When Jasmaine Williams was applying to college, she was fairly sure her future career was going to be in cancer research. She just had to find a university with the right fit. She accepted an invitation to attend the 2006 CURO Symposium as a Promising Scholar and it was there that she realized she had found the place. “I was able to attend the CURO Symposium during my senior year of high school and meet with students and professors who were conducting the type of research I was interested in,” Williams said. After being accepted into the Foundation Fellows program and realizing all of the amazing opportunities available at large through the Honors Program, Jasmaine chose to come to UGA.   

Although the Fellowship has enabled Jasmaine to travel extensively, the outstanding research opportunities through the CURO program have shaped Jasmaine’s drive and career path. She was able to start working in a cancer research lab as soon as she arrived on campus, and she feels this to be instrumental in her undergraduate experience.  “The CURO program is a unique one, facilitating graduate-level research experiences at the undergraduate level. This definitely continued my interest in science and opened my eyes to experiences I would never have been aware of otherwise.”

One such eye-opening opportunity arrived via Howard Young, a university alumnus Jasmaine met at alumni events, who shares her interest in cancer research. Young, a pancreatic cancer survivor, felt she would be perfect for an internship at the esteemed Translation Genomics Institution (TGen) in Phoenix, AZ where he had received treatment. With an outstanding application and Howard’s help, Jasmaine secured the TGen internship. For eight weeks, in conjunction with the Heliose Scholars Program, Jasmaine worked in an endometrial cancer lab studying a drug called PD173074 which facilitated cell death in tumors.

“My internship at TGen helped me to realize that I am still passionate about cancer research as a career and exposed me to a new aspect of the field in translational research,” Jasmaine said. “Traveling to the other side of the country made me aware of how different and dynamic a research career can be, and I appreciated that experience. I loved every part of my research, learning about endometrial cancer, designing scientific experiments, and realizing that research is different when conducted within an institute rather than at a university.

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