AHFMR News

AHFMR News

AHFMR gives 45 students the coolest summer jobs with top university researchers

(Province-wide) July 06, 2005...The Heritage Youth Researcher Summer (HYRS) 2005 Program is underway again this summer with 45 exceptional Grade 11 students in Alberta matched up with top researchers in the province. 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 internationally renowned for supporting excellence in health research. HYRS exemplifies that excellence, providing top Grade 11 students a hands-on research opportunity with some of the finest scientists in Canada. The HYRS program presents students with a wealth of possibilities in further education and future careers within the field of health research," says Dr. Kevin Keough, President and CEO of AHFMR.

The six week program allows students to work on laboratory projects supervised by AHFMR and other university researcher mentors - all while being paid. The HYRS Program also offers guest lecturers, poster sessions, field trips, and a Teachers' Day where HYRS participants invite their high school science teachers to join them for a day. AHFMR is also offering teachers' workshops this summer which are designed to give high school science teachers hands-on health research training at the Universities of Alberta and Calgary medical school campuses.

This year, the HYRS Program received a record 212 applications from Grade 11 students from 96 schools throughout the province. Forty-five students from 43 schools were selected by an adjudication committee made up of teachers, from Drayton Valley, Red Deer, and Calgary. Sixteen students come from towns across Alberta other than Lethbridge, Calgary and Edmonton / Capital region.

For more information about interviewing HYRS students from your community 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

Dwayne Brunner, AHFMR Communications, at (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). To learn more about the HYRS program vist: The HYRS Website

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 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 sixth 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 Teachers' Day and 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.

HYRS Program at the University of Calgary:

Community	Name	School	Mentor
Cochrane	Melissa Ah-Seng	Cochrane HS	Dr. Christopher Mody
Medicine Hat	Joseph Andrews	McCoy HS	Dr. Naweed Syed
Lacombe	Karly Bergen	Lacombe Composite HS	Dr. Francine Smith
Lacombe	Mandy Klinger	Parkview Adventist Acad.	Dr. Pere Santamaria
Calgary	Iris Lau	John G. Diefenbaker HS	Dr. Dave Schriemer
Calgary	Amy Leung	Webber Academy	Dr. Daniel Lai
Calgary	Emanuel Lys	Bishop Carroll HS	Dr. Jeffrey Gaudet
Calgary	Lise Malta	St. Mary's HS	Dr. Darren Stefanyshyn
Raymond	John McMullin	Raymond HS	Dr. Ken Lukowiak
Calgary	Raymond Nguyen	Father Lacombe HS	Dr. Tony Schryvers
Calgary	Jenny Paramonov	Queen Elizabeth HS	Dr. Richard Wilson
Calgary	Julia Pon	Sir Winston Churchill HS	Dr. William Brook
Calgary	Kristen Sabourin	St. Francis HS	Dr. Wallace McNaughton
Calgary	Jennifer Sidey	Chinook Winds Adventist Acad.	Dr. Marc Poulin
Calgary	Rachel Sondergaard	Central Memorial HS	Dr. Derek Exner
Okotoks	Sarah Sun	Holy Trinity Academy	Dr. Sarah McFarlane
Calgary	Andrew Tang	Lord Beaverbrook HS	Dr. Jens Coorsen
Red Deer	Allen Tran	Lindsay Thurber Composite	Dr. Andrew Braun
Brooks	Jordan Woehr	Brooks Composite HS	Dr. Richard Frayne
Calgary	Michelle Zeng	Western Canada HS	Dr. Sam Lee

HYRS Program at the University of Alberta:

Community	Name	School	Mentor
Edmonton	Sana Chaker	Strathcona Composite	Dr. Andrew Simmonds
Edmonton	Helen Chung	Ross Sheppard HS	Dr. David Evans
Edmonton	Thomas Corie	McNally HS	Dr. Kamaljit Kaur
Sherwood Pk.	David Cornish	Bev Facey Community HS	Dr. Ming Chan
Drayton Valley	Ciera Darragh	Frank Maddock HS	Dr. Chris Sturdy
Edmonton	Stéphane Doucette-Préville	Ecole Maurice-Lavallée	Dr. Jean-Michel LeMellédo
Westlock	Richard Forbes	St. Mary School	Dr. Frederick Tse
Edmonton	Matthew Hirsch	Victoria HS	Dr. Ronald Moore
Edmonton	Stanislau Hrybouski	Jasper Place	Dr.Luis M. Schang
Ft. McMurray	Matthew Lee	Westwood Community	Dr. Wendy Austin
Edmonton	Charles Lim	Harry Ainly HS	Dr. Jason Acker
Grande Prairie	Sara Lindsay	Grande Prairie CHS	Dr. Gary D. Lopaschuk
Provost	Kyle Murray	Provost Public School	Dr. Charles Putman
Edmonton	Lindsay Redman	Louis St. Laurent	Dr. Carole Estabrooks
Grande Prairie	Kathryn Stone	St. Joseph Catholic HS	Dr. Paul Grundy
Edmonton	Marko Tymchak	Austin O'Brien	Dr. Ian Patterson
Edmonton	Valentin Villatoro	Holy Trinity Catholic HS	Dr. Daniel Birch
Hay Lakes	Lars Welde	Hay Lakes School	Dr. Gordon Frances
Edmonton	Howe-Ming Yu	Old Scona Academic HS	Dr. Catherine Field
Smoky Lake	Natalie Zenko	H.A. Kostash School	Dr. Rachel Wevrick

HYRS Program at the University of Lethbridge:

Community	Name	School	Mentor
Lethbridge	Munima Alam	Lethbridge Collegiate Institute	Dr. Robert Sutherland
Lethbridge	Alix Blackshaw	Lethbridge Collegiate Institute	Dr. Glen Prusky
Lethbridge	Jenna Woodman	Catholic Central HS	Dr. Gerlinde Metz
Lethbridge	Julie Xu	Winston Churchill HS	Dr. Ian Whishaw
Lethbridge	Yao Xue	Winston Churchill HS	Dr. Bryan Kolb