Uche Agwai
Class of 2006
Gworge Washington Carver High School
Topic: Woody Genera of Metropolitan New York Area
Research Paper (pdf)
Lecture Notes (pdf)
About:
My name is Uche Agwai; I attend George Washington Carver High School for the sciences. I first heard of the Harlem Children Society from my science teacher Ms Lawson. She informed me of what a wonderful internship this would be. I viewed it as a program that would be a great opportunity for me to enhance my career in the medical field. As an individual constantly searching for challenges, I new I had found my match. When I discovered I had to go through a one on one interview by the founder of the H.C.S program Dr. Sat Bhattacharya I was extremely nervous, also I new that there were going to be many students looking forward to working in this program as well. He wanted to know about my family background, my future career and my education. It wasn’t exactly what I had expected - I had it behind my head that it would be very tough with difficult questions asked. After the interview I found myself feeling relaxed because the questions asked were basically about my life.
I will forever feel grateful to be a part of this research program. In the summer of 2006 I participated in a summer research at Brooklyn Botanic Garden assigned to me by HCS. I worked with my mentor Dr. Gerry Moore in the project interactive keys to the woody plants of the New York metropolitan area. It is basically about designing a key on all the woody plants in the metropolitan region, which could be linked to the Brooklyn botanic web page. The procedure was quite complicated and challenging, but I had a lot of fun with my mentor and the other interns working there as well. Various people presented lectures every Thursday from different career fields and also students participating in the program. These lectures have helped me to extract knowledge, and understanding pertaining to my choice of career, it has also changed the way I view the whole aspect of life.
This internship with Harlem children society has blessed me with the exact aspect of science that any science student could ever dream about, that is getting to work with brilliant mentors in a high equipped laboratory allowing you to experience what its all about. Harlem children society has been the most exciting internship that I have ever undergone and has been totally worth it.