California State University, Monterey Bay
Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center
Newsletter -Issue 3 
Fall 2017
UROC students at the CSU Research Competition 
The  CSU Student Research Competition is  held each spring to promote excellence in undergraduate and graduate scholarly research and creative activity by recognizing outstanding student accomplishments across the 23 CSU campuses.

This year, the competition was held at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on April 28-29, 2017. CSUMB sent six undergraduate researchers, representing psychology, marine science, kinesiology, and biology. The undergraduate delegates were accompanied by UROC faculty mentors Dr. Danielle Burchett and Dr. Brian Cook and UROC's Outreach Specialist, Megan Bassett.
From left to right: Dr. Brian Cook, Dr. Danielle Burchette, James Vongsaroj, Sarah Coffin, Cecilia Garcia, Char' Mane Robinson, Katrina Conen, Jayme Luna, and Megan Bassett.
Congratulations to UROC Scholar Char' Mane Robinson and UROC Researcher James Vongsaroj for their first place awards!
"The CSU SRC has been a rewarding team experience that boosted my confidence to continue researching and pursuing an advanced degree. A personal thank you to the UROC program, my faculty mentor, and professors for helping me to achieve this award."
--Char' Mane Robinson
UROC Researcher James Vongsaroj and UROC Scholar Char' Mane Robinson with their first place awards at the CSU Research Competition.
UROC Ambassadors Connect to Middle School Community

This summer, UROC continued to foster partnerships with the Los Arboles Middle School , an Early College and Career focused school located in Marina, steps away from the campus.

UROC Scholar and Ambassadors, Flor Gomez, Blake Hansen, and Emma Haines worked with 9 visiting Los Arboles middle school students in preparation to attend the 2017 Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium. Students spent the afternoon having lunch and talking with the UROC scholars about their CSUMB college life and their research as well as took part in an interactive mock poster presentation workshop to learn about the importance of messaging research in a poster before visiting many of the posters presented that spanned three floors of the Tanimura and Antle Family Memorial Library.
 "They left with the message that it is important to study what interests them and to find something that they are passionate about!" said Mr. Lueken. The symposium visit was the first in several ongoing steps to engage students in academic research and curiosity.

As a next step, UROC Scholar, Katie Brown will collaborate with Los Arboles faculty Julie Haws to include a supplementary four- series workshop focused on sustainable ecological development. The interactive, hands-on series led by Katie, as part of the UROC Ambassador Program, will support the linked learning curriculum Los Arboles has implemented this year to "provide students with real-world and relevant learning experiences where lessons integrate all of the content areas around thematic units" (See Los Arboles letter from Principal Herrera). Katie's project titled Sustainable Community Development Through Experiential Education: Collaboration between Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center (UROC) and Los Arboles Middle School  and is her senior capstone project and presented at the CSUMB Senior Capstone Festival this past fall,
 "They left with the message that it is important to study what interests them and to find something that they are passionate about!"
-- Mr. Lueken, Los Arboles Middle School
Los Arboles students with their UROCs!
If you would like to connect with the UROC Ambassadors program, please email UROC at [email protected]. 
LSAMP Costa Rica Research Trip
This year more than a dozen CSU students participated in the CSU-LSAMP Summer Research program in Costa Rica from 20 June – 24 July. A team from CSU Monterey Bay, consisting of College of Science faculty members Drs. Diana & Milton Lieberman along with Drs. John “Buck” Banks and Carla Fresquez, staff from CSUMB’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center (UROC), led the expedition. Students in STEM majors from eight different CSU campuses participated in the 5-week program, living with local rural families and experiencing Costa Rican culture and language first-hand, all while learning about tropical biodiversity, statistics and research methods.
Costa Rica 2017 Research Expedition in the coffee highlands of Tarrazú.
Undergraduate Research Week 2017
On November 16, 2010 the U.S. House of Representatives declared a week in April as "Undergraduate Research Week." UROC hosts many events during the week to celebrate undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative activity at CSUMB
Award Winning UROCers! 
Two UROC Scholars (one current students and one alumni) and a UROC Researcher were recognized by the  National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) this past spring.

NSF received over 13,000 applications in 2017, and made 2,000 award offers. This prestigious fellowship provides an annual stipend of $34,000 and a $12,000 cost-of-education allowance.

UROC would like to thank the Faculty Mentors and UROC Staff for their support of these UROC Scholars. Congratulations to this year's honorees!

Patrick Carilli, Marine Science, CSUMB Mentor: Dr Cheryl Logan
Awarded a $138,000 GRFP fellowship.

Juan Cerda, (McNair and LSAMP PROUD Scholar), Biology, CSUMB Mentor: Dr. Timothy Miles Awarded:  Honorable Mention

Nicole Barbour, Biology, CSUMB Mentor: Dr. Corey Garza
Awarded:  Honorable Mention

Kevin Johnson, Biology 2012, CSUMB Mentor: Aparna Sreenivasan
Awarded a $138,000 GRFP Fellowship

Two UROC Scholars received Honorable Mention for the  Goldwater Scholarship, awarded on behalf of  Barry Goldwater Scholarship & Excellence in Education Foundation.

Malachi Alexander (Mathematics, CSUMB Mentor: Dr. Alison Lynch) and Blake Hansen (Mathematics; CSUMB Mentor: Dr. Judith Canner) were the only students from the CSU system to receive recognition from Goldwater.

Four CSUMB UROC students were selected as Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholars for the 2017-18 academic year. 

The three UROC Scholars and one UROC Researcher, whose research interested include human sexuality, medicine and epidemiology, environmental stress on marine populations and forensic anthropology, will each receive $3,000 in support of pre-doctoral activities.

Pre-doctoral activities may include visits to doctorate-granting institutions, options for summer research internships or funds for other doctoral program related activities. In addition to this award, each Sally Casanova Scholar will be eligible to apply for an eight-week summer 2018 research experience at a University of California campus or other doctoral-granting institution of their choice.

The  California Pre-Doctoral Program is designed to increase the pool of potential faculty by supporting the doctoral aspirations of California State University (CSU) students who have experienced economic and educational disadvantages. The program places a special emphasis on increasing the number of CSU students who enter doctoral programs at one of the University of California (UC) institutions.

Congratulations to:

  • Julia Barnett, UROC Researcher, Psychology, Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kevin Grobman
  • Robert Castro, UROC Scholar, Biology, Faculty Mentor: Dr. John Goeltz
  • Jacob Green, UROC Scholar, Marine Science, Faculty Mentor: Dr. Cheryl Logan
  • Heriberto Marquez, UROC Scholar, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ruben Mendoza
UROC Pilots Spring Research Intensives at CSUMB
Students in the  BIO 195: Special Topics : Wildlife Research Techniques course got first-hand experience in wildlife biology over spring break by participating in one of two field research projects.

The first, led by Dr. Jenny Duggan, focused on the behavioral ecology of ground squirrels, while the second project, led by Dr. Gerick Bergsma, focused on the insect and spider communities living in and under oak trees at the UC Fort Ord Natural Reserve. 

Field excursions exposed students to a full range of Costa Rica’s spectacular tropical ecosystems, including the lowlands and the coral reefs on the Pacific coast, the central highland coffee-producing region of Tarrazú, the rainforest village of Mastