Vasu is going to be a senior at Interlake High School in Bellevue in the coming fall. She recently completed her International Baccalaureate diploma and is looking forward to her senior year. Outside of school she enjoys participating in clubs like Speech and Debate, Future Problem Solvers, and Technovation. She also spends her time volunteering as a COPE Junior Health Scholar at Swedish Hospital. In her free time she enjoys running, reading, and spending time with her friends.
At ISB Vasu worked with the Gibbons Lab on a project analyzing the gut bacteria Prevotella. This internship experience has taught her valuable lessons about different paths and challenges in academia as well as the various research projects being pursued at ISB. One of her favorite parts of the internship was listening to the different guest speakers and hearing their passion for their chosen research areas and their different journeys to ISB. Thanks to the Systems Education Team and the Gibbons lab Vasu has learned the wide variety of careers in science and has been able to narrow down her own interests. She hopes to study biology with an interdisciplinary aspect in her undergrad and pursue either an MD or PhD after that.
Contact: vasu.shandar@gmail.com. Feel free to reach out about anything!