High school interns explore forensics

The Career Exploration Internship Program has partnered with the Northeast Regional Forensic Institute at the University at Albany to provide internship opportunities to students.

NERFI provides hands-on classroom and laboratory training for forensic scientists and senior laboratory technicians at the New York State Police Forensic Investigation Center in an intensive 12-week program.

Currently, two students are participating in this internship program with great success. The students have aided NERFI in completing administrative assistant duties, but have also gained valuable experience in the laboratory. They have processed a mock case from start to finish and have obtained DNA profiles for analysis. Following nationally-accepted protocols, the students have extracted DNA from mock samples, quantified the DNA to see how much DNA was present in the sample, amplified, or copied, the DNA for further analysis, and obtained profiles from each mock evidence item using a genetic analyzer and computer software. Both interns plan on majoring in forensics next year at college.

Ms. Jennifer Wademan, coordinator of Work Based Learning says that this is an excellent learning opportunity for students interested in this growing field. For more information about NERFI their Web site by clicking here.