During the summer, while many students were taking a 3-month break from academics, junior Nathan Sobotka poured his time into medical research.

For years, the medical work of his father sparked his interest. Other family members and family friends are doctors too, giving him insight into research.

Last summer, Sobotka finally decided to try his hand in the field. For a couple weeks, a couple hours each day, he worked with doctors at the Veterans Affairs health care system. The topic was a mouthful: “Percutaneous Creation of a Central Iliac Arteriovenous Anastomosis for the Treatment of Arterial Hypertension.”

Put more simply by Sobotka: “Why your blood pressure doesn’t change when you open a stent–connect a small plastic tube–between an artery and a vein.”

Sobotka helped to review data from clinical trials and other studies, putting together a paper that gives a broad overview of the device-based (ie. a stent) methods used to lower blood pressure.

Covering a topic this in-depth and holistic isn’t easy by any stretch. What’s more is that the paper isn’t a graded assignment, but actual medical research, a standard that most high-schoolers have no experience meeting.

“There’s a lot I needed to learn, and I didn’t have a teacher to go to,” Sobotka said about how the experience was different from a traditional school-work environment.

Nevertheless, the paper was published in March 2018.

And under the “author information” tab, you’ll find “St Paul Academy and Summit School” among research centers around the world.