Grant-Funded Students Researching, Training This Summer

The UA maintains numerous programs that enable students to spend their summers researching, training and getting ready for graduate school.

By La Monica Everett-Haynes, University Communications
June 25, 2008

Graduate school-bound students on campus this summer are building their potential to someday discover new drug treatments, figure out cures to diseases and provide a better understanding of human nature and the character of the world beyond Earth, among other feats.

And several University of Arizona programs are helping them along the way.

Maria Teresa Velez, the UA Graduate College associate dean, has spent years pulling in federal and foundation grants to fund research opportunities and training for undergraduates, particularly those who are low-income, minority and first generation college students.

“Underrepresented students are in the spotlight,” Velez said, adding that it is critical for those students to be engaged in activities that will guide them toward graduate school and build and cultivate their talent along the way.

“We have been very spoiled in the United States because we had brought in some of the best minds in the world,” she said.

“A sizable number of our graduate students were coming form international countries, but many of those countries are booming now and so some of them don’t need us as much right now and they don’t want to stay,” said Velez, the principal investigator on several grants funding programs for students bound for graduate school.

That is why the UA maintains programs like the Ronald E. McNair Achievement Program, the Summer Research Opportunities Program, the Summer Research Institute and Minority Access to Careers, or MARC. All told, the programs work with hundreds of students and include a small number of individuals from Mexico.

“If they are open and committed, then at the end of the 10 weeks is this rich and intense experience,” said Nura A. Dualeh, McNair’s assistant director. “That time can be so impactful.”

Students Choose Their Research

The programs – some of which run all year – allow students to spend their summer working in laboratories, on projects or initiating their own research alongside faculty mentors and graduate students.

This summer, students have initiated projects on the little known 1918 Battle of Ambos in Nogales, American Indian oral histories and comparing the treatment of African American and white quarterbacks playing in the National Football League, among other topics.

Guleed Ali, a UA geosciences senior and student in the McNair program, is studying geological anomalies in California – hills made of granite surrounded by dissimilar hills.

“It would be interesting to know the ages of these hills,” said Ali, who is studying tectonics in the southern region of California by using thermochronology, a process used to date material. It would give scientists insight into the history of the region and perhaps even its future.

“If a quake hits again, it could destroy everything,” Ali said, adding that he has been to the region to collect samples.

Ali said he has been able to conduct his research because of the UA’s support.

"I didn't know what I would study in my field before," Ali said.

"But the program has helped me to understand methodology. Any research opens your mind to thinking in new ways and about new ideas," he said. "My mind is now thinking differently, and I hope I can do more research in the future."

That's what UA coordinators want to hear.

But to get students to that point sometimes takes time.

Some of the students in the summer programs have shared experiences of neglect as students and have felt they wouldn’t know how to make it to graduate school, said Donna Treloar, the UA’s assistant director of graduate diversity programs.

“They’ve never had a counselor tell them they’re college material or they may not have experienced any advising that would have led them in that direction,” Treloar said.

The programs are meant to be comprehensive, providing students with a chance to explore their fields of study while also teaching them both the covert and overt rules associated with higher education, research and self-presentation.

They learn how to interact with faculty and researchers, how to interview for different positions, how to write a research paper and prepare a curriculum vitae.

“I use myself as an example to the students,” said Treloar, who completed the Summer Research Institute, or SRI, at the UA in 1997 and now coordinates the institute.

“I strongly believe that my experience in SRI is exactly why I was accepted into my graduate program,” she said adding that, by then, she had research experience, a paper and more confidence.

Carlos Parra said he’s had a similar experience.

“They know that we’re going through a hard time and also a growth process,” said Parra, a secondary education senior who also is studying history and bilingual education.

“I thought graduate school would be very similar to being an undergraduate, but I’ve learned that it’s not at all,” he said. “The things I’ve learned so far have really opened my mind to things I need to start doing right now so that I can be ahead of the other graduate school applications.”

He has spent the summer studying the 1918 Battle of Ambos in Nogales, one his family used to tell stories about when he was a child. After his Nogales High School history teacher spoke about the battle, Parra decided to began studying what happened during the clash, which he said “has been lost in oral history.”

While conducting their summer research, student in the Summer Research Opportunities Program are involved in a series of workshops and classes.

Learning Outside of the Lab

On a recent Monday afternoon, Kathryn Kellner had Carlos Parra stand at the front of the room – back straight, elbows gently bent, eyes forward – and present his research.

Other students watched during the training exercise, which was meant to prepare them for interviews, presentations and other formal situations. The students worked on the tone and timber of their voices, their gestures, how they held their bodies and other notables.

Kellner, a trained specialist who has a background in musical theater, urged Parra and the other students to practice, saying “It will make a difference in your presentation.”

Nura A. Dualeh said such training is essential to students, especially those who may arrive with little knowledge of higher education and the culture of the University.

“We’re validating the skills the students have and constantly helping them to take those skills to another level,” Dualeh said. “We’re making the experience richer and more directed.”

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