Season 2 Episode 11: Meet BioBuilder Presley Simelus

In this interview, Presley notes how they haven’t seen a single program or organization that is similar to BioBuilder. Presley would know, given the range of programs that they have engaged in.

Presley is currently an 11th grade student at Prospect Hill Academy Charter School in Cambridge, MA. The first BioBuilder experience for Presley came as an 8th grader through an exploratory program BioBuilder ran in the Learning Lab @ LabCentral. After a 9th grade “zoom only” year that included a virtual biology class, Presley joined BioBuilder’s High School Apprenticeship Challenge as a 10th grader. This was the program that gave them lots of hands-on lab training and reinforced their interest in molecular biology. Their Apprenticeship biodesign project was an at-home HIV test. Though Presley came into the Apprenticeship thinking they would pursue a political science in college, the BioBuilder experience shifted their ambitions to study biochemistry in college.

Their experience as an Apprentice has led to additional professional experiences during high school, notably a three week summer internship at Tufts Medical Center in a research lab studying cholera. This year, Presley kicked off the all-new BioBuilder Student Ambassador program, presenting BioBuilder’s opportunities to other students at Prospect Hill Academy Charter School and recording a lab training video for this year’s BioBuilderClub teams. 

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