This is why we retreat...  to present our work and go to Bedford Springs!  It was a fun weekend that started with taking our Pharmacology test early and heading over to the poster session to present our work.  It is always fun to see what people are doing and it looked like the first years had a really productive summer!  After the on campus portion was done, we jumped into Josiah's car and made our way to Bedford. 

The first night we had a tribute to Clayton who is stepping down as the director of the MSTP.  It was nice to be able to talk to him a bit at the retreat and to celebrate the many years that he's dedicated to the program.  Also another fun fact, we found out only a few days before that Clayton is from Wisconsin - represent!  I was seriously so thrilled to find out this morsel of knowledge.

Clayton cutting the large cakes with his photo on them!

Josiah, Zims, Taylor, Manjit and Clayton for the cake cutting!

On Saturday we spent most of the morning learning about the state of the program, hearing from graduating senior students and attending break out sessions.  The afternoon was spent trying to catch up on things and to catch a few rays of sunshine.  I caught Taylor heading out to the driving range to shoot a few balls!

There's really nothing more relaxing than an afternoon at Bedford Springs...

Saturday evening we were addressed by our keynote speaker who Hedberg arranged to talk to us.  We heard from

Mario Capecchi

who won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work with genetic knockout mice.  He gave an excellent talk and it was such an honor to listen to such an accomplished man.  I had the opportunity to shake his hand and thank him for the talk.  We were also fortunate enough to have breakfast with him the next morning. So neat.

Bedford Springs breakfast, simply delicious.

To wrap this post up, I want to leave you with the saying...

"This is why we retreat"