There are three National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored first-year writing “Student as Scholar” seminars offered in the Fall of 2016. Students who select first year writing seminars that are part of this program will work in groups to design and execute independent research projects under the guidance of peer mentors and faculty. These seminars offer additional research experiences to first year students interested in majoring in Biology or Environmental Science, and include an opportunity to compete for a limited number of spring 2017 and summer 2017 research experiences
Coastal Sage Scrub: A Habitat on the Brink of Extinction Professor Cheryl Swift
OncoImmunology Seminar Professor Sylvia Vetrone
Topics in Aging Professor Hector Valenzuela
First-year Seminar in the fall semester, Apprenticeships in the spring open to a subset of students who successfully compete for funding, Intensive Research during summer for the students in the apprenticeship program, and Student Mentorship as the students in the apprenticeship program engage as mentors for the “Students as Scholars” participants in the fall of 2017.
Students who complete summer research will present their findings at the Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research (SCCUR) in November of 2017.
The figure below outlines the program design:
