Diving into the Anderson Scholars Experience

Jack Miranda, Staff Writer

While some clubs have had a slow start with adjusting to the new school year, other programs like the Anderson Scholars program have hit the ground running since the very first day of school. The Business Anderson Scholars have had monthly business professionals come in as featured speakers to educate the young entrepreneurs, and both the Business and Science Anderson Scholars have already went on two unique fieldtrips.

The Anderson Scholar program is a 4 years program to help a student further their knowledge and interest in two distinctly different topics. The program is split into Science and Business, and both of these programs have various requirements to complete which can range from easy tasks such as participating in the school’s Stock Market Challenge or attending meetings to daunting tasks such as reaching the semifinals in a business competition or creating your own individual science project to tackle. Mr. Malkin is in charge of the business division while Dr. Laux is in charge of the science component.

An exclusive opportunity for Anderson Scholars is the annual fieldtrip to the Cleveland Medical Innovation Summit at the Cleveland Clinic. Here, students get to listen to medical professionals speak about new research regarding RNA and a panel about the future of healthcare. Moreover, there is a segment devoted to covering the top 10 medical innovations for the year – these innovations were determined by a panel of 100 Cleveland clinic medical professionals. The top ten projects for 2017 included a closed loop insulin delivery system and Scalp cooling for chemotherapy that helps patients keep their hair. When asked about the trip, Nehal Chigurupati explains, “This trip was really interesting. I really liked the panel about RNA research and how the summit allowed the audience to send questions in through twitter which they answered.”

The other fieldtrip was to the Cleveland Public library for the Cleveland Makers Fair. Riley Steiner says, “The Cleveland fair was a great time to learn about local Ohio businesses. I was also really interested in the speaker who talked about how to turn ideas into real businesses.” This speaker was especially helpful to the Business Anderson Scholars. The Science scholars were also interested in the speakers. Neel Agarwal explained, “At the Fair, we got to talk to a tall, dark business man who was researching how to use the biochemistry of termites to get rid of invasive tree species. His command of his subject of interest was frighteningly vast and extensive. He talked about termites with me for almost an hour! I never knew how interesting termites could be!”

Overall, the Anderson Scholars had a fun time pursuing their interests at the two fieldtrips of this year.