Jon Geiger (left) and Seanna Pieper-Jordan

And the number of high school students applying has increased dramatically. From 1989 to 2003, an average of 56 high school students applied each year. From 2004 to 2007, that number jumped to an average of 131 high school applicants. Geiger recruits through former students as well as a national network of contacts among scientists and high school and college teachers. "My recruiting is aimed at attracting applications from underrepresented students—minorities, first-generation college or college-bound, those from working class backgrounds, and inner-city students," he says. "I want to be sure that more kids from those backgrounds hear about us."

One of Geiger's pupils this summer was high school senior Seanna Pieper-Jordan, who is of Native Hawaiian and Native American descent. Just like Lynn Riddiford, Pieper-Jordan traveled thousands of miles—in this case, from Honolulu to Bar Harbor—to pursue her dream of becoming a scientist. She spent her summer doing research on muscular dystrophy in Gregory Cox's lab at The Jackson Laboratory.

A student at the Kamehameha Schools in Honolulu, Pieper-Jordan credits two teachers "who cared and encouraged me to look further into science," she says. "I applied to The Jackson Laboratory Summer Student Program with a small hope that I would be given the chance to show the abilities of a student from an often overlooked minority." Clearly inspired by her summer in the lab, Pieper-Jordan says she is now setting her sights on college and a career in the biological sciences.

Photo: Jim Keeley

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