Franklin Institute helping to train next generation of scientists
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- For 200 years, the Franklin Institute has been the place to go for everything from a solar eclipse party to blockbuster exhibitions like The Art of the Brick, the world's largest display of LEGO art.
Restoration of the museum's beloved Baldwin Locomotive is underway and there's a new Wondrous Space display.
But the Franklin Institute is also a place where high school students who are passionate about science can be immersed in real-world learning.
Deanna Torres graduated from the museum's first class of STEM Scholars a decade ago.
Like many of the Franklin's STEM Scholars, Torres was the first in her family to go to college and says the four-year program helped her with everything from SAT prep to networking with scientists and people working in all kinds of STEM fields.
Torres is now an X-ray technician and says it was through the Franklin Institute's STEM Scholars program that she learned about the field of radiology.
The program is free, funded by donors, and it's open to teens who are highly motivated but underserved.
Students generally enter the STEM scholars program as freshmen and stay through their senior year in high school.
Derek Serrano is a senior at W.B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences and part of the Franklin Institute's current class of STEM Scholars.
He wants to study agricultural engineering with a focus on animal genetics.
He says he has always had a love for horses and, in his wildest dreams, he'd like to make history in the field of genetic cloning by cloning the perfect horse.
The Franklin Institute is currently searching for students for its next class of STEM Scholars.
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