Rise Up: Northeast Ohio

Thank you to the host scientists and PIs who opened their labs and invested in the next generation of researchers. Your mentorship makes all the difference!

From running Western blots and PCR for genotyping to performing dissections and assisting with ongoing research projects, they gained hands-on experience that will shape their future in STEM. 🔬🧬🧪

🎉 Help us congratulate our second group of Rise Up Scholars this summer! 🎉

These incredible students spent their summer internships at Case Western Reserve University, working side-by-side with research scientists.

Throughout the month of July, we worked with rising 1st through 5th graders in a hands-on classroom setting designed to spark early interest in science.

We were thrilled to welcome over 400 curious and enthusiastic young students to our summer sessions at Archbishop Lyke School in Cleveland, hosted in partnership with Open Doors Academy!

These accomplished young women continue to make their make on the world!

Frambelys, Janiya, and Zoey have all complete our Life as a Scientist program with authorship in the 2024 and 2025 editions of the Journal of Young Scientists. Their research projects have explored various topics like CBD, compost, bioluminescent plants, caffeine and sleep deprivation.

Our second set of amazing Rise Up Scholars have begun their internships at Case Western Reserve University!

We also had a special reunion with a Life as a Scientist alum and rising sophomore at Kenyon College, who-thanks to a connection with one of our amazing volunteers-landed a summer job in the lab!

We’re so proud of all these students and can’t wait to see where their journeys take them next.

This incredible group of students spent the last few weeks immersed in real lab research-learning new techniques, collaborating with lab teams, and contributing to ongoing scientific projects. Their curiosity, dedication, and teamwork was an asset to the labs!

Our first round of Rise Up Scholars have completed their summer internship at CWRU!

Congratualtions, Kem!! 🎉 🎓🎉

Kemuel Cruz recently graduated from Lincoln-West School of Science and Health a year earlier than scheduled. He was the class salutatorian, a 2025 Governor's Merit Scholarship awardee, and a terrific young man in his community. Kemuel will be attending Kent State University to study zoology.

This past weekend we had the honor of seeing a Life as a Scientist program and Rise Up Scholars program alumnus be honored for his hard work!

The students presented their methods and results, and fielded questions from the audience at the end of each presentation. These students are the experts in their fields, and it was a joy to learn from them! 🧑🏾‍🔬🥼🧬

🎉 Students at Lincoln-West and Garrett Morgan presented their results at our 3rd Annual Student Symposiums! 🎉

We had 24 presentations over two days, featuring hundreds of students sharing their novel research with fellow students, faculty, Rise Up volunteers, family members, and community members.

Whaaaaaat

These high school kids in @riseupneo.bsky.social wanted to study the impact of tobacco on health. They designed a project with a dose curve of tobacco exposure on earthworms and noted reproductive phenotypes (unanticipated), graphed with replicates across developmental stages

We were able to conduct over 400 DNA isolations. Check out the pictures to see how our crowd continue to grow and grow!

⚾️🏟️🧬 STEM Day with the Cleveland Guardians!! ⚾️🏟️🧬

We enjoyed a wonderful spring day at Progressive Field with over 5000 students who interacted with STEM focused activities provided by Cleveland businesses and community organizations!

Donate — Rise Up: Northeast Ohio

This year, we received our biggest—and most impressive—group of applicants yet. We wish we could accept them all, but funding is a challenge. You can help make this opportunity possible: a $500 donation sponsors one Scholar—but every amount counts!

www.riseupnortheastohio.org/donate

Summer is almost here, and we’re excited to welcome a new cohort of Rise Up Scholars into Cleveland research labs! High school students from our Life as a Scientist program can apply for this paid internship to work on research projects alongside professionals. 🧪🔬

In these images, you can see these larva under their microscope under a blue light, with internal organs glowing in the dark, showing that sensory cells inside their body responds to spicy.

To test this, they made a solution of PURE CAPSAICIN, the chemical found in chili peppers. They then took fruit fly larva and bathed them in a fluorescent dye called FM 1-43 that lights up when cells become activated.

🌶️🪰🥵 SPICY FLIES: a proposal from 9th graders at Lincoln-West in #CMSD focused on how fruit flies interact with spicy foods.

Here, you can see students prepping Western blots with help from Abdel, Juan, Damian, and Tae. We're so grateful for this incredible team of scientists who bring their knowledge, passion, and skills to the students of Cleveland!

Teamwork makes the dream work! 💪🔬

Volunteers are with us every step of the way in the Life as a Scientist experience. As students move from behavioral experiments to molecular testing, our dedicated volunteers—many with advanced degrees—are there to guide and support them.

Our students have big ideas and we help them follow that curiosity with the help of our excellent (and highly qualified) volunteer scientists from local research institutions.

Aradopsis thaliana seeds have be grown and exposed to standard light cycles or dark to test how self-sufficient these plants are. You can see students working under the microscope in our make-shift dark room!

Bioluminescent plants!! 🪴🌟🌱

Students are working to determine whether GFP+ plants have the capability to sustain themselves through their own emitted light.

Monthly review — Rise Up: Northeast Ohio Follow updates from our programming in our monthly review!

Want more in-depth project details?? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter on our website and read any monthly reviews you may have missed!

www.riseupnortheastohio.org/monthly-review