Options for Youth engages with biotech leader Amgen to offer students cutting-edge career prep

For the past three years, high school students at Options For Youth in Victor Valley, California (a non-profit public charter school), have had the exceptional opportunity to gain hands-on experience working with professional equipment provided by a global leader in the biotechnology field. Through the Amgen Biotech Experience program, Options For Youth science teachers are given the unique materials and training to show their students the processes scientists use to make pharmaceuticals such as insulin for diabetes. Using Amgen’s laboratory grade micropipettes and other advanced tools in their own classrooms, Options For Youth biology students learn how to produce recombinant DNA and create copies of genes to help make biotech drugs. This special partnership with Amgen is an incredible way for Options For Youth’s students to learn about biotechnology and genetic engineering and see for themselves that they can make a career in these growing fields.

Through opportunities like these, Options For Youth offers students the ability to get ahead and prepares them for the careers of the future. Through this initiative and others like it, the Amgen Foundation seeks to inspire the next generation of scientists. Our students in Victor Valley Options For Youth are excited to engage in this innovative program. Watch the video of students and scientists collaborating here.