In fall 2022, Elliott Weix started his senior year of high school with a new career goal: scientist. Weix had spent his summer in the Coyle Lab as part of the High School Science Research Internship Program (SRI), a partnership between UW–Madison and the Madison Metropolitan School District. There, his interests shifted from investigative journalism to investigating the natural world.
“I went beyond textbooks in Scott’s lab,” Weix recalls. “I wasn’t learning how a [cell signaling] pathway works or why my eyes aren’t the same color as my mom’s or dad’s. It was bigger than that: Look at all these possibilities that exist in life. Can we figure out how and why things work and use that knowledge as building blocks to make something else? That was exciting.”
Read more about Weix and his UW–Madison journey in the Fall 2025 issue of GROW magazine.
Written by Renata Solan.