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A -LEVEL student Loren Wilkins spent a week at Cambridge University on a neuroscience course.
Loren, 17, from Rawtenstall, is on the Villiers Park mentoring programme at Haslingden High School.
Students who have been identified as potential Oxbridge candidates are put forward for the programme.
Loren said: “I began on the Villiers Park scheme at the start of Year 12 and it gives me the chance to be with other students who are very focused.
“I was on a very intense course at Cambridge and some of the things we did have not yet been experienced by second and third year students. I really enjoyed it.
“We met Dr Guy Sutton, who is based at Nottingham University and does research around the world, and also PhD student Sophie Betka, and they ran the course between them.
“We studied the basics, learnt about neurones and all the chemicals in the brain, and mental disorders.
“At the end of the week we did a presentation on Alzheimer’s, did research into the causes and dissected a sheep’s brain. We also had a day in Cambridge in the town and went to The Whipple Museum.
“I definitely want to do further sciencerelated study and I want to take biomedicine at university and then a post-graduate course in dentistry.”
Loren said she had so far been looking at studying in Liverpool, Sheffield or Manchester. Mentors from Villiers Park work with students from Years 10 to 13 at Haslingden High School. The scholars get to go to Lancaster University, to other participating schools for workshops and to Cambridge University.