The following is an excerpt from a story in the Lowell Sun:
Neil Rosinski spent five years working in the cannabis industry, but over time he felt he needed a change in his career path.
The 30-year-old from Gardner eventually learned about Bioversity, a program that got its start in 2024 with the aim of providing workforce training for jobs in the life sciences field, which Rosinski had no experience in before.
Now, Rosinski and the other students in his cohort are working in a brand new laboratory on the third floor of UMass Lowell’s Massachusetts Medical Device Center at 110 Canal St., thanks in part to a $660,000 grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center that paid for the renovation of the space.
The new lab contains equipment for each cohort of students to train with and run experiments as they learn the ins and outs of working in a laboratory.Rosinski said he went into the program knowing he would gain foundational skills for working in a lab setting, but he is getting much more out of it than he originally expected.
“What I didn’t expect was getting valuable connections with my classmates and my mentors,” said Rosinski, noting that it also helped build the kinds of skills he can put on a resume.
MassBio President and CEO Kendalle Burlin O’Connell said the Bioversity program was born out of a need.
“One: we needed more entry-level positions, and two: we were really, really disappointed at the fact that our community out there wasn’t more engaged with the high-paying jobs we have in this industry,” said Burlin O’Connell.
The program was only an idea a few years ago, she said, but since then it has “changed the lives of 135 people.”
“These are folks from our neighborhoods, our community, and from graduation in this eight-week program they now have careers in life sciences. They have more than doubled their salary income from graduating this program,” said Burlin O’Connell.