My name is Paityn Rau and I am a junior enrolled in the Waukee APEX program. APEX stands for Aspiring Professional Experiences and I am taking the Medical and Bioscience Research strand. I chose this class because I am interested in pursuing a career in the medical field.

APEX is a great way to explore different career paths while working on different value-added projects for businesses. Not only do you get to explore your future, you also get to increase workforce development in the state! APEX has provided me with many lifelong skills that have taught me how to make a resume, dress professionally, and even taught me how to communicate in the business world. In my strand (Medical and Bioscience Research), we get to perform all sorts of experiments.

So far we have completed DNA transformation of bacteria, blood typing, gel electrophoresis, and micro pipetting. I am working on a team that is making a modification to a yoga ball as part of a national competition for Courage League Sports, a local business partner. Each one of these labs focus on a different skill to help prepare us for more complicated labs in the future. In addition to the labs, we also visit or have speakers come in and talk to our class. We have had business partners talk about topics like cystic fibrosis, zebrafish genetics, patents, lupus, and many more things.

All these activities are possible due to our very experienced instructor, Dr. Holly Showalter. Dr. Showalter loves teaching us about fun lab experiments and is very passionate about sharing her knowledge with our class. If you want a once in a lifetime opportunity, join the APEX family, you won’t regret it!