Taliyana Ferguson using a microscope to isolate zebrafish during their internship in the bioengineering department at UMass Dartmouth

While most high school students were taking a break from education, tribal member and New Bedford High School student Taliyana Ferguson was learning about embryos and DNA as an intern in the bioengineering department at UMass Dartmouth.

It was an exciting summer job for Taliyana and a handful of other students who were able to learn from college professors specializing in bioengineering. It was a program specifically designed to help prepare the students for a future career.

Taliyana is now a senior at New Bedford High School and signed up for the program because she wants to be a neo-natal nurse and possibly a teacher’s assistant.

It wasn’t her original plan to get into biotechnology. Still, she said she started getting into it because it gives her more of a medical background and will be helpful in the future if she tries something new or goes in a different direction.

UMass Dartmouth Chairman of Bioengineering Department, Tracie Ferreira, outlines the days work that Taliyana Ferguson will perform during her internship in the bioengineering department at UMass Dartmouth

“I heard that there was an internship, and I thought why not try it out,” she said. “I tried this out, and we ended up doing things that I was actually interested in. I got really into the blood banking and the hematology, and it gave me a look on other medical things that sparked my interest that I probably wouldn’t even have thought of if I didn’t join in.”

In addition to her work in the lab, Taliyana could go on field trips to visit UMass Dartmouth’s Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Mass Biologics.

The internship was designed to give students like Taliyana, skills that make them employable and the technical skills needed today in the life sciences and biotech industry.