Students in the TST BOCES New Visions Program can make the most of their senior year in high school by partnering with select Cornell University research and extension programs. Two Lehman Alternative Community School students, Cosmo Wessell and Warachi Medina, seized this opportunity to engage in hands-on research in the Nutrient Management Spear Program (NMSP). Read about the impact the New Visions and NMSP had on their career goals.
The honors-level New Visions Program caters to high school seniors who wish to dive deeper into engineering, medical sciences or applied life sciences. Maureen Zorn, the New Visions’ Life Sciences and Applied Scientific Research teacher, said: “We want to send well-rounded individuals out into the world. Students get exposed to a wide variety of learning experiences, from the classroom to the laboratory, to a professional setting.”
Several Cornell University programs within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences take on New Visions students, offering them the opportunity to participate in professional development sessions and work in faculty programs.
Wessell and Medina joined the NMSP in October 2022 after approaching Quirine Ketterings, professor of nutrient management in CALS and team leader of NMSP, with a request to join the team and learn more about applied research in nutrient management.
“When Warachi and Cosmo emailed me, they indicated their interest in our work and gaining skills in field and laboratory research,” Ketterings said. “I met with the students and Maureen to discuss our projects, and it was quickly clear that our rainfall simulation and greenhouse gas emission studies would fit their interests really well.”
“When she explained the different work that she was doing, I was caught immediately,” said Medina.
Wessell agreed, saying that he loved working on projects having to do with sustainability. “Pretty much for as long as I can remember, every time I’ve had a chance to choose what a project is about, I’ve chosen something around climate change,” he said. Both students wanted to “not just further, but explore” their interest in science, research and the environment.
On their first day, Wessell and Medina joined Bhupinder Jatana, then a postdoctoral researcher with the NMSP, to take soil samples at the Cornell University Ruminant Center in Harford, New York. While working on Jatana’s rainfall simulation project, the students collected soil samples and processed them at the laboratory.
