Thank you for visiting the Biotech Partner’s Stem for All Video. While this year was challenging due to the impact of CoVID-19 pandemic, we were able to work with our partners to continue to provide our population of students with biotech industry opportunities. While schools have seen decreased attendance throughout the pandemic, we’ve been able to keep students engaged through the promise of paid industry internship opportunities. How has your program managed to effectively keep students engaged throughout the pandemic? We are also interested in learning about the work you do and the ways in which it connects to our ongoing goal of connecting underserved students to opportunities within STEM. We welcome comments on any aspect of our program. Thanks for watching our video!

Very impressive!  Terrific outreach to high schools.  The regional impact of this program is clear.  Excellent matching of location and opportunities!  

Love this program. Research says that mentoring is where its at when it comes to getting kids engaged with STEM. I'm curios; do you think you could re-create this program without the paid internship component?  I know funding is always difficult. What are your thoughts? 

What a great opportunity for high school students! How do you recruit students? About how many students participate each year?  What proportion go on to major in STEM fields?

Hi Thomas: Thank you for visiting and the inquiry. Biotech Partners works with four (4) high schools within the Greater San Francisco Bay Area; specifically, Berkeley (1992), Oakland Technical (2008), Antioch (2015) and San Marin 2016).  We annually serve approximately 304 students underrepresented in the biotech field; specifically, young people of color, females and low-income.  Recruitment is facilitated by an on-campus Biotech Partners’ Program Coordinator; Biotech Academy 12th Grade Students; and our Alum who are enrolled in the Bioscience Career Institute community college program. We work with teachers to give in-classroom presentations, distribute flyers and visit on-campus student clubs to inform students of the Biotech Academy.  Students apply and enter the program at the beginning of their 11th Grade, complete a paid summer internship of 160 hours and return to the 12th Grade for more in-depth hands-on academic training.  We have 100% matriculation; students attend either a 2-year or 4-year institution of higher education in pursuit of a career within the live science/STEM fields.  We have educated over 3,915 students; approximately 1,571 internship and co-op training position placements resulting in student earnings of more than $3.4 Million to-date. We are currently in the process of engaging our past Alum via social media to learn of their current career status.

Dear Lynda and Alex,

This work is really inspiring, and it's great to see that many of the students were able to make connections between their internship in biotech and current (and ongoing) events affecting society.

I was particularly intrigued to hear about your matching process and, as per Lynda's comment, "Biotech Partners’ interns are not job shadowing!"

I know that these kinds of experiences are often very meaningfully contextualized by the people and places (Bayer, Berkley, mentors, and interns), but I am curious to know more about the processes involved that might be replicable in other places. For example, it seems that there was reference in the discussion above to some kinds of discipline-based training pre-internship for the students to get them on all track with the science. Are these materials available online somewhere? What did this entail? 

I also imagine that students had fairly unique internships. In my own experience, I know that support of mentors/supervisors is really important to monitoring one-on-one partnerships. What kind of support were you able to offer to ensure that each student had a meaningful experience?

Thank you!

Alex, this is great! (I love the nitty-gritty, and this answers my questions). It sounds like the students really walk into this program with (1) a demonstrated set of skills from their two years of coursework and (2) commitment to the program. At that point, I imagine you know the students well, and can place them accordingly.

What percentage of students who complete the 2-year course go on to do an internship?

Hi Rebecca: Thank you for visiting and questions.

As the African Proverb states: “It takes an entire village to train up a child.” For Biotech Partners’ the entire village translates to our comprehensive model and programming that engages education, government, industry and community-based organizations representatives to build, sustain and provide students with academic training and life science/STEM career opportunities.   

