Top scholar program prepares high school graduates

Amgen scholarship winners Two area high school graduates—one from Westlake High School and the other from Moorpark High—are among a group of young people spending the summer engulfed in scientific research through a top scholar program.

Sattar Khoshkhoo and Milana PeBenito were chosen to participate in the Amgen Scholars Program, a $25-million, eight-year commitment by the Amgen Foundation to provide undergraduates the opportunity to expand their research at 10 universities around the nation.

Sattar Khoshkhoo, a junior at UCLA, moved to Moorpark from Iran in 2004. He is studying bioengineering and is planning to add neuroscience to his major.

His research, which is based at UCLA, involves studying the layers of the brain to identify where epileptic seizures are generated and how they spread.

Students work 40 hours a week in a research lab for two months. Under the guidance of a faculty member, they delve deeper into research than they'd normally be able to go during the school year.

"It's a great opportunity considering that last summer I did research the whole time, plus had full-time classes so I was eligible to stay on campus," Khoshkhoo said. "This year, because of this program, I get to stay on campus and do fulltime research without worrying about classes. Also, Amgen offers a lot of support."

Milana PeBenito from Westlake Village is participating in the Amgen Scholars Program at Stanford. She's studying a bacterium that causes food poisoning.

"I was really excited to work in a microbiology and immunology lab," PeBenito said. "We're given a project that's doable in the amount of time we have. Stanford has a really strong research-based medicine program, so it's been a great learning experience."

Now attending UC Santa Cruz, PeBenito is double majoring in molecular, cell and development biology and environmental biology. She is a leader in the Santa Cruz environmental movement as an organizer of the local Santa Cruz Biofuels Cooperative, and for three years she's participated in the annual Biofuels Conference and Car Show to stimulate local knowledge and understanding of sustainable transportation.

"It's a great, great learning experience," PeBenito said. "It's really new in that it's very independent, in a way I haven't experienced before. We were given the tools, and we just hit the ground running."

PeBenito, who will be a fifthyear in the spring, said the program has influenced her to consider becoming a medical doctor.

The 2008 Amgen Scholars represent 120 colleges and universities from 35 states. The 250 scholars were chosen from more than 2,300 applicants.

"In the second year of Amgen Scholars, we saw a 40 percent increase in applicants compared to the first year of the program," said Jean J. Lim, president of the Amgen Foundation. "The Amgen Foundation is excited to see the desire of some of the brightest undergraduate students to engage in these unique research opportunities."