STUDENT LANDS RESEARCH GIG
POTSDAM — Like most college students, Martin W. LaFleur cannot wait for summer break. Unlike most of his peers, the Clarkson sophomore will not actually be taking a rest from his studies.
Instead, he plans to spend 21/2 months staring into a microscope.
The Potsdam native will be one of 24 college students from around the country to intern as a summer researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He will be studying the origins of cancer — what goes wrong in cell processes to form the mutant cells.
"I've always been really interested in the human body and its systems," the biology and biomolecular science double major said. "When you get down to the molecular level, it's crazy. I guess that's what happens after 4 million years of evolution."
Mr. LaFleur will spend the 10 weeks of the program working with a faculty member at the Sloan-Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, where he says he wants to work someday.
Originally, he wanted to go to medical school to be an oncologist. After spending most of last summer in a research lab in Potsdam and shadowing an oncologist over winter break, he changed his mind.
"The whole practice is very standardized. To me, that's not good enough," he said. "I'd like to be doing something more than the standard protocol. I think we can do better."
Mr. LaFleur graduated from Potsdam High School last spring; he melded his senior year of high school with his first year of college at the Clarkson School, which allows advanced students to do just that. He leaves for New York City at the beginning of June.
He found out about the program from other students who were working with him in Clarkson's labs last summer and was encouraged to apply. Though it is a very selective program, Mr. LaFleur is not the first Clarkson student to intern at the institution as an undergraduate. Adam Searleman, class of 2006, also interned there. One of the university's trustees, Bayard D. Clarkson Sr., is an oncologist and hematologist at Sloan-Kettering.
Though he has never been to New York City, Mr. LaFleur says he is not worried about living on his own for so long in a city of more than 8 million people. The program is providing him with housing and is planning several events to introduce the undergraduates to the city, in addition to more technical events such as how to put together a research poster.
"I'm only 18, but I like the idea of being a grown-up and doing my own stuff," he said. "I'm not a big Yankees fan, but I'd like to see a baseball game. Just sightseeing; I want to walk around."
