Aug. 20, 2024 — As they step foot on campus and enter labs, new opportunities await the next generation of researchers beginning their studies at the University of Florida College of Medicine.

Approximately 150 master’s and doctoral students begin classes Aug. 22. Ahead of their first day, many of the incoming graduate students took time to explore campus and learn more about research and social opportunities at the college and university during orientation from Aug. 14-16.

This year, students had the chance to attend a resource fair at the Reitz Union, where they could learn more about groups and organizations they can become involved with; listen to faculty from different concentrations briefly present on their labs’ focus and research; visit select labs during an open house; and pick the brains of current graduate students about their experiences.

Incoming doctoral student Camille Preston, who will be entering the genetics concentration through the Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences, has spent the past year and a half working in the lab of Laura Ranum, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, and looks forward to continuing work in Ranum’s lab on the path to becoming a principal investigator.

“I started working in her lab right after college, and it was a dream job,” Preston said. “I wouldn’t be here without the mentors who advocated for me and taught me great things, and I want to pass that down. But I’m also keeping an open mind, since there are so many different paths you can take.”