Outreach

Science Champions 4 Change

The mission of Science Champions 4 Change is to train and develop scientists as Champions – mentors who take a keen interest in the lives and professional development of their mentees; and empower aspiring scientists to achieve their goals. We have recruited scientists to act as mentoring champions for community college students from groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM. Our champions will actively empower and provide resources to students who are interested in pursuing science, but perhaps are not sure how to navigate the path. For many scientists from underrepresented groups in STEM fields, effective mentors were instrumental for achieving success.

Our program has connected current UCI postdoctoral fellows and graduate students with California community college students who are interested in STEM (ex. Las Positas College, American River College, Golden West College), so that these students will have science who can act as champions for them throughout their careers. We began with a specific emphasis on mentoring students from traditionally minoritized backgrounds and currently have 29 students-champion pairs.

Anyone interested can contact Alicia and me using the SciChamps gmail: sciencechampions4change@gmail.com

AWIS@UCI Mentorship Program

The program provides an opportunity for informal mentorship between Postdoctoral Researchers (the mentors) and PhD Students (the mentees).

This program is designed to allow Postdoc Fellows to provide guidance to PhD students as they transition into their next career stage.

The mentorship program will take place during the Spring 2021 quarter, with an estimated total time commitment of 5-6 hours (~1-hour long Zoom meetings every other week).

Interested Postdoctoral mentors and PhD mentees should contact awis@uci.edu

Youth Science Fellowship Program

The UC Irvine, Cancer Research Institute sponsors a summer program in cancer research for high school students. The overall goal is to build the pipeline for the next generation of cancer researchers. A select group of high school students work in the laboratories of CRI affiliates for 6 weeks during the summer. They carry out bench work on research projects under the guidance of faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers or technicians. They also attend a weekly seminar where they receive advice on careers and the college admissions process. At the end of the program they give an oral and poster presentation on their research.

Contact here at cri@darwin.bio.uci.edu