The BioGENEius Challenge is the United States’ premier competition for high school students in biotechnology and represents incredible networking opportunity with fellow bright, young minds. The Bay Area’s BioGENEius Challenge is run by the California Life Sciences Institute (originally the BayBio Institute), which focuses on entrepreneurship, education, and careers in the world’s greatest life sciences ecosystem. As part of Bay Area’s BioGENEius, CLSI arranged a career panel for students to learn from the stories of industry experts. From the local competitions through to the international level, a key facet of BioGENEius is mentorship for the next generation of biotech innovators.

Lori Lindburg, executive director for CLSI, described her thoughts on the career panel: “I immediately thought of Ambika for the career panel at CLSI’s annual Bay Area BioGENEius Challenge, which attracts some of the region’s top high school science students. One of the key goals of the annual competition is to expose finalists to dynamic careers in the life sciences, and she knocked it out of the park with a thoughtful and inspiring account of her own career journey. I know from all my years in this field how life-changing student interactions with career professionals can be and I am certain that a few more bright students are now contemplating entrepreneurship as a viable career path. We are so grateful to career professionals such as Ambika who are reaching back into the community to help us inspire and develop the next generation of life science innovators!”