Most students wait through several years of college for the chance to work side-by-side with the cutting edge researchers at the University of California, San Diego, but a special pre-college program made it possible for a handful of high school students to spend part of their summer doing just that.

One of the students, enrolled in the Academics Connections program designed to give high school students from around the world a taste of college life, was the first person in the world to fold bovine thrombin, a protein that has been used in surgeries to prevent excessive bleeding and is now being looked at for its contribution to keeping cholesterol at healthy levels.

“It wasn’t Mickey Mouse stuff that the kids worked on,” said Elizabeth Komives, a professor who leads a team of biochemistry researchers at UC San Diego. “They worked on real projects our academic scholars are researching now, in the labs.”

The university’s Extension division held a graduation ceremony in July to celebrate their achievements, both in the scholastic programs and in being away from home and living as college students for the first time.

“You are real, successful college students now, and you are part of the Triton family,” Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Penny Rue told the students. “You have to realize how you can be changed by new experiences.”

For three weeks students, from as far away as Italy and as close as Chula Vista, studied subjects ranging from anthropology to youth culture while they learned to be responsible for their schedules and laundry, and to live with some of the freedom of college dorm life while they were getting their school work done and done well.

The Academic Connections program began 10 years ago and has evolved into a highly sought after way to try college life and academic plans. About 450 students applied for the program’s 300 spots.

“We try to make a program where we connect our students with some of the most brilliant minds at our university,” said Ed Abeyta, director of K-16 programs and Academic Connections at UC San Diego Extension.

Academic Connections students chose from 25 courses of study, ranging from journalism and social work to bioinformatics and marine microbiology. Each area of study completed projects, including mock-ups demonstrating brain function and video studies for a global epidemiology course that are now posted on YouTube.

For the first time this year, the program offered high school students the rare opportunity to work side-by-side with scientists engaged in hands-on research.           

Komives organized a team of faculty researchers and scholars who worked with students registered in the Thrill of (Scientific) Discovery Research program, where 10 students were assigned to work one-on-one with the university’s best biology, biochemistry and chemistry scholars in their labs, rather than as a group in classrooms.           

Komives, who is very involved in leadership programs and especially programs that guide young women towards the sciences, said that the care put into the Academic Connections program made her role easy. She recruited faculty members to take on students, and the faculty stepped up.

“The program worked because Extension vetted the applicants and I matched them to faculty members who could teach them something important,” Komives said. “Every student was happy with what they got to do and the faculty members were very impressed with the students’ abilities.” 

Komives said that working with Abeyta was easy because they shared the same goals and values.

“Ed and I bonded over increasing the diversity at UC San Diego and in the high sciences, where there isn’t enough diversity yet,” Komives said, noting that half the students in the engineering and science programs were women and that Latinos were strongly represented.

The semester ended July 31, with students working on projects for grades — and up to six credits with the UC San Diego Extension. They also grew towards adulthood.

“The homesickness passed and new friendships have been made,” said Marciano Perez, resident dean. “We hope you find these students a little smarter, a lot wiser and ready to excel.”

The teens who took the marine microbiology, microbial oceanography and ecology, and climate change courses met and studied under Tony Haymet, the director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who spoke at their graduation.

“The students were smart, funny and kind,” Haymet told the graduates and their families. “You worked hard, you’ve soaked up as much of the experience as possible. There’s plenty of intelligent life here in this room — thank you for sharing your vitality and fearlessness with us.”