Bennett Schmidt
Bennett is an incoming freshman at UW–Madison committed to the cross-country team; studying biology on the predental track.I’m a senior at Menomonie High School, and in a few months I’ll be running Division I cross country at UW–Madison while studying biology. During my four years at Menomonie, I’ve taken every science course my school offers. I founded our Model United Nations club. I’ve shadowed dentists and specialists to explore how I can practice medicine to help people.
On paper, that might sound like I have my higher education journey figured out. But the truth is more complicated.
I grew up in a town where the university can feel far away. Madison is close enough to visit, but mentally it existed as something separate from everyday life. Research science seemed like something conducted by specialists in distant laboratories, not something I could picture myself doing.
Morgridge Summer Science Camp helped me change this attitude through immersion. For a week, I lived in residence halls. I walked through working laboratories. I met graduate students who talked casually about their research. I participated in collaborative scientific work alongside other students from small towns across Wisconsin. The experience wasn’t intimidating — it was uplifting.
That might sound small, but it matters enormously.
“Knowing what you want to do and feeling like you belong doing it are very different things.”
Confidence gaps in higher education are rarely about intelligence. More often, they’re about familiarity. Students from smaller towns arrive at universities academically prepared but feel out of place. We wonder whether we truly belong in those spaces.
I’d never thought of myself as lacking confidence. I’m competitive. I’ve built things from scratch. I’ve made careful decisions about my future, considering not just the practical aspects of different careers but the emotional realities too.
But even high-performing students benefit from experiences that make elite research environments feel accessible.
What I remember most vividly from my week at camp isn’t a specific breakthrough, but the relationships, conversations and moments of belonging. Interacting informally with students and researchers about their work humanized the research experience.
The shift from observer to participant changed how I think about my future. By the end of that week, I wasn’t tentatively considering whether I could do this. I began to envision myself participating in scientific work, not just observing it. I could see myself balancing athletics with laboratory opportunities. I realized that microbiology, antibiotic resistance, stem cell research weren’t abstract topics reserved for people with different backgrounds than my own.
A significant barrier preventing many young people from entering science isn’t intellectual capability, but the inability to imagine themselves belonging there.
What I learned during camp is that universities aren’t distant worlds reserved for somebody else. They’re places where students from small towns already belong.
Knowing what you want to do and feeling like you belong doing it are very different things. That’s what Morgridge Summer Science Camp helped me understand. The most valuable lesson I learned wasn’t a specific lab technique, but something harder to measure: the feeling that research institutions are places designed for people like me.
That confidence didn’t come from lowering standards or simplifying science. It came from humanizing the research experience itself — a form of educational equity that should never be overlooked.
Rural Roots, Research Futures
For 20 years, the Morgridge Summer Science Camp has opened the doors of a world-class research university to high school students from rural Wisconsin. Through interviews with students, teachers, and experts, we examine what makes the experience transformative for participants and for science itself.