H R NG ADVERTISING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Northview High School presents Interschool Genetics Symposium

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — More than 50 students, parents and residents gathered at the Johns Creek Chamber of Commerce for a student-led Interschool Genetics Symposium March 18.

The event, hosted by the Northview High School Genetics Engineering Club, aimed to create awareness of careers in genetics and science, technology, engineering and mathematics – or STEM.

Club founder and President Vaishali Prahalad said she and the club organized the event to interest students in STEM by showcasing how a future in the fields could look. The symposium featured a Q&A session with three professionals in medicine and genetics.

Prahalad said she had been conceiving the symposium for months, and the club had worked hard to put it together.

“Being able to share what we have put together was really, really meaningful and powerful,” Prahalad said. “And I hope that in the future, we will keep continuing to get people to commit and dedicate themselves toward science.”

The panel included 10X Genomics Science and Technology Advisor Nirav Patel, Emory University School of Medicine genetic counselor Lauren Lichten and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Rheumatology Fellow Dr. Christian Oliveros. All fielded questions from students and parents on internships, opportunities and how to get started in STEM fields.

Johns Creek Mayor John Bradberry, who inaugurated the event, said life science and biosciences have a strong and growing presence in the city.

“I feel like this is a very auspicious occasion,” Bradberry said, “because, you know, basically what this represents to me is that our community, especially at the student level, is hand in glove with what we're attempting to do at the city level.”

Bradberry said Boston Scientific is coming to the Town Center’s Innovation Hub later this year, and the city will repurpose the water reclamation plant at Cauley Creek Park into a STEM playground this summer.

“That is something that, whether it's going to be robotics or something related to art or engineering, that is going to be a place that, of course, you can enjoy the fun parts of the park,” Bradberry said. “But there, you'll be able to actually have a space where you can pursue your extracurricular intellectual endeavors as well.”

Greg Hampikian, founder of the Idaho Innocence Project, presented via Zoom on the use of genetics in exoneration efforts in Georgia and across the country.

The event concluded with a student-led interactive game in which participants used their phones to design a baby using CRISPR, a genome editing technology. Students in the Genetics Engineering Club also shared recent projects.

Students interested in starting a genetics engineering club at their school can reach Prahalad at vaishali. prahalad@gmail.com for more information.