On Friday, November 12, the MIT Portugal Program paid a visit to the Escola Secundária Carlos Amarante, in Braga. This was done under the scope of the Ciência Viva initiative, “Professores MIT vão à Escola” - whose objective is to disseminate science in Portuguese high schools and to encourage students to pursue their studies in high tech fields in which MIT is a world leader. The series has reached thousands of students and facilitated informal and personal interactions with dozens of MIT faculty members at schools across Portugal. The session at Escola Secundária Carlos Amarante was conducted for about 80 eleventh grade students, with presentations by Professors Bruce Tidor (MIT) and Lígia Rodrigues (University of Minho) - a graduate of the high school. Professors Tidor and Rodriques were ably supported by Joao Nuno Torres (Ciência Viva) and Hortense Santos (School Director) as they presented the session topic: “Modern Research in Bioengineering”.  Professor Ligia Rodriques Addresses High School Students at Ciencia Viva Event The session began with a movie about studying biological engineering, followed by Professor Rodriques relaying her own career story: from high school, to the tough decisions/options about what to study and where, to earning her MSc and PhD, her stays abroad, and up to the present day and her current work with MIT Portugal. Students had a number of questions, e.g. "what grades are required to enter the course of study", and "what are the job opportunities with this academic background." In addition, they were interested in the admissions requirements to MIT, and were reassured to know that this was not at all an impossible goal. In fact, as Hortense Santos (School Director) pointed out to them, a student from last year is now studying at MIT, and this should certainly be within their sites if they are willing to work hard. Many students (and teachers) expressed their curiosity about bioengineering, including: the potential of computational therapeutic design and how far from reality are the achievements in the lab; and synthetic biology and what would be the outcomes for society of these emerging techniques. At the end of the session one student asked Professor Tidor about his career path and received the following strong advice: “You should always do what you are passionate about and look for opportunities (e.g. spend some time in different labs during summer holidays to help you find what you really like to do)." The students were thrilled with his story and one of them asked, “can I go to your lab in my summer holidays?” Although the session was just for 11th grade students, there was a steady stream of observers outside the classroom door who seemed equally interested, and the conversation in the corridor after the event was lively, loud, and enthusiastic! | 
