This month, UConn Health hosted more than 150 high school science standouts from 35 schools across the state for the 56th annual Connecticut Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS). The symposium was organized by the Connecticut Area Health Education Center.<\/p>\n
A select group of the participants presented original research at the symposium and competed for prizes including scholarships and cash awards. This year\u2019s topics ranged from stabilizing vaccine storage and delivery to honey bee collapse recovery using a new method to kill mites to evaluating the effects of e-cigarettes.<\/p>\n
Five of the top finishers earned a paid trip to the national JSHS in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in April, where they will present their research.<\/p>\n
The first place Connecticut JSHS finisher is Raina Jain, Greenwich High School, for her research \u201cControl of Varroa Destructor Infestation with a Dual-Function, Thymol-Emitting Honey Bee Hive Entranceway.\u201d Jain has been offered the University of Connecticut\u2019s Junior Science and Humanities Symposium Scholarship, which provides recipients one half of the in\u2010state tuition for each of four years, or a total of over $27,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cJSHS brings high achieving high school students to campus and helps prepare them for a career in STEM fields by giving them authentic experiences learning about all kinds of STEM fields,\u201d says Joy Erickson, director of Connecticut JSHS.<\/p>\n
All the young people who participated, either as competitors or observers, toured UConn Health\u2019s research labs, participated in hands\u2010on science and humanities activities and learned about careers in health and research.<\/p>\n
Participants also heard a research presentation by keynote speaker Olga Anczukow-Camarda, assistant professor at The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, on \u201cWhere the Silver Screen Meets the Genome: Exploiting RNA Splicing for Cancer Therapeutics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cConnecticut\u2019s annual symposium is a true collaboration between multiple partners to support and nurture STEM and health careers exploration, say Petra Clark-Dufner, associate director of the Connecticut Area Health Education Center.<\/p>\n
JSHS is organized by the National Science Teachers Association with the sponsorship of the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force to encourage young people to pursue careers in STEM and to provide recognition for their achievements. About 10,000 secondary students nationwide participate through 47 university\u2010based regional symposia.<\/p>\n
Students from the following high schools and programs participated this year:<\/p>\n
Academy of Aerospace & Engineering<\/p>\n
Amity Regional High School<\/p>\n
Bethel High School<\/p>\n
Bridgeport Regional Aquaculture Science & Technology Education Center<\/p>\n
Central Connecticut State University TRiO Programs<\/p>\n
Coginchaug Regional High School<\/p>\n
Conard High School<\/p>\n
Danbury High School<\/p>\n
Darien High School<\/p>\n
East Granby High School<\/p>\n
Enfield High School<\/p>\n
E.O. Smith High School<\/p>\n
Farmington High School<\/p>\n
Glastonbury High School<\/p>\n
Greens Farms Academy<\/p>\n
Greenwich High School<\/p>\n
Hamden Hall Country Day School<\/p>\n
Hamden High School<\/p>\n
Hopkins School<\/p>\n
Joel Barlow High School<\/p>\n
Killingly High School<\/p>\n
Manchester High School<\/p>\n
Mercy High School<\/p>\n
Middletown High School<\/p>\n
New Britain High School<\/p>\n
Newington High School<\/p>\n
Newtown High School<\/p>\n
O.H. Platt High School<\/p>\n
Putnam High School<\/p>\n
Ridgefield High School<\/p>\n
Staples High School<\/p>\n
Thomaston High School<\/p>\n
The Williams School<\/p>\n
Wesleyan University Upward Bound Math\/Science<\/p>\n
Westbrook High School<\/p>\n
Weston High School<\/p>\n
Wolcott High School<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This month, UConn Health hosted more than 150 high school science standouts from 35 schools across the state for the 56th annual Connecticut Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS). The symposium was organized by the Connecticut Area Health Education Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":129763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1868],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[175],"class_list":["post-148051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meds"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 21:06:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/129763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148051"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=148051"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=148051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}