HHMI President Robert Tjian has hosted three EXROP students at his University of California, Berkeley, laboratory. “Working in a lab as a college sophomore really is the thing that got me into science, so I can't imagine a more interesting pathway for students to understand what real research is about,” he says. “And EXROP is special... You could be anywhere, and if you show some promise you could end up in one of the best labs in the world.”

Miller, 22, is just one of those students. Inspired by Bill Nye the Science Guy, Miller grew up loving science, but his high school in Atlanta didn't provide many opportunities. “We didn't really have any labs, just bookwork,” he explains.

Despite that, Miller decided to major in biology at Georgia State. Though he struggled through required physics and chemistry courses, his professors recognized his talents and recruited him into an HHMI-sponsored biotechnology program. He worked in a research lab studying how bacteria change their genes in response to the environment. That experience lit his fire.

In June, Miller joined the lab of HHMI investigator David G. Schatz at the Yale School of Medicine, who studies how the immune system makes antibodies that fight invading pathogens. Schatz has hosted three previous EXROP students, all of whom have gone on to graduate school in some field of science. “These are serious kids who want to learn and want to make a difference, so they come in ready to work,” Schatz says. “They have been fun to work with and they have been productive.”

The EXROP program has almost doubled in size since its beginning, and the Institute continues to consider ways to grow the program while maintaining the factors that make it successful.

Miller says he was excited to have the opportunity this summer to learn a new subject and new techniques, and to meet people who have the same interests and background. “I used to hate school,” says Miller, who is beginning a master's degree program in biotechnology at Georgia State this fall. “Now I can't get enough of learning about biology.”

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