PROPEL Research Fellows

The PROPEL program is the first of its kind in the country! The PROPEL program evolved from the Biology Undergraduate Apprenticeship (BUA) program. Our research with BUA has shown that making research opportunities available to all students through this framework increases participation of under-represented groups. The PROPEL Research Fellows help us better reach students and mentors, improve the web site and analyze data to evaluate PROPEL's impact. We will work together on methods to evaluate the success of the program and to identify our shortcomings. We have a new grant "A Bottom-Up Network for Developing Transparent Policies and Mechanisms for Equitable Access to STEM Undergraduate Research Experiences" that will bring faculty from departments in the Colleges of Natural Sciences and Engineering are together to learn faculty experiences and traditions in different disciplines and from scholars nationwide. PROPEL Research Fellows will help research into best practices in recruiting and mentoring undergraduate students and organize the monthly mutual mentoring events. We will put together reports to improve the undergraduate experience at UMass, communicate our data on the web site and publish our results in a research journal. This could be a great senior thesis for this or next year!