta HYRS program

Nancy Whelan at (403) 220-6617 for the Universities of Calgary & Lethbridge HYRS programs

AHFMR Communications Contact: Dwayne Brunner (780) 423-5727

Backgrounder

  • HYRS stands for Heritage Youth Researcher Summer Program and is funded and managed by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR).

  • HYRS offers 45 exceptional Grade 11 students from all over the province a summer job conducting hands-on research in the lab or facility of a Heritage or other university researcher. To view a complete list of this year's successful candidates, visit: 2006 HYRS Participants

  • To apply students must have at least an 85% average, have completed core science subjects, have two teacher references and a community reference, and write an essay about an area of health research that interests them and why they want to be part of the HYRS Program.

  • This is the seventh year of HYRS, which is offered at three campuses for six weeks each summer.

  • The University of Alberta and University of Calgary will each have 20 HYRS participants and the University of Lethbridge will have five HYRS participants working in the laboratories of Heritage funded and other researchers.

  • HYRS participants have to prepare and present a scientific poster about their research to parents, teachers and guests at an Open House. Participants must also do a presentation about their summer experience to fellow students upon their return to school in the fall.

  • The research projects the HYRS participants are involved in range from investigating what brain cells are involved in memory, to identifying mutations in genes, to how cells work in conditions such as diabetes, stroke, gastrointestinal, and kidney disease.

  • The Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR) currently provides funding for over 600 researchers and researchers in training at the province's three main universities. AHFMR's commitment is to fund health research based on international standards of excellence and carried out by new and established investigators and researchers in training. Total AHFMR funding for more than a quarter of a century is in excess of $850 million. For more information, visit www.ahfmr.ab.ca.