Summer internships are an important part of the college experience, allowing students to implement some of the skills they’ve been learning toward their future careers.

But how often do those internships involve working side-by-side with cancer researchers, well-respected experts in their fields, and earning a co-author notation on papers?

For Dakota Lazore-Swan, Flint Swamp and Jake Maresca, that’s exactly how they spent their summer, working for 10 weeks with doctors and nurses at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center as part of a partnership between the Center for Indigenous Cancer Research (CICR) and the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe (SRMT) of Akwesasne, funded by the National Institutes of Health.