Glory Reitz
Some students want to be doctors. Some want to explore a career in crime scene investigation. Others do not know yet what they want to do after high school, but they like bacteria.
The Institute of Biotechnology at Santa Fe High School, a magnet program, allows these students to get hands-on experience in a state-of-the-art laboratory.
“I love this program because it’s so wide-ranging in the things we talk about,” Tyler Wells, program director, said in an interview. “It’s not just industry biotech and it’s not just medical… It’s a lot in three years, and it’s not even enough to do it justice honestly, but this program is meant to be like a stepping stone for the wide variety of different things avenues they can go down.”
Biotechnology is the technological application of living organisms or their derivatives, like DNA, proteins and cells, used to make or modify new products or processes. Wells said biotechnology experience and knowledge can be applied in a multitude of careers, and his program gives students a solid head start.
The biotechnology program recently received a $118,000 Workforce Development Grant, which Wells said will go to improvements such as an automated cell counter, a gel imager, a lab freezer and another flow cabinet to create a sterile environment for plating bacteria.
“We are already a state-of-the-art facility, but it’s going to definitely take us into the future, honestly,” Wells said.
The program, established in 2007, helps prepare students for careers, articulation into Santa Fe College, or entry into the University of Florida. Wells said his students leave the program with laboratory skills with which many collegiate-level students struggle.
Students can also earn four different certifications: the Biotechnician Assistant Credentialing Exam, AEST Agricultural Biotechnology, PMI Project Management Ready and Entrepreneurship and Small Business. Wells said three of those programs are new this year, which is also his first year teaching the program.
Jenny Nguyen, a senior said she has had three different teachers during her three years in the program, and she said Wells does a good job.
“He cares about his job a lot,” Nguyen said. “I can tell that he puts in a lot of effort in our education, per se. But other than that, he’s a really good mentor as well.”
Nguyen wants to get a degree in biotechnology, then get her master’s degree and study third-world diseases. She said she has family in Vietnam and wants to look more into what she hears about medical practices and mortality rates across the world.
Like many magnet programs, the biotechnology program is heavy on hands-on learning, and students spend much of their class time wearing white lab coats to run tests and experiments. Nguyen said she enjoys casting gels, and her classmate, Halle Reeves, said her favorite thing has been swabbing places in the school for bacteria to grow and examine.
“Everything we learn in this class really helps for your other science classes,” Reeves said. “Because when you take the other science classes that you need to take… they’ll introduce a topic and you’re like, oh, I already learned this, and it makes it a lot easier to understand.”
Santa Fe High School is also home to the Academy of Agriscience and the Academy of Veterinary Assisting, both of which prepare students for high-needs work industries.
Reeves, who originally attended both the veterinary assisting and biotechnology programs, said she knows other students who have also double-dipped as they figure out what they want to do. Though Reeves lost interest in veterinary assisting and does not yet have plans after graduation, she said she stuck with biotechnology because it is a good class.
Both Reeves and Nguyen said they enjoy the community of the biotechnology program, especially compared to their dual enrollment classes. They said the cohort environment pushes them together to create real connections. The program also has a mentor system that pairs upperclassmen with underclassmen to offer support.
“It kind of makes it an environment where students don’t feel like there is a competitive aspect,” Nguyen said. “We all just work together.”
The biotechnology program is a three-year program, so freshmen and sophomores can apply. This year’s first-year class (BT 1) has 36 students, though Wells said some students leave the program before their second year. But even with only one year, those students gain a solid foundation of lab basics in equipment and safety precautions.
In their second year, students work in microbiology and DNA, learning to change the DNA of bacteria and how biotechnology can be applied in agriculture.
Third-year students deal with proteins and the immune system, focusing more on the medical side of biotechnology.
For students who join the program as freshmen, there is a fourth-year option called Manufacturing Directed Study, where they work on their resumes, do research and internships. This year’s fourth-year class is researching how they can alter the genetic code of zebrafish to make it glow under ultraviolet light.
Wells said the program can help students in almost any career field, as biotechnology has many niches. Students could become microbiologists, lawyers for biotech companies, crime scene investigators or doctors.
Interested students have one day left to apply, as the magnet program application window closes at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 13. Applications received after that point will be considered late applications and will not be considered in the first round.
Editor’s Note: This is the final story in a series highlighting some of the magnet programs available through Alachua County Public Schools. More information about ACPS magnet programs can be found on the district website.