NC Project SEED Participants Receive Honors In International Competitions

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC, July 08, 2011 (Press-News.org) North Carolina Project SEED (http://www.ncprojectseed.org), a statewide, year-round science enrichment program housed on the campus of The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences (http://www.thehamner.org), has recognized program participants for their research efforts after competing and earning awards in international competitions. The 20 graduating seniors in the 2010-11 NC Project SEED class have collectively been offered $8,346,633 in college scholarships.

Program participants Selina Boyd, Melissa Chan, Cheyenne Stewart and Marc Webb all received honors at the 2011 International Sustainable World (Engineering, Energy & Environment) Project Olympiad in Houston in May. Webb, who is from Josephine Dobbs Clement Early College High School (Durham, N.C.), also competed with Avery Thorpe Young of William G. Enloe High School of Raleigh at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, held in Los Angeles in May, with each being awarded thousands in scholarship monies.

NC Project SEED provides educational awards (stipends) to students from disadvantaged backgrounds to participate in year-round research at an academic, government or industrial laboratory. An important feature of the NC Project SEED program is its emphasis on career development and its motivation of students to pursue higher education in the natural sciences. The program is directed by Kenneth Cutler.

Michaela Jones of Knightdale High School, who completed an internship with The Hamner, earned the opportunity to work on chemical research related to investigating "Regulation of Nrf2-mediated Antioxidant Response by VEGFR2" throughout the course of her internship under the direction of Dr. Courtney Woods.

QUOTES:
"NC Project SEED has offered these students an incredible opportunity to experience firsthand the excitement and challenges of scientific research under the guidance of outstanding faculty mentors," said Dr. William Greenlee, president and CEO of The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences. "The achievements of these future leaders are remarkable. I congratulate Ken Cutler and his NC Project SEED team for their dedication and commitment to opening new doors to North Carolina's disadvantaged high school students."

NEW MEDIA CONTENT:
- The Hamner's Twitter page
http://www.twitter.com/thehamner

DETAILS:
-Ninety-seven percent of program participants attend college. Seventy-seven percent are on partial or full scholarships.

-Twenty students enrolled in NC Project SEED have been admitted to doctoral programs.

-For the 2008-2009 school year, all 24 senior students received full college scholarship offers totaling $5.4 million.

-For the 2009-2010 school year, 22 seniors generated $7.2 million dollars in scholarship offers.

-The program has produced 14 Siemens regional Semifinalists, 2 Intel Science Talent Search Semiifinalists, one Siemens Finalist, and one Intel Finalist.

ABOUT NC PROJECT SEED:
NC Project SEED program is a statewide, year-round science enrichment program. The goals of the program are to financially support and encourage talented, disadvantaged North Carolina high school students to pursue terminal graduate and professional school degrees in chemistry, or chemistry related science disciplines through a scientific research internship experience. Each student is involved in a research project in chemistry and/or chemistry-related sciences under the guidance and supervision of an experienced scientist at Duke University, North Carolina State University, and UNC-Chapel Hill. For more information, call (919) 558-1346 or visit http://www.ncprojectseed.org.

Erin Smith
MMI Public Relations
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erin@mmipublicrelations.com
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