Gabe Santana

The things you get to do and see in those labs - like sitting next to a real skeleton and holding a brain in the cadaver labs – those things are exciting!"

"It took me a while to find the classes at TCC that sparked my interest. It wasn’t until I took an Anatomy & Physiology class that I found something I really liked. The things you get to do and see in those labs - like sitting next to a real skeleton and holding a brain in the cadaver labs – those things are exciting!

The class that’s really worth highlighting, though, is Bio 280 – it’s a class about human cadaver dissection and is special because most institutions, 2-year and 4-year, don’t offer this class to students unless you’re a medical student. Students do dissections on a human cadaver. I got to put my hands in a heart! Extract a brain! Surgeons also visit the class and teach us basic procedures. Then we demonstrate those procedures to visiting high school students on Surgical Demonstration Day, which is held once a year on campus. My group got to demo a tracheotomy and explain it to visiting students.

Classes like those biology classes have pushed me to change my focus to Biology. I’ll graduate in the spring with a AS transfer degree. My goal is to attend UW Seattle and pursue research in a biological field.

Before that happens, I’ve been accepted into a competitive summer research program at UW Seattle in Genome Sciences. The program provides a total of 10 internships, and two of those spots are reserved for local students. Many students applied, and I was shocked and excited to be accepted into the program. Lab faculty have different topics in Genome Sciences that they will be researching. I’ll be working in a lab with a specific focus. The internship pays for living expenses and a stipend for the summer.

Overall, the things I most like about TCC are the professors, the students, and the facilities. The professors and students are nice people with unique personalities, and the facilities, like building 15, have nice classrooms and labs. It feels good to learn and have classes in nice facilities!"