New York City Virus Hunters program opens students to science career

NEW YORK CITY — Not surprisingly, it doesn’t take long to find fresh bird poop in Central Park.

On a recent spring day, three high schoolers searched for only a few minutes before finding their first sample.

Mariama Diallo, a senior at Hostos-Lincoln Academy of Science in the South Bronx, carefully scooped up the small white blob with a large Q-tip and placed it into a small test tube. She zipped the tube into a cooler bag to keep it safe and cold until the team could bring it back across the street to a lab at Mount Sinai Hospital.