Lataviya Brady's Introduction to TRIP by Lataviya Brady

Hello, my name is Lataviya, I am a rising Senior at Roxborough High school. Since 10th grade I’ve been in the Health and Science Research Academy at the school. The Academy includes the two pathways Biotechnology and Kinesiology. I happen to be in the pathway Biotechnology, a technology used to make living organisms better. So I heard about the program through my Biotechnology teacher, Mrs. Thompson. Fox Chase came into the Biotech lab and showed different lab groups how to make elephant toothpaste. My groups elephant toothpaste was not activating so we watched another groups experiment.

After the small lesson, someone of the Fox Chase team showed the class a PowerPoint about TRIP Initiative. At first I thought I wasn't going to get in due to how competitive it was but I was most definitely interested in how fruit flies react to different types of products. So while the whole "Getting into the program" process was going through, my Biotech teacher thought me and a few other students were perfect for the program. And here I am now.
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Before my first day at the program, I was a little nervous but also excited about working with flies and meeting the other students in the program. On my first day I was nervous but felt more comfortable throughout. I got to know others by actually interacting with them. On the second day, we learned how to distinguish between male flies and female flies. After some time I got the hang of it and started distinguishing flies just by how they look. After that, I put 15 males and 15 females per 4 vials. In another lab activity I distinguished mutations some flies had under a microscope. After that we went into a room to meet the other students from the Afternoon slot. We all drew different comics of how we saw and interpreted a alumni’s presentation. I found out that every single one of us has a different idea on how we can interpret our understanding of something.

​Overall, it was very enjoyable to do, forgetting about how fast 5 hours went by.