August 2, 1999

Community college students conduct scientific research at UCSC through Summer Research Institute

By Tim Stephens

This summer, 18 students from local community colleges experienced the world of scientific research through an innovative campus program. As participants in the Summer Research Institute, the students lived on campus for seven weeks while they worked in the laboratories of UCSC faculty members and conducted individual research projects.

Professor of chemistry Phillip Crews hosted four community college students as interns in his laboratory this summer (more). Photo: Victor Schiffrin

The Summer Research Institute is one of the components of ACCESS, a UCSC community college outreach program that has been successful in encouraging more students to pursue research careers. The ACCESS program is a partnership between UCSC and four local community colleges: Cabrillo College, Gavilan College, Hartnell College, and Monterey Peninsula College.

The faculty members who host students in the program design a research project for each participant that will yield results within the seven-week period of the summer institute. The students are given guidance and instruction from the entire team of researchers that make up each faculty member’s research group. As a final project, all students present a 15-minute talk on their research findings to UCSC scientists, friends, and family.

ACCESS is a program for community college students that focuses on students belonging to groups with below-average UC eligibility and enrollment rates, and groups that are not fully represented in the biomedical sciences. Each student accepted into the program receives a salary and oncampus housing. When the students return to their community colleges in the fall, they are often hired as study session leaders for science and math courses they have completed. Some of the students will be hired to give science presentations at local high schools through a new UCSC program called Leading with Research.

UCSC professor of chemistry Phillip Crews founded the ACCESS program in 1994 with funding from the National Institutes of Health. The program recently expanded to include Gavilan College with funds from the UCSC Transfer Partnerships Program. ACCESS is now codirected by Crews and Lisa Hunter.

One of the participants in this summer's program was Harvey Magaña, a Cabrillo College student who worked with UCSC professor of chemistry David Deamer. Magaña worked closely with Deamer and graduate student Charles Apel on a project to examine a Martian meteorite for clues to the origins of life.

"Dave Deamer is an excellent example of the contributions UCSC faculty make to the community colleges," said Hunter. "He not only opened his lab to Harvey, he visited each of our partner colleges last year and gave a presentation on careers in science."

Other students participating in the Summer Research Institute this year include:

• Maribel Romero, from Cabrillo College, who worked in professor of biology Martha Zuñiga's laboratory;
• Stanley Osuorji, from Gavilan College, who worked in Crews's laboratory;
• Maricela Gonzalez, from Gavilan College, who worked in professor of biology Barry Bowman's laboratory;
• Erik Washburn, from Hartnell College, who worked in the laboratory of research scientist Anastassia Kanavarioti and professor of chemistry Claude Bernasconi;
• Frank Rivera, from Monterey Peninsula College, who this summer did his second internship in the laboratory of professor of chemistry Rebecca Braslau;
• Erika Angel, from Cabrillo College, who worked in professor of chemistry Theodore Holman's lab.

For more information about the Summer Research Institute and the ACCESS program, contact Lisa Hunter at (831) 459-4197 or at access@chemistry.ucsc.edu. The ACCESS Program is funded by the National Institutes of Health's Bridges to the Future Program and the UC Santa Cruz Transfer Partnerships Program.

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