Lakeside School

Image: Briana Abrahms with a sedated leopard in Botswana.

For the past few years, Middle School science teacher/department head Kiki Contreras ’08 has been bringing the real world into her science classrooms. Working scientists come to the Middle School as part of the “Scientist of the Month” program and talk informally with students about their work and career paths, their hobbies and interests. “The visits are essentially open-ended Q&As,” says Contreras. “We sit around the table and just talk. The goal is to introduce our students to a wide variety of disciplines in science, and humanize the field a bit — introduce them to the people (gamers, bookworms, cat people, dancers, hikers!) behind the discoveries.”

Among the Lakeside alums who have returned to campus are two of Contreras’s former classmates: Dr. Kelvin Bates ’08, an atmospheric chemist who works at the University of Colorado, and Dr. Briana Abrahms ’08, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Washington. Bates was a self-described shy kid at Lakeside until he discovered theater — and settled on a career in science following an internship with NASA the summer after graduating from Davidson College. Abrahams became seriously interested in science as a 7th grader at Lakeside when she fell in love with astronomy. Eventually, her interests came back to earth. Her research focuses on conservation, wildlife ecology, and endangered animal species.