At the UC Davis Stem Cell Program, the CIRM SPARK Program matches our intention to educate California’s future scientists, who will be bringing cell and gene therapies to patients. The CIRM SPARK Program is an internship program for high school students, based on the initial CIRM CREATIVITY Program. It allows for the interns to work, side by side, with researchers in cutting edge stem cell/gene therapy research facilities. It is stimulating, motivating, and can even be life changing for young people. In 2023, 10 highly interested and also talented students from high schools in the surrounding areas of Sacramento were offered the opportunity to participate in the 2023 internship, which was conducted in person. For selection, a special emphasis was put on the recruitment of underserved and minority students, an equitable selection of participants was the goal of this process. The students were paired up with individual scientist mentors from the UC Davis Stem Cell Program (we have 25 laboratories the students could be placed in) and took on projects involving the development of cutting edge stem cell treatments for blood cancers, heart disease, diseases that affect the brain, liver, or kidney, bone disease, skin disease, eye disease, and other devastating inherited diseases. This summer program was structured so the students could complete a mentored research project, within the allowed time frame, and then generate a poster for the CIRM SPARK conference, held at a hotel in Los Angeles, CA in August of 2023. In order for our interns to receive formal training in stem cell biology, they also participated in a class on Regenerative Medicine, taught over the summer by the PI of this grant. The students took two written exams to demonstrate their knowledge in CGT biology, and also GMP related topics. They all earned a training certificate, which they truly deserved, as the student interns passed their exams with excellence. The individual mentors and the PI supervised the students in creating their research posters. During the SPARK conference, all students presented their posters as a short talk and in front of their peers, CIRM officers and noted researchers in person during the SPARK conference. In summary, we tried our utmost to provide the students with a meaningful and exciting summer program. The feedback we received was that the internship program again truly inspired these young people who spent their summer with us, as we had seen in previous cohorts. This could only be underlined by many interns expressing their desire to continue their education in the biological / biotech or medical field and their desire to work toward the development of new treatments and cures for currently incurable diseases. Due to the current expansion of cell and gene therapy facilitated by never before achieved cures for blood cancers, a large number of excellent researchers and highly skilled biotechnology laboratory personnel will be needed in the near and extended future to produce these novel cellular and gene therapy treatments in California. These young people are the future of California’s health and economy.