Fostering the Next Generation of Talent – C4T’s Internship Program
The C4T culture is built on great science and great people, with a sharp focus on identifying and developing talent and fostering an inclusive environment that enables employees to thrive. This philosophy drives our everyday work but also orients how we think about the future of C4T and more broadly the evolution of the biotech workforce.
Our partnership with Project Onramp brings these interests together. A program of Life Science Cares, Project Onramp connects motivated college students who are under-resourced and often first generation to paid internships hosted at life sciences companies. The program’s name states the goal: to give potential future professionals a path into the industry, one that might otherwise be difficult to locate or navigate.
The students in our 2024 intern cohort were paired with a manager and embedded within different functions of our business – cell pharmacology, program management, translational medicine and regulatory. Each shadowed employees, participated in key meetings and contributed to ongoing project work. “These experiences provide more than an inside look,” said Mary Christian, senior vice president, regulatory, and one of this year’s mentors. “They help students cultivate a network of peers and mentors and develop important skills, such as communication and time management, while building the confidence to take ownership of projects.”
A key feature of the internship program is active learning: students engage in work that contributes to the company while observing the different dimensions of collaborative projects. “It is important to give each intern a sense of independence and ownership over their projects,” said Nicole Reilly, senior research scientist on the translational medicine team. “Our role as mentors is to guide and inspire them to try new experiments, test new hypotheses and give them the space to explore novel and creative ideas.”
Nicole mentored Cristina Vasquez, a UMass Amherst student, who came to C4T with lab experience and picked up some new techniques for running experiments. She appreciated seeing scientists engaged in the “long process” of research, saying, “The thought that there is someone out there in desperate need of a new treatment keeps me going.”
Interns benefit from seeing how different roles fit within the business, and how perspectives from different individuals influence action. Kaitlyn Taliaferro, a Tufts University student, said, “There’s always a feeling of being involved. It’s not like I’m just another person who works here. Collaborating with teammates helps me understand the inner workings of the company and why my role is meaningful.” Fellow Tufts student Fua Nasu added, “Hearing feedback and ideas from multiple people at C4T is helpful to understanding how to be successful.”
The opportunity to form connections is no small part of the intern experience, and a critical part of the onramp into life sciences. Genesis Castillo, a student at Suffolk University who is interested in computational biology, said, “There’s a lot of opportunities to network and collaborate. This experience has been really helpful in connecting me with people who can help grow my career.”
