In summer 2023, when most college students were taking vacations and having fun in the sun, a group of UTA students was diving into the deep end of immersive research right here on campus and as far away as Singapore.

The students’ work was made possible through the University of Texas System’s Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program, which is geared toward students from historically underrepresented populations. Named for American civil rights pioneer, politician, and attorney Louis Stokes, the National Science Foundation-funded LSAMP Summer Research Academy provides selected students with a $4,000 stipend to offset costs related to a 30-hour per week intensive research experience. Students can study at one of eight participating University of Texas campuses, or they can choose to study abroad.

During the program, students worked alongside nationally and internationally recognized professors performing supervised research and attending meetings related to their fields of interest.

Bryce Vilaysane, who conducted research on tuberculosis in the lab of Catherine Wein Min Ong at the National University of Singapore (NUS), says the experience brought benefits far beyond the research itself.

“Living in Singapore gave me such a unique and new cultural perspective, especially given that Singapore is a rich melting pot of different Asian cultures from the surrounding countries,” he says. “As for the academic side of my experience, it was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I will never forget. The NUS campus was massive, and the facility that I worked at had cutting-edge research technology.”

Students in the program also received support to attend the UT System LSAMP’s conference held at the University of Texas at El Paso.

For Christina Nguyen, a senior biology major who conducted her research locally, the El Paso conference was a highlight of her participation. At the conference, she received a second-place award for her project on antibiotic-resistant bacteria, an increasingly challenging problem in health care, and something she will likely learn more about if she achieves her dream of attending medical school after graduation.

“I gained valuable career insight from LSAMP directors across Texas and friends from difference UT institutions who are pursuing the same path as me,” Nguyen says.

Since its inception, more than 90% of UT LSAMP scholars have gone on to graduate from UT System schools, according to Excelencia in Education. Between 1993 and 2020, more than 2,100 students have participated in the summer research academy, and more than 350 have chosen to participate in the UT System student research conference held in El Paso each year. Additionally, more students statewide are pursuing opportunities abroad. Between 2015 and 2020, 35 students conducted research in Austria, England, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and Taiwan.

“LSAMP has demonstrated how collaborative efforts to encourage more students to pursue STEM research can reap huge rewards,” says Kayunta Johnson-Winters, interim director of the Office of Undergraduate Research at UTA and an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry. “This program serves as an impressive example of Texas’ statewide commitment to improving enrollment, retention, performance, and graduation of underrepresented groups who have not always had access to higher education.”