Big Business Helping Teens

Biogen Idec Community Labs Model

By Teri Brown

In 2005, Bill Gates blasted the state of America's high schools, calling them "broken, under funded and obsolete." Gates proposes high schools that emphasize the three Rs: rigor, relevance and relationships. Such school innovation relies heavily on the surrounding business community for implementation.

Biogen Idec, a company whose research focuses on oncology, neurology and immunology, sets the standard for businesses looking to give back to their community. Their community labs for students in Cambridge, Mass., and San Diego, Calif., are models for other companies wanting to enhance the local school district's curriculum. Their community lab programs have reached out to thousands of middle and high school students, giving them a chance to work alongside some of the world's finest researchers.

The program offers class visits, professional development seminars for teachers and student mentoring programs. In 2006,more than2,238 students participated in the classes, and 106 classes visited the community lab. The program was the brain child of Biogen Idec's CEO and President Jim Mullen, who believes it's imperative for companies to help improve scientific literacy and education because of the poor performance of U.S. students on science and math tests.

Tracy Callahan, director of the community lab program, says that the program has grown even broader since its inception. "The original plan was to have one-day class visits a couple of times a week and to run some sort of summer program," she says. "What has evolved is having classes most days and an advanced two-week summer session for students who wanted to learn even more than the one-week summer program. The science project mentoring program evolved from an initial request from a teacher for mentors for her students."

Bringing students into a real, professional setting first captures their attention, and then the hands-on aspect of the lab activity holds it. Callahan believes that "doing" science rather than just reading about it or watching demonstrations really helps some kids understand the basic concepts better. The students get to meet real scientists and biotech professionals. Seeing scientists as real people can have a big impact on students who may have never met a scientist before.

It had an impact on Jessica Tse, a second year student at Wellesly College. She enjoyed the first-hand lab experience she obtained at the community lab and invested many hours into her work there. "The Biogen experience also taught me how to articulate and express my findings to the scientific community," she says. "It enabled me to work one-on-one with a mentor to develop a project of my own given the information I learned from school. I think that's what made it so rewarding, that I got one-on-one attention and learned the techniques well. The experience made such an impact in my life that I decided to pursue a major in biochemistry at Wellesley College."

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