UCSF Celebrates City College of San Francisco's Efforts in Biotech Internship Programs

UCSF will be hosting City College of San Francisco (CCSF)‘s bi-annual Biotech Networking Event on Friday, Dec. 17 at UCSF Mission Bay.

Designed to bring together current and future scientists of all backgrounds, this event is run by CCSF Bridge to Biotech students.

These adults from diverse backgrounds - many with no science education - are transitioning to life science research careers through an accelerated year-long training program, called Bridge to Biotech, which includes a semester-long internship in San Francisco Bay Area research labs.

“They infected me with the science bug,” explained Jeanette Wright, a Bridge to Biotech graduate who interned at Prosetta Bioconformatics in the spring 2010 and is now pursuing her education in biotechnology at CCSF.  “I never even thought that I had the skills or, I could gain the skill set to get into a program, or a field of this kind, and I do.”

To be held at Genentech Hall at UCSF Mission Bay from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., the event will feature poster competitions for Bridge to Biotech and stem cell interns, as well as workshops for life science professionals who wish to get involved in training future scientists through teaching or mentoring.

Attendees will have the opportunity to meet scientists from UCSF labs and biotech companies who work with these CCSF programs as mentors or teachers, or have been hired as faculty at CCSF, and UCSF supporters like UCSF’s Lab Manager Steering Committee, which helped bring the event to UCSF.
Visitors will also hear about projects such as BayBio’s Bio-Community.org, UCSF’s Science Education Exchange (SEE), or Upwardly Global, which strive to bridge these life science communities.

Interested mentors will have the opportunity to meet future interns and interview them for upcoming internships, which are scheduled to start first week of February.

UCSF employees interested in joining the program, which includes night and weekend classes, are invited to attend the afternoon workshops and meet the program coordinators.

About CCSF’s Bridge to Biotech’s Internship Program

After offering a semester-long training in math, science, and lab skills through the Bridge to Biotech, the program places students in four-month part-time (10-20 hours a week) unpaid internships in Bay Area labs and biotech companies.

Most of these internships are lab assistant or lab technician-level positions in research labs and companies. After their internships, CCSF graduates seek part-time or full-time lab assistant or technician positions while they continue their training at City College of San Francisco, to acquire the Biotechnology Certificates and AS degree in Biotechnology.

Related Link:


CCSF Lab Assistant Certificate Program