- Kyle Mandapat
- Asst. Director for Communications
- INCLUDES SEAS Islands Alliance Guam Hub & EPSCoR GRA
- University of Guam, SEAS Island Alliance Guam
- Austin Shelton
- Principal Investigator
- INCLUDES SEAS Islands Alliance Guam Hub & EPSCoR GRA
- University of Guam, SEAS Island Alliance Guam
Public Discussion
Continue the discussion of this presentation on the Multiplex. Go to Multiplex
Sarai Vega
Programs such as this, along with dedicated mentors have been so important in my growth as a scientist. I am truly grateful for this work.
Chanda Jefferson
Cheryl Sangueza
Kyle Mandapat
Asst. Director for Communications
Hafa Adai Sarai!
We are so grateful for your contributions to the group! We look forward to seeing more of what you, Dr. Fujimura and the rest of the team accomplish!
Chanda Jefferson
Cheryl Sangueza
Cheryl Sangueza
Thank you Kyle and Matt - for helping our students share their stories!!
Chanda Jefferson
Sally Crissman
Senior Science Educator
It is encouraging to hear testimony from students who are supported by these programs. I'm curious about how students become aware of the programs and the organization of trainings, assignment of mentors etc.and how many participants are involved each year. Is there a formal system for communication between and among participants in different islands?
Great project - I look forward to learning more.
Sally
Chanda Jefferson
Cheryl Sangueza
Sarai Vega
Sarai Vega
I am a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA). The EPSCoR GRA program is linked to the Biology, M.Sc. program at the University of Guam. Many students apply to the EPSCoR program first and then to the master's program. In my case, I joined the master's program first and that's how I found out about EPSCoR. Each mentor oversees a lab, so depending on the areas of interest of each student, they can find out if there are any spots available in their lab of interest. Once within the program, the Program Associate and other staff make sure to keep us informed and in the loop about conferences, volunteering opportunities, etc. The amount of participants varies from year to year. We have started to have seminars, where each lab shares how their work fits into the bigger picture of the project.
Daniel Damelin
Senior Scientist
+1 to Sally's questions. The testimony from the students was very powerful. How do the students become involved? How much agency to they have over what is studied? And what does the support structure look like through the life-cycle of a project?
Cheryl Sangueza
Cheryl Sangueza
Håfa adai Sally and Daniel!
I am Cheryl Sangueza - a CO-PI for NSF INCLUDES SEAS Islands Alliance Guam hub (we are in an amazing alliance with PR and USVI) and a lead for Guam EPSCoR Education and Workforce Development, student programming. I oversee student programming for both grants, which includes research experiences for HS, community college, undergraduate, graduate (Hey Sarai!! :)), post-doc, and early career levels. Experiences include research and presentation at local and national conferences, outreach and volunteerism, professional development, and our Near Peer Mentorship program. For INCLUDES, students participate in Alliance level events where they get to network and interact with faculty and students across all three hubs. INCLUDES students also serve on alliance level working groups and volunteer for roles such as MC'ing the Alliance Annual Summit.
You folks ask great questions and I can address them privately if you'd like (csangueza@triton.uog.edu). I'm not trying to avoid answering here, but as you can see, we have a diversity of levels and designs of programming between the two grants.
You can also visit each grant's website for information!
https://www.seasislandsalliance.org/
https://guamepscor.uog.edu/
Thank you for viewing our video! The students are super awesome - and so is our team (program associates and sci comm!!) who forever cheers them on!
Kyle Mandapat
Asst. Director for Communications
The amazing work and passion that the Leadership and program associates put into this work makes our part of the process so much easier.
You guys are changing lives and inspiring students so much!
Theresa Melton
What a great video! Amazing work capturing student experiences and highlighting the impact this program is having. Well done!!
Kyle Mandapat
Asst. Director for Communications
Thank you so much Theresa! It is so great to see the change in the students level of confidence! The students in the video are confident, strong and ready to make an impact in STEM.
Francheska Figueroa
Hafa Adai! I have spent time on Guam working with GDOE and in the schools with teachers so I'm so happy to see this project. Great video showcasing the students in STEM on Guam and I agree that the students are confident and empowered to to become leaders in STEM. I applaud you and your project!
Cheryl Sangueza
Chanda Jefferson
Educator/Education Policy Fellow
Amazing!!! Hi my name is Chanda Jefferson and I am so happy to join the conversation. This program is wonderful and I have to echo that the students' testimonials are so powerful! I am a former Biology teacher and I currently work on Capitol Hill. I am curious to know if students in the programs across islands have a platform or group (ex. Facebook, Google Group) to communicate with each other about their projects. I also want to know if you all have shared your work with Congressman Michael F.Q. San Nicolas's offices, I am sure he would be thrilled to know about your program.
Karen M Peterman
Hi Chandra, and thanks for your question. My name is Karen Peterman, and my company is the backbone organization for the SEAS Islands Alliance. Your question is very timely - it is actually the focus of our upcoming Steering Committee meeting. We have some structures for students to communicate with one another across island, the need for more!
Students have the chance to be part of our cross-hub working groups, and a subset attend a conference together every year. We host an all-Alliance virtual Summit each year, and the Alliance also includes a Bridge to PhD program that brings some students together in-person each summer.
We've tried virtual groups, and had less success there. We started with Slack and didn't get a lot of traction there, and so shifted to a What's App group instead. We are finding that students and faculty want more ways to connect with one another "live" and so our current hope is to support virtual affinity groups that can meet two or three times in the months ahead and then see each other in-person at this year's SACNAS conference. We're also starting a LinkedIn Group so that we can connect profiles across the Alliance.
Thank you so much for questions and your interest in our project. If you have suggestions for successful strategies for student communication, please share those - we are eager to learn from others!
Chanda Jefferson
Chanda Jefferson
Educator/Education Policy Fellow
Awesome! I would love to connect! Correction... I was asking if you all have connected with Rep. San Nicolas's about the project.
Austin Shelton
Principal Investigator
Hafa Adai Chanda,
I'm Austin Shelton, PI of the Guam Hub of the NSF INCLUDES SEAS Islands Alliance. Yes, we do visit and share updates with Congressman San Nicolas and his office regarding SEAS and other projects. We'll make sure to share our video with him too.
Austin
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Thank your for sharing this presentation. I love hearing the impacts of the project from the voices of participants. It's powerful and inspiring.