It has been the experience of Biotech Partners that replicating/re-creating the program is an 18-month planning process to launch the first year of programming at the beginning of the academic year.  Biotech Partners works with education/school administrators, teachers, counselors; local/regional district leadership to gain approval of its scope of programming. We also work with the school administration to identify and engage representatives of government, industry and community-based organization’s that would potentially support and sustain the model at a local high school.  We establish Memorandum of Understanding; partner with municipalities; garner and secure working agreements with philanthropic organizations, recruit and work with regional industry partners for internship placement and volunteers; and engage community-based organizations for resources and services.  

In our working partnership with the schools, Biotech Partners works out the classroom disciplinary protocol to support teacher instruction and the student’s learning.  Parents and students are given formal mandatory orientations to the programming of Biotech Partners. The orientations are held in the beginning of the academic year (Fall) and in preparation for internship placement (Spring).  Students and Parents are formally introduced to the Program Coordinator and their role; receive a written Biotech Partners Handbook detailing Biotech Partners expectations for student learning of the biotech curricula and qualifications and eligibility for paid internships.  Safety protocols of attire and behavior are addressed and the Improvement Contract is introduced as a non-punitive resource tool to support the students learning.  Students and Parents/Guardians sign off on the protocols.  All students entering the program are on track to become exposed to the science, learn the curriculum; adhere to classroom protocol and access support to qualify and become eligible for the internships. 

During the Co-VID pandemic, the orientations outlining the expectations for student learning were very useful in maintaining and connecting with students to stay on track during distance learning instruction.  

Biotech Partners hands-on curricula is proprietary.   It is “coupled” with a trained teacher who delivers the curriculum within the classroom setting; assisted by a knowledgeable skilled Program Coordinator and vital wrap around services are provided in sustaining a student’s success in attaining a paid internship. The curriculum is reviewed annually by teachers and industry partners to ensure fundamental biotech concepts taught meet industry’s state of the art ever evolving work-based knowledge requirements, i.e., CrisprCas-9 (gene editing) and Bioinfomatics.  The curriculum is filed and meets the State of California’s A-G Requirements and the Next Generation Science Standards.  

Biotech Partners summer internship program is modeled to give the student a real-world experience of attaining employment within the biotech field.  The Program Manager takes the lead to acquire and negotiate the internship opportunity including student’s compensation and requests industry partners to provide job descriptions.  The job description outlines the specific tasks; skills and abilities needed to perform the work either in-person or remote. Job Descriptions are posted on Biotech Partners intranet for student review and application via resume and cover letter. Program Manager submits the resumes and cover letters to the Mentor/Supervisors and coordinates the scheduling of the student interviews with mentor/supervisors.  Mentor/Supervisors interview and select the student.  Students are notified by the industry partner/employer via e-mail that they have been selected for the job.  Students are given a 24/hour window to respond to the job offer. 

Dear Lynda, thank you for the very detailed insight into how the program works. I'm glad to hear about this structure, and that you have experience with replication!

Thank you for the marvelous video ... and for your important work!

Our programs are local to one another!  Berkeley, Oakland, and the Bay Area more widely are base cities for us too.  This video will help us provide recommendations to teachers, students and schools, especially in the East Bay to get to know your program.  Especially students. 

Question:  Does the Biotech Partners take part in the Bay Area Science Festival?

I know Bayer does. Do you share a booth with Bayer; or perhaps have a separate one?Your program is a natural fit.

Since they began over 12 years ago, the Mobile Climate Science Labs have been exhibitors at the Bay Area Science Festival both in San Francisco and the East Bay, as well as the North Bay Science Discover Day.  We highly recommend the events as an incredible opportunity to reach the communities.  They are mass scale STEM education events.

We're now able to do labs remotely, in large part due to our long term relationship with the science festivals and the University of California.  Not sure or not if we all be back at physical science festivals by November 2021.  But, no doubt the will be returning fairly soon now.

Noting connections: 

http://califesciencesinstitute.org/category/new...

https://califesciencesinstitute.org/baybio-conn...

It's a joy to see you here in the STEM for All Video Showcase.  What wonderful neighbors you are, fellow promoters of equity and social justice in STEM careers!