When Carolina Noriega joined the KEYS Research Internship at the BIO5 Institute in 2018, she was an ambitious 11th grader from Douglas, a small border town located about 120 miles southeast of Tucson. She brought with her a love of science and an awareness of its vastness.

Eight years later, Noriega is on the other side of the desk, mentoring KEYS interns and grading their assignments. Now a Ph.D. student in human development and family sciences studying how cultural, societal and familial factors shape the psychological wellbeing of Hispanic/Latinx adolescents, Noriega traces much of her research career back to that first summer in the KEYS program.

Image

"As a student from a small town with no laboratory facilities and technologies that they have here at the U of A, I was very new to everything," Noriega said.

KEYS, short for Keep Engaging Youth in Science, is a seven-week summer internship where high school students work on real-world projects across different areas of science. The program recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. 

As a KEYS intern, Noriega worked in the lab of Patricia Stock, professor emeritus and the former director of the School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences, in an advanced microbiology project. The study focused on soil-dwelling microscopic roundworms that deploy bacteria to kill insects in their surrounding environment.

For a student with no prior research experience, bacteria and roundworms were brand new to her first. With help from her mentors and program alumni, Noriega got a handle on the subject within days.

By the end of her internship, Noriega had prepared an entire poster laying out the background of her research project, its methodology and its findings.

"I remember showing the poster to a KEYS crew member who was working with me, and they were like, 'Oh my god, this is so great!' I was jumping with joy," Noriega said. 

From introvert to public speaker

Noreiga's time at KEYS did not shape her just as a researcher. It helped her evolve from a shy student who hesitated to ask questions to someone who confidently presents her own work at conferences.

"When I showcased my poster to the public at the end of the KEYS program, I didn't believe what I just did at that time," Noriega said. 

Image

After KEYS, Noriega finished her high school and studied biology at Cochise College, a community college in Douglas. In early 2022, she returned to the U of A – this time as an undergraduate student in the Department of Psychology. She got accepted into the SuRRF lab, or the Social Risk and Resilience Factors lab, which sparked her interest in questionnaire-based studies and people-centered research. 

Though the subject of her research was entirely different from the research she did during her time at KEYS, Noriega said the scientific literacy she picked up during the KEYS internship carried over into her graduate research.

"There were so many lab meetings where new research concepts were introduced to me, and I was like, 'Oh, I know that.'Undergrads wouldn't necessarily know about mediation or moderation, for example," Noriega said. 

Back where it started

This summer marks Noriega's fourth year as a KEYS mentor. She will grade assignments of the interns, which includes written descriptions of their projects and poster designs. Also, as a student assistant, she will help plan social events where interns can get to know one another. 

"As a KEYS staff member, I'm able to learn how to mentor other interns, learn how to talk to and motivate them," Noreiga said. "Most importantly, I love teaching other students, which is something I hope to take with me into my Ph.D. program."

Read more KEYS 20th anniversary stories on the BIO5 website:

• Coming full circle: Alexis Cruickshank-Taylor
• What happens when you trust high school students with research?