Macalester has a lot of research opportunities on campus, and in the Twin Cities in general, to kind of explore what you want to do after college. There's stem cell research. There's research with different invertebrates, and then, there's also chemistry research and organic chemistry. So there's a bunch of different fields. And so all the students are able to apply for that. I'm a Biology major. And that means I'm super involved in a lot of the research aspects. So many of the professors do summer research projects that they get grants from the school. And in relation to that, that means the students are able to help them out in the summer. So for example, I got a National Science Foundation grant a number of years ago, and that enabled me to hire students for-- during the semester, I could hire them or during the summer, I could hire them. And try to plug them into the project and bring them along, and give them some exposure to the research that I was doing, but also ask for their assistance in doing so. Something they also do is called the MSIG program, which is the Mcalester summer internship grant. And this provides an opportunity for students to be financially supported by the college, while they pursue what would otherwise be an unpaid internship. I wanted to work on a specific prairie sight, near my hometown, and I created my own internship. And I talked to the people at the MSIG office, and they were super supportive, and work with me to create a research project for the summer. And so Macalester steps in not just with funding for your summer, but also with support with guidance, faculty sponsors, advice. Something that I really appreciate about Macalester is how they support their students and recognize that not everyone will always have access to the same opportunities.
