Twenty-five students from eight different undergraduate and community college programs have joined the Institutional Development Award Program (IDeA) Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE)/ Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN) program.
Established in 2001, the BRIN program was created to expose students to serious biomedical research, build a statewide biomedical research infrastructure between undergraduate and graduate institutions and to strengthen undergraduate institution’s infrastructure and increase its capacity to conduct cutting-edge biomedical and behavioral research.
Today, we meet Katie Langenfeld, one of the new BRIN scholars on campus.
What should we know about you?
I will be junior undergrad next year at the University of Nebraska Kearney, where I major in biology and minor in psychology. I play the bassoon and the clarinet, am in the UNK band, am in the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority and am in the Honors Program at UNK and am on the Honors Student Advisory Board.
What or who influenced your interest in science?
Ever since I was little, I liked examining things in nature like bugs and flowers. For some reason, science has always been the subject I find most interesting, especially biological sciences. The person who most influenced my interest was my sixth grade biology teacher. Her classroom was very engaging, with colorful posters all over the walls and animals to look at in the room. She really loved science and helped us to love it, too.
What is it about science that excites you?
Figuring out or learning how things work excites me most.
Will you pursue a career in science? If so, what do you hope to accomplish?
I most likely will pursue a career in science. I would like to have a career that could somehow benefit the health of either other people or animals, either indirectly through research or directly through clinical care.
Why is it important to have programs like BRIN?
It really helps students immerse themselves in a field they might be interested in.