Michael Warden and McKenzie Rice

Senior McKenzie Rice, from Nephi, Utah and junior Michael Warden, from Orem, both biology majors at UVSC, will participate in a 10-week program at the University of Utah this summer, conducting medical research for the American Heart Association. Rice will be researching vascular dysfunction among diabetics and Warden will study the effects of obesity on heart disease. Both students will work under the direction of trained professionals and experienced doctors.

"The undergrad program is intended to introduce college-level students to research with the hope that some of them may choose that as a career path,” said American Heart Association Project Coordinator Susan Mokhtari. “And many of our awardees have gone on to become established investigators.”

Over the past 57 years, the American Heart Association has invested more than $2.6 billion into heart and stroke research to reduce the risk of disability and death from cardiovascular diseases and stroke. This internship program allows students from California, Nevada and Utah the opportunity to study in signal transduction, gene expression, ion transport and more. This year, applicants were accepted from UVSC, UCLA, Cornell, UC Berkeley and Yale, among others.

"I’ve never had the opportunity to even talk to a Ph.D./MD, which is what I am studying to become,” Warden said. “It’s a unique opportunity to be able to work beside them and I’m looking forward to observing their expertise and being a part of the research.”

Rice, who wants to be an OBGYN, has had plenty of research experience, but none related to the medical field-until now. "I’ve never had official medical training and that’s my future profession,” she said. “So this will teach me a lot about how it works and help me get into medical school.”

Warden and Rice both agree UVSC has prepared them for this “real world” experience.

"The science department is really great here,” Rice said. “Without the professors I never could have done this. I’ve realized if you’re willing to put forth the time you can do whatever you want.”