Each year, interns and trainees from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) education and training programs celebrate achievements, whether that’s making new discoveries in their cell and gene therapy research or advancing to the next phase of their professional journey.  

This summer, Rashi Ranjan—a former SPARK high school intern—is celebrating her graduation from University of Pittsburgh, where she worked diligently to complete a Bachelor of Science in Computational Biology and a Bachelor of Arts in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies.

A Unique High School Internship Experience

Rashi participated in the CIRM-funded SPARK internship at City of Hope in the summer of 2019, which she says was a major influence on the trajectory of her studies.  

SPARK, also known as the Summer Program to Accelerate Regenerative Medicine Knowledge, offers California high school students an invaluable opportunity to gain hands-on training in stem cell research at some of the leading research institutes in California. Rashi—a student at Leland High School in San Jose during her internship—is one of hundreds of students across California to participate since the program’s launch in 2012. 

During her summer internship, Rashi spent her time in the City of Hope lab analyzing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences to find the efficacy of CAR-T cell therapy treated glioblastoma, the most common primary brain tumor in adults. At the end of the program, she presented her research project at the SPARK annual conference and on social media.

“Learning to perform image segmentation was no easy feat,” Rashi wrote in a 2019 blog about her internship experience. “Even after two months of studying a brain and identifying the different components, I can revisit a study I finished working on three hours ago and find something I missed. Even though I’m not a radiologist, I’ve learned the power of immunotherapy in an era of precision imaging.”

Her CIRM and City of Hope internship experience inspired a new passion alongside research: storytelling in science.

During college, Rashi worked for her school’s newspaper and Massive Science, a science storytelling publication that aims to make research articles easier to understand to the public. At Massive Science, she wrote articles that made complex science more accessible to readers.

Throughout her college years, she continued to conduct research in labs, including immunology and cell and gene therapy, sharing updates on her social media account along the way. 

Now, she is preparing to work full-time as she decides on her next education journey. 

“CIRM’s SPARK internship and City of Hope gave me the confidence to reach out to professors about topics I didn’t know about and get involved in research, and I attribute those early experiences to my wanting to study and work towards a PhD in the future,” says Rashi.

About CIRM’s Education & Training Programs 

CIRM’s education and training programs support the next generation of regenerative medicine scientists, ranging from high school and undergrad students to doctoral candidates and clinical fellows.   
 
CIRM funds four unique internship programs, each with its own set of requirements: SPARK (high school), Bridges (Undergraduate and Masters), COMPASS (Undergraduate), and Scholars (Pre-Doctoral, Post-Doctoral, and Clinical Fellows).  

Each program offers hands-on experience to foster a workforce adept in stem cell science and the technical skills that are crucial for present and future scientific and medical advancements.