The Hormel Institute hosted tours throughout the day on Wednesday for all sixth graders from I.J. Holton Middle School and Pacelli Catholic School. Now in its eighth year, it is part of the Institute’s education outreach initiative to teach area students about The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota and its world renowned cancer research.

“We hope to inspire and support the next generation of scientists and researchers,” said Dr. Zigang Dong, executive director of The Hormel Institute, said in a press release. “By allowing students to see up close what research looks like, what equipment and technology we use and the excitement our researchers have in their work … we love the opportunity to share with them what The Hormel Institute is doing to help human health and inspire some of them to pursue careers in science, medicine or related fields such as Information Technology.”

The Hormel Institute supports local science fairs; brings section leaders to spend a day in a lab with seventh and eighth graders; works directly with high school honors biology students; offers a college internship program; serves as a leader of the University of Minnesota-Rochester’s Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology (BICB) program; and provides both doctoral and post-doctoral research training programs as part of its education initiative.