In 2014 Drs. Zoe and Michael Draelos decided to do something about the declining numbers of students choosing a STEM career path. Zoe Draelos, MD, a research dermatologist, and Michael Draelos, MD, a clinical gastroenterologist, recognized the value of science as a tool to improve the human condition and so, with the help of the High Point Community Foundation, developed a donor-directed fund to expose high school students to the inner workings of a research environment.

As a high school recipient of an NSF-funded research grant to study algal lake contamination in upstate NY herself, Zoe understood the power such experience can have on career aspirations. In combination with high school counselors, university administrators, and university professors, the Draelos family developed a program to identify high school students with a passion for science and pair them with a university professor for a research-based summer internship.

The Draelos Science Scholars program has funded and placed over 100 rising juniors and seniors from ten different area high schools into labs at HPU, UNCG, JSNN, and Wake Forest University. As participating members of an active research team for about 6 weeks, these  students become familiar with the research environment, its challenges, successes, and rewards, and learn valuable technical skills. Many of these students continue in the STEM field, and some have secured admission to prominent universities and prestigious scholarships.

Providing professors with access to highly qualified and motivated students, the program also seeks to foster mentoring relationships that in many cases long survive the summer rotation. Indeed, several students have continued to pursue research in their mentor’s lab at the  undergraduate level and others keep in contact with their mentors for years after the program’s completion.

The Draelos Science Scholars program has proved beneficial to students and professors alike, successfully stimulating student interest and participation in the STEM fields. The Draelos remain committed to maintaining this program and, in collaboration with their university  partners, hope to see the Program continue to grow into the foreseeable future.