An advanced class for high achieving high school students interested in pursuing a career in medicine or related fields, such as pharmacy, nursing, biomedical research or drug development. Through engaging lectures and hands-on laboratory classes, students learn normal molecular and cellular biology, and then learn how these normal processes are distorted during the development of cancer. To conclude the workshop, students use what they have learned to create an original research project on a gene of their choice. More broadly, the workshop strengthens academic skills and helps to east the transition from high school to college.