WCMC-Q students complete mentoring programme in US

A group of 11 students in the pre-medical programme at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) has completed the 2013 Student Summer Research Programme (SSRP) in Ithaca, US recently. Another four of their classmates have completed the same programme in the Doha campus.The prestigious mentoring programme is aimed at talented students interested in a future research career. The SSRP provides a mentored 10-week biomedical experience for second-year pre-medical students. It offers students the opportunity to experience the life of a full-time scientist in an active research laboratory. They spend the entire 10 weeks at an assigned laboratory where they work on a research project.The students also have to present a research seminar and poster, write an abstract, submit progress reports and then submit their research findings to mentors at WCMC-Q.‘This is an intensive career building programme. It is aimed at high performing students who are looking towards a future career in biomedical research,” said Yassir Hussain, the nationals training programme co-ordinator at WCMC-Q.“This is a perfect introduction for students interested in scientific research. They are introduced to a functioning lab and they experience working in some of the finest scientific laboratories in the world among the most talented international scientists,” he added.A group of eight WCMC-Q medical students are in the final stages of completing a similar programme in New York City. The students have spent eight weeks working in a laboratory, attending seminars and preparing a presentation. Four of their classmates are completing the same programme in Doha, which will get finished tomorrow.The summer research programme is fully funded and participants are provided with a stipend that covers travel, accommodation and incidentals.