BUDDING SCIENTISTS: Princeton High School students Viviana Cristofanilli, standing left, and her twin sister Angelica, standing beside her, ran a Biomedical Immersion Camp for middle schoolers at All Saints’ Church this summer. (Photo courtesy of Viviana Cristofanilli)

By Donald Gilpin

Princeton area students — 11 recognized by Not In Our Town Princeton (NIOT) for promoting racial justice and building inclusivity and two sisters who ran a Biomedical Immersion Camp for middle schoolers this summer — have been making a difference in their communities.

At their 26th annual awards ceremony in June, attended by more than 100 people at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton, NIOT celebrated the eight students and their accomplishments, ranging from lobbying for recognition of the Lunar New Year to the creation of the Diversity Council at Princeton High School (PHS), according to a NIOT press release.

“I want to thank Not In Our Town for highlighting how creative and compassionate our students are,” said Princeton Public Schools (PPS) Superintendent Carol Kelley, who attended the event. “I have been so inspired, not just this evening but in seeing their work. Please continue to support our students because they are absolutely remarkable.”

STUDENTS GIVING BACK: Not In Our Town Princeton recently honored local teens for promoting racial justice and building inclusivity. The honorees include, back row from left, Catarina Elizondo Arevalo, Sofia Alvarez Garcia, Scarlett Yue Chen Liu, Sheena Ash, Kailani Harrison, and Melanie Lamos. In the front row, from left, are Gabe Silverstein, Helena Betru, Rachel Guhathakurta, Cassie Mitova (for Adrian Serieyssol), and Alex Kopaliani. (Photo by Charles Phox).

The following Unity Award winners represent only a fraction of the local young people who are committed to helping to lift up their world:

Sofia Alvarez Garcia, a PHS graduate, was a student leader involved in several organizations at PHS working towards diversity, equity, and inclusion. She was one of the first-ever PHS peer group leaders for a group of English Language Learners (ELL) students.

Catarina Elizondo Arevelo, another PHS graduate, was a leader of the Latinos Unidos Club, helping to initiate the planning for Festival Latino at PHS, and she also served as a member of the Generation 1 Club.

Helena Betru, a Princeton Charter School (PCS) graduate, was a peer leader at PCS who stood up personally against racist behaviors and challenged students who used racist words, according to the NIOT press release.

Kailani Harrison, a rising senior at PHS, became leader of the Bollywood Club this year, which promotes understanding of Indian culture. Harrison worked to recruit dancers from diverse backgrounds and chose themes from various nationalities.  She also mentored younger dancers at Princeton Dance Theater.

PHS graduate Alex Kopaliani helped to create the Diversity Council, a coalition of 13 cultural clubs at PHS, and is co-founder of the PHS Bike Club, which provides bicycles to people who can’t afford new bikes.

PHS rising senior Melanie Lamos is a member of a group of students and teachers that identifies issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion at PHS. She also works with children at a Corner House program called Growing Up as an Accepted Individual in America and is in charge of a tuition-free music mentoring program for Princeton elementary school students where she teaches clarinet.

Scarlett Yue Chen Liu, a Princeton Middle School graduate, personally petitioned the PPS Board of Education to recognize the Lunar New Year as an official holiday. The PPS has declared that it will be a holiday whenever it falls on a weekday. 

Gabe Silverstein, a PHS graduate, was president of the Jewish Club and also active in the Advisory Committee for Diversity and the Jewish Studies Group, working to foster understanding and combat antisemitism on several fronts.  As an intern with the national organization Stand With Us, he spoke at their international conference to an audience of about 400 people.

The NIOT Unity Awards also honored three NIOT youth fellows — Sheena Ash, Rachel Guhathakurta, and Adrian Serieyssol — for their racial justice projects.  The three were mentored by NIOT board members.

Also recognized were four NIOT board members — Joanne Parker, Fern and Larry Spruill, and Shirley Satterfield — and community member Tommy Parker for their racial justice work in the community, particularly with youth.

Biomedical Immersion Camp

Last April two PHS sophomores, twin sisters, listened to their friends talking about working in the summer as local camp counselors, and they decided to do some of their own research.

“We noticed that none of the science camps in the area went past general biology and into specialty fields such as medicine,” Viviana Cristofanilli, now a PHS junior, wrote in an email. “This made us think that it could be a good opportunity to share what we’ve learned about medicine with middle school students who might be interested.”

She continued, “We thought about what we would’ve enjoyed back when we were in middle school, and we wanted to make sure the camp was a very hands-on, low stress environment where interested students would be able to collaborate and learn with their friends and peers. Also we were both looking to continue our science studies and pursue careers in the medical field.”

Viviana wants to become a reconstructive plastic surgeon, her twin sister Angelica a neurosurgeon.

They quickly went to work securing a location, recruiting students, and preparing lectures, labs, and projects. The result was a two-week long Biomedical Immersion Camp attended by 12 middle school campers for two weeks and three additional campers for one week in July from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. five days a week at the All Saints’ Church in Princeton. 

Campers were immersed in lectures on medical issues and topics such as embryonic stem cells, general surgery, bioengineering, reconstructive surgery, and current innovations in medicine. They participated in two interactive labs each day, which included titrations, frog and owl pellet dissections, deriving bismuth metal from Pepto Bismol, and making ice cream using colligative properties.

As a final project campers were divided into groups to prepare presentations that proposed innovative treatments or solutions to address unmet scientific needs. Among the topics addressed by the students were Botox injections for Raynaud’s Syndrome, gravity batteries for homes, lanosterol eye drops for patients with cataracts, and bioprinting organs to address the limited donor availability for transplant surgeries.

“The best thing about this venture was watching the students develop a genuine passion for what they were learning and grow both as scientists and leaders,” said Viviana.

The girls’ parents helped with signing the final rental agreement with All Saints’ Church and with transportation. Otherwise, Angelica and Viviana ran the whole operation.

“We wanted to make the camp affordable enough so that students from all socioeconomic backgrounds would be able to attend,” Viviana wrote. The camp was priced at $300 for the two weeks, which covered the price of rental space and lab materials. Lunch was provided on Fridays, and financial aid was available. 

“It was very exciting to see that many girls were interested and enrolled in the camp, given how medicine and STEM in general have traditionally been male dominated,” Viviana added.

“Everything was great!” one camper wrote. “Angelica and Viviana are more than caring and welcoming. They gave out important information about surgery and medicine, and we even dissected frogs. They also let us make slideshows in groups on topics that interested us, which was really enjoyable. I truly recommend this camp for kids who are interested in science and/or want to grow closer to it.”

Viviana and Angelica are already planning for next summer, definitely continuing the final research project “since that was a great learning opportunity for the campers,” according to Viviana, and including lots of hands-on experiments, which were very popular.  Since many of the campers said they want to return next summer, Viviana and Angelica are creating new lecture and lab ideas, and if, as they hope, there are many more sign-ups for next year, they will enlist some of their friends who are also interested in science to join them as counselors.