Jaren Gaines
Jaren Gaines, a Berkeley High School sophomore, spent a month in Toulouse, France this summer studying aerospace engineering under the guidance and instruction of National School of Civil Aviation professors. ENAC — the French acronym for the school — is the equivalent of graduate school in France, according to Gaines. Gaines took four hours of classes a day, half of which were devoted to the study of flight mechanics, and half that were focused on space science and travel.
“For most of my life, I’ve been very interested in space travel. I started off, you know, wanting to be an astronaut,” Gaines said, “after this program, I actually found the sections where we were studying, you know, in atmosphere stuff — so planes and rockets — to be significantly more engaging.”
When he wasn’t working with former aerospace engineers or building model rockets, Gaines had the opportunity to explore the city of Toulouse and connect with fellow classmates.
“Even if (supervisors) were careful about our safety, we were still very much allowed to roam the city without adult supervision, and experience it for ourselves … going outside my comfort zone in that way was very transformative,” Gaines said.
Feranmi Olawoye
Feranmi Olawoye, a BHS senior, interned at the Berkeley National Laboratory for six weeks through the Experiences in Research (EinR) program for high schoolers. Utilizing advanced computer software, Feranmi worked under Dr. Yang Ha to ultimately better visualize DNA sequences, which currently is an extensive and complicated process. “We used palindromic sequences, and then we were able to use AlphaFold to give us a visual representation of those DNA sequences. And then we put those into Python to give us a data sheet,” Olawoye said.
Olawoye initially discovered EinR last summer through the BHS chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers — an organization that supports Black youth in pursuing STEM careers — and decided to intern once again this summer. Hoping to study Biomedical Engineering in college, she plans to continue working at the Berkeley National Lab throughout the school year to gain further experience.
“(Interning) really did help me see what I want to do in my future, like, if I could imagine myself in a research institution. And I think it helped me broaden my horizon a little bit,” Olawoye said.
Ivan Watson
BHS senior Ivan Watson spent the majority of his summer bike-packing through Europe along with several friends. Beginning in the Netherlands, riding through Germany, Belgium, France, and finally returning to the Netherlands, Watson biked for nearly 800 miles — around 50 miles each day.
“It’s a little stressful to have your whole life kind of tied to … this object, but it’s really freeing,” Watson said.
Watson and his travel-mates camped most nights for the duration of their trip, often staying in strangers’ yards who advertised free camping for bike-packers passing through. “A lot of them cooked us food, and were like, just really interesting, nice people,” Watson said.
Watson explained that the highlight of his trip was connecting with people everywhere he went, despite language barriers and cultural differences. “Getting out in nature and interacting with people and putting yourself in kind of uncomfortable situations is really cool,” Watson said.
Ava Capen
This summer, Ava Capen, a BHS junior, spent five weeks doing conservation and restoration work alongside other young adults in the Sierra Nevada. As a part of the P-CREW, a branch of the Sierra Institute that employs youth, Capen camped every night and worked 40 hour weeks removing invasive species, clearing trails, and preparing for prescribed burns in the fall.
Capen’s work this summer directly aligns with the environmental work she is interested in, having pursued this passion through several other extracurriculars, including founding the BHS Outdoors Club in the 2024-25 school year.
“We didn’t have our phones. So I guess being able to fully be in nature and be present with these new people and in these new environments was definitely the highlight,” Capen said.
The fact that she was with only 20 other teens allowed her to form deep interpersonal connections, as well as find peace that only that sort of isolation allows for, Capen explained.
“(P-CREW) was definitely an amazing experience and I recommend for everybody to do it at least once,” Capen said.