PennFERBS gives first-year undergraduates a chance to dive right into biology research.
During her first semester in college last year, Charity Robbins C’27 wasted no time finding research opportunities with labs.
Upon a recommendation from her mentor, she stumbled across PennFERBS (First Exposure to Research in the Biological Sciences), an undergraduate fellowship program focused on “identifying, recruiting, and nurturing the next generation of high-achieving students to serve at the forefront of future scientific leadership,” per a description on its website.
Knowing that the program was for a diverse group of people “who are driven and motivated about science,” Robbins says, “I was like, Please let me in.”
Once she got in as an undergraduate fellow, Robbins felt comfortable with her newfound community of other first-year students she could learn from and share research with. “I was so scared to ask questions,” Robbins admits, but her friends at FERBS—some of whom became her first at Penn—have been instrumental in her journey.
Robbins’ research focuses on damaged mitochondria in astrocytes (a type of brain cell). She was paired with a senior to help guide the research, and she learned how to conduct and adjust experiments based on results, as well as how to analyze data. Unlike some of her classmates in the program, who plan to go to medical school, she’s hoping to be a scientific researcher after college.
Robbins also found that the program has given her a holistic experience of research, as it focuses on turning scientific researchers into leaders. During the spring semester, FERBS requires its students to take courses on topics like leadership and communication in science, and it invites speakers to teach fellows how to present their research in a clear and effective way.
That’s the objective of FERBS, says its director Meckly Pohlschroder—“to train exceptional scholars that reflect the diversity of our society.”
Pohlschroder, a longtime Penn biology professor, founded the PennFERBS program in 2020 as a collaboration between the biology, biochemistry, and biophysics departments. Supported financially by the pharmaceuical company Merck, the program allows undergraduates to gain early experience in research that they are genuinely curious about, with FERBS providing mentors and resources. Recently, the FERBS fellows have also been given the opportunity to teach and share their research with students at a nearby elementary school and at events like last spring’s inaugural PennFERBS Spring Research Symposium, which Pohlschorder hopes develops their critical thinking skills and gives them a head start in the world of biology and science.
Having taught undergraduates for decades, Pohlschroder has seen some “become more self-conscious and not in a good way,” she says. “I think what happens [at FERBS] is we reinforce how amazing they are. They come in their first semester going straight into top-notch labs. These students are working on what many students don’t get to until their senior year.”
Pohlschroder believes the “community part is unique” compared to other research programs, an emphasis spearheaded by Jean-Marie Kouassi WEv’01 SPP’09, the FERBS Director of Community Development and Partnership.
Robbins admits that working with older, more experienced researchers as a first-year student can feel “daunting.” But “that’s something we need to change from the inside out,” she says. “There’s always more work to be done just to make [science] something that can be shared with a community.”
—Hannah Chang C’27