Learner Profile
Ellie Wiesler

School

Guilford High School

HMX Course

Immunology

For many high school students, AP classes are more than enough to keep them busy until graduation. For Ellie Wiesler, her course load is just part of her academic exploration. A lover of science from a young age, Ellie developed an interest in medicine, and in cancer research specifically, through reading journals and books and watching online lectures from leaders in the field.

“I was reading something about immuno-oncology and not really understanding everything about what it was, and really wanting to understand,” she says. “That’s how I ended up choosing [to take] HMX Immunology.” Ellie demonstrated some of what she learned in the course through an explanatory video on cancer immunotherapy, which earned her a spot as a semi-finalist in the worldwide Breakthrough Junior Challenge competition. She’s currently busy with her next challenge: applying to college.

I absolutely thought it was perfect for my learning style, and I thought for the first time I was able to dive deep into high-level subject matter, and fall in love with that subject matter, and enjoy every aspect of the learning process. Every unit that was introduced, it was challenging at first because I didn’t know anything about it going in – but I felt that the course met me where I was at, and I was able to get to that high level with my understanding of how biological mechanisms work. I was really into having to figure it out. I loved everything about how it was set up. It was a perfect level for me, just because it was the challenge that I’ve always been wanting.

I really gravitated toward the animations and the art that went into it…I like using art to explain science, and I thought that was really well done in the course, making it a visual experience. It made me fall in love with immunology, because I viewed it as this beautiful and complex system. Had those videos not been there, or had they not been emphasized, I think that sort of complex, beautiful nature of the movement and communication going on between the cells, and the relationships [would be lost]. 

The disease linkages were so cool; I loved hearing the researchers and the doctors talking about how it would work with the patients and speaking with the patients, because I haven’t ever been in that behind-the-scenes of what the doctor is doing and saying to the patient and trying to problem-solve. That helped me get super interested in pursuing medicine.

Learning about the in-depth connections between the innate and adaptive immune systems was also so interesting to me. And not scraping the surface like we do in my [high school] biology classes, but really going deep into antibody structure and function. I think one of my favorite things was learning about T cell activation and also VDJ recombination, so many things that I would never have learned without the course. All of these cool aspects of immunology were connected so well that I saw the big picture while also getting that in-depth understanding of all the different, smaller mechanisms going on.

I would definitely recommend HMX to a student like myself. What I will say is that it requires a lot of dedication to the course; there were times when I was busy and high school coursework was also going on. If students are willing to take on that challenge and make sure that they are taking advantage of the resources they are given, and studying and watching the lectures, then it’s really valuable.

My goal right now is to go to college and then get an MD/PhD. After taking the immunology course, I reached out to an immunology lab and got an internship position there. My mentor at the lab is an MD/PhD graduate student, and from him and from other MD/PhD candidates, I realized that is what I want to do. I want to be able to do research and have patient experiences – so that’s the plan right now.