March 10, 2016

MLSC On Location in Franklin

MLSC On Location in Franklin

With an advanced infrastructure that supports higher education, Franklin High School offers one of the most robust curriculums in Massachusetts. The Franklin Arts Academy program (FAA), which is a combination of the Arts and Science curriculum, has 125 students and “fosters the link between critical and creative thinking through academic rigor, high expectations, and interdisciplinary connections with the Arts.” One of the unique features of their program is that the school requires most of its students to participate in an apprenticeship program with organization based upon project the student is currently working on. For instance last year one of the students spent 8 weeks in China to teach English as part of their senior year project.

While speaking at a roundtable during the visit, Travis discussed that preparing students for a life sciences career is not the only challenge, but also encouraging scientific curiosity and literacy. Once there is that basis, there really is an untold number of things they can do.

While in Franklin, we visited ZeptoMetrix Corporation, a diagnostic and pharmaceutical research organization that develops products and services for diagnosing and treating bacteria and viruses leading to infectious disease. One topic of discussion that continually came up was how the life sciences ecosystem relies on corporate social responsibility.

Our busy day concluded when we met with Larry Gordon from Cold Chain Technologies, David Fraser from EMC, Ken Hiscoe from Pfizer and other local authorities and academic representatives to discuss the next steps for the growth of life sciences in the region.