March 25, 2022
Since 2017, Hartnell College biology instructor Dr. Jeffrey Hughey has guided more
than 400 students to co-author articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals on the
genomics of everything from algae to aphids to lizards. “They can put it on their
resume, they get experience doing the genomics work, and this helps them get that
next internship, the next job – or maybe into graduate or medical school,” Dr. Hughey
said. He has done this 10 times since 2017. 
Students in his Spring 2021 General Botany class produced individual manuscripts on a first-ever genetic taxonomy of a marine algae in the journal Phytotaxa – and all received credit for the research, analysis and findings. “For about 10 years I worked with students – one or two per year,” recalled Dr. Hughey, who joined Hartnell in 2004. “We’d do projects and come up with some sort of paper at the end, sometimes published, sometimes not. Right around 2015-16 I started to think about how I can have a bigger impact and give this internship opportunity to additional students. Why not all biology majors? Why can’t everybody be participating in this?”
Student Adam Garcia, a 2019 Salinas High School graduate and aspiring medical student, said it’s easy in a “normal” class to get lost in all the notetaking. “But with this micro-internship, I was able to see all this wonderful [gene-sequencing] technology and all the methods I’ll be using if I keep going down this career path,” he said. “Having, at the very end, our name on the page felt amazing.”