LOGAN – Almost 30 participants of the Native American STEM Mentorship Program came to Logan to spend four to eight weeks on campus where they have been exploring what options are available for STEM research at USU.
The undergraduate students came from both the USU Eastern Blanding campus and the College of Southern Idaho and presented their research in a poster session Tuesday morning.
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Program coordinator Emily Sadler said the program, which is in its third year, is designed to instill confidence in the students as they prepare to transition to a larger campus.
Cassie Bahe, a presenter from the College of Southern Idaho, is only halfway through her eight-week program, but said it has already influenced some of her decisions moving forward. It made her want to switch her focus and transfer to Utah State.
“Before I came here I just got an associate in mechanical engineering,” she said, “and now, going through this research, I want to switch into biological.”
The program also helped Rolajuwon Clark. He said that even though he is going to stick with his social work major, he enjoyed his scientific research and said he enjoyed learning about all the fields included in STEM.
“When I was thinking of engineering I just thought of civil and mechanical,” he said, “but I didn’t know there was so much more to it, like biological engineering.”
USU Eastern student Dolphina Kaye said her favorite part of her studies on USU’s campus was being able to go to a new place and meet new friends.
“All the professors here are very helpful in helping with research,” she said. “I think I would want to come back here and work with other research. There are so many resources and an availability of facilitators. They took their time to get out of classes and help us.”