When I first heard that the DAASI program placed “low‐performing” students‐‐
who started out in the bottom quartile of their high school class‐‐at Hopkins
research labs for summer internships, I was skeptical. Over the next seven weeks,
I was wowed time and time again by our students. Working with Thread taught
me that the numbers and statistics (grades and attendance records) can be
misleading if you do not take into account issues at home and access to food,
housing and transportation.
Andrew and I spent the first two‐weeks planning an orientation, creating an
employer handbook and communicating with worksites, volunteers and students
to ensure that everything would be ready to start at the end of June. The students
needed TB testing, HIPAA testing and JHEDs/IDs, while the employers needed to
be oriented to how they were to record hours, tardiness and other workplace
concerns. In the first two weeks of the students’ internship, I conducted over 30
site visits checking in on students and their employers, collecting signatures and
forms for transportation, city‐administered workplace assessments and payroll.
For the next three weeks, I facilitated payroll, monitored student progress and
addressed and worked with specific students on problems ranging from tardiness,
engagement, absenteeism and workplace etiquette.
The most memorable moment of this summer was when I walked into a lab and
there was a student who was extracting DNA, running his own gels and
conducting genotypes all from cells he had harvested from mouse tails. When I
told the team back at Thread, one of his previous teachers was shocked: the
student had failed every single class the last semester at his high school. That
moment and many others really cemented in my mind the tremendous value of
what Thread and the DAASI summer internship program was doing for its
students. ‐ Caleb
Tasks:
● Coordinating and supporting 41 high school Thread
students at 35 separate laboratories and medical
administration worksites
● Acting as a facilitator between Thread students and
employers, monitoring attendance, recording hours for
payroll and overseeing discipline with regard to
tardiness, absenteeism and professionalism.
● Reaching out to Site Directors and Thread Family
volunteers addressing student concerns outside the
workplace
● Creating and conducting an orientation for the students,
directing and organizing the first annual Thread Summer
Internship Booklet and helping students prepare for the
culminating Thread Symposium
Community Partner: Thread
Peer Mentor: Caleb Warren
Site Supervisor: Christina Marsh
What is Thread?
Thread uses a “family‐style” approach to foster the transformation of both underperforming high school students and university‐based
Volunteers into self‐motivated, resourceful, and socially aware leaders committed to a higher purpose of their own.
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