First, the obvious reasons: meet new people, get a taste of college-level curriculum in a low-stress environment, experience the beautiful campuses of UC-Berkeley or UC-Santa Cruz, and get a feel for dorm life during your first year of college.

​

Second, cancer is interesting, and who can’t relate to a disease that will impact every one of us sometime during our lives?

​

But there are more practical, career-oriented reasons to take the class.

​

First, get a jump on learning molecular biology and molecular laboratory techniques before your peers. Most universities don’t teach these subjects until the junior or senior year of your undergraduate degree, despite the fact that this knowledge is crucial to understanding all diseases and modern drug development. Prior knowledge of these subjects will give you a competitive edge when applying for college or for part time jobs in research laboratories on and off campus that are popular with undergraduates who are interested in careers in the health sciences.

​

Second, the knowledge gained in this class is not specific to cancer: similar processes are involved in the development of all diseases. If you can learn how cancer works at the molecular level, then this is a solid foundation from which you can learn how any disease develops.

​

Finally, we teach you how to ask the important questions, and how to answer these questions in a systematic and scientific way. In other words, we teach problem solving, and that is a skill that will be valuable throughout your life, in any profession.