By JIM FAILE

Three students from the S.C. Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics (GSSM) shared a brief glimpse of their experiences working as summer research interns at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg and helped welcome to GSSM three German exchange students who will spend the next six weeks engaged in similar research with the University of South Carolina.

The six students are part of the second year of GSSM’s Research Exchange Scholars Program, an international collaborative among the Governor’s School, Johanna Wittum Schule in Pforzheim, Germany, F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd. and Greenville Hospital System.

The program’s academic partners include the German Cancer Research Center and USC.

During the six-week internship program, the three GSSM students conducted college-level research in areas including applied microbiology, botany and cyto- and neurophysiology.

GSSM senior Nicole Beraho of Irmo told fellow GSSM students during an assembly Tuesday that the six-week stint was one of the greatest experiences of her life.

She said their German host families accepted her and her fellow GSSM students from the outset of their visit. “We had no trouble fitting in with the German students,” she said.

Griffin Hartman of Seneca said he expected to learn a lot about Germany. He just didn’t know how much he would learn, he said.

“By the end of the six weeks, I just fell in love with the country,” Hartman said.

He said the three were treated like family. “We all felt extremely accepted,” Hartman said.
Hartman wants to study in the field of neuroscience.

He said that while in Germany the students had an opportunity to visit two Roche facilities and said he learned more about the company and what it looks for in employees.

Hartman said the experience was his first working in a research lab. Imagine five people all from different countries in a science lab jumping around in excitement over something they’ve viewed in a microscope, he said.

“I learned many things about the people and their culture,” said Mason Youngblood of Hartsville, who wants to pursue a career in biological research.

“I returned home with so much more than I went with,” Youngblood said. “I collected many new friends and memories.”

The students were in Germany during the World Cup Soccer Championship. They said watching the matches with their hosts and fellow students proved exciting.

The three German students who will be residing at the Governor’s School working as research interns alongside USC professors whose projects cover a broad spectrum of topics in cell and molecular biology are Isabelle Fix, Janine Riegert and Susan Vester, all of Pforzheim.

The International Research Exchange Scholars Program is supported by Roche, the founding fund provider for the program, and by the Greenville Hospital system, which joined as a sponsor this year.

GSSM President Dr. Murray Brockman recalled that when he and others from the Governor’s School started talking about such a program several years ago, many scoffed at the idea. “But we did it,” he said.

“We lead the way,” Brockman said of GSSM.

“Today, science is truly an international undertaking,” Brockman said.

He said the success of the program in its first two years demonstrates that there is no limit to what South Carolina high school students can accomplish.

Dr. Jurgen Braun of Johanna Wittum Schule said the program helps equip young people who will make major breakthroughs in scientific research in years to come. “It is an opportunity for young people from both countries to come together and work together in one of the most important scientific fields of our time,” he said.

Dr. Frank Cox, president and general manager of Roche in the U.S., said the program fits with what Roche represents. “Roche is all about innovation,” he said.

“Companies that are innovative moving into the future will live to see it,” he said. Countries that are innovative and visionary as they move into the future will survive; those that aren’t won’t, he said.

Research, he said, holds the key to a better life and a better world for everyone.

“The cure for cancer is not just going to fall into somebody’s lap,” Fox said.

“The things you learned can’t be taught in a textbook, they can’t be taught in a classroom,” Fox said.

“We look at this as an investment, an investment in bright young minds,” he said.

Greenville Hospital System also sees the program as an investment, said Al Squire, manager of workforce development for Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center.

“The hospital’s mission is to transform health care for the benefit of the communities we serve,” he said.

He said the program represents the cutting edge of training young people to be global leaders in scientific and medical research.

“The origin of many great miracles begins with young minds,” Squire said. “That is where our future is. I’m looking at it.”

Randy LaCross, vice president for outreach for GSSM, said the program is one of many ways in which the school is having an impact across the state and country and around the world.

“GSSM is impacting hundreds of teachers and thousands of students each year,” LaCross said. “Working together, we can continue to expand that impact.”

LaCross said the support of companies and institutions like Roche and Greenville Hospital System is significant and sends a powerful message. “These are organizations that understand the importance of investing in our most valuable resource – students,” he said.

GSSM is a two-year, public, residential high school in Hartsville specializing in the advanced study of science and mathematics. Over its 20-year history, the school has graduated more than 1,200 alumni from every county in South Carolina.

Its residential program serves 128 high school juniors and seniors a year with a concentrated study of science and math with rigorous courses in the humanities.

Newsweek and The Washington Post have ranked GSSM among the Top 20 “public elite” high schools in the country.

The Johanna Wittum Schule has 1,250 pupils, including 180 in its biotechnology track, and since it was founded has become a competence and mentoring center of national standing for biotechnology in schools.

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. It is the world’s largest biotech company with differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS.

Greenville Hospital System is a not-for-profit academic health organization committed to medical excellence through research and education and is accredited by the Joint Commission of Accreditation of Hospital Organizations. Its five campuses provide integrated healthcare to communities across Greenville County and beyond.