UTICA — Weeks of hard work came to an end Thursday with presentations and a picnic for nine students completing the Masonic Medical Research Laboratory summer fellowship program.

"The goal really is to open up students to the life sciences and to see if they would consider pursuing a career as a scientist, doctor or veterinarian," said Ronald Kamp, lab director of development and communications.

The students were chosen for the 10-week fellowship to take part in research opportunities in the fields of experimental cardiology, molecular biology and molecular genetics. They each gave a 10-minute presentation on their projects to a crowd of family, sponsors and other members of the scientific community Thursday morning.

"The program is designed to give students that are already in college a hands-on experience," said Dr. Fabiana Scornick, education officer.

Monica Crary of Vernon worked with Dr. Alejandra Guerchicoff, looking into the genes of patients with two types of heart conditions to see if there were problems with their DNA. She said being involved in the program helped her decide what she wants do after graduating from Ursinus College near Philadelphia.

"I do research at my college in physiology and I was leaning toward genetics, but I didn't really know," Crary said.

After doing the research this summer, Crary decided that it was genetics that she wanted to get her doctorate in.

"It's not a shadowing experience but it's a hands-on experience," said Scornick.

These are the students who've just completed the Masonic Medical Research Laboratory summer fellowship program:

* Seth Anderson, Syracuse University.
* Jonathon Bates, Nazareth College.
* Monica Crary, Ursinus College.
* Amit Desai, Hamilton College.
* Ashwini Nayak, McGill University.
* Arpan Patel, Boston University.
* Grace Reid, Rochester Institute of Technology.
* Danielle Renodin, Clarkson University.
* Ankeet Shah, Tufts University.