Collaborative Research: REU Site: MICRO-CCS: Microbial Interactions Create Research Opportunities for Community College Students

This REU Site award to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Parkland College, located in Champaign, IL, will support the training of 10 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2024-2026. It is anticipated that 30 students from community colleges will be trained in the program. Students will participate in a research training boot camp at Parkland College, followed by completing a research project at the University of Illinois. The program will provide research opportunities, scientific training, and mentoring for community college students with the goal of increasing transfer rates to four-year institutions and matriculation to graduate schools, as well as increasing student retention in STEM career pathways. Students will learn how research is conducted, and many will present the results of their work at scientific conferences. Assessment of this program will be done through an online tool. Students will be tracked after the program in order to determine their career paths. In the program, participants will complete research projects about microbial interactions in food, agriculture, and environmental sciences. Faculty representing nine departments from two colleges will serve as faculty mentors, while graduate students or postdoctoral associates will provide day-to-day mentoring. The program includes a Research Orientation Bootcamp held at Parkland College, which develops fundamental laboratory skills and provides an introduction to university research, and a multi-part professional development series that includes information about transferring from community colleges to four-year institutions. At the end of the program, participants will present their research results as poster presentations at a local research symposium. Application materials include a resume, personal statement, unofficial transcripts, and one reference letter. Applications will be accepted from mid-December through early March through the NSF-ETAP portal (https://etap.nsf.gov/) and will be evaluated by the program directors. Participants will be selected based on program fit, having little to no prior research experience, and completion of relevant coursework. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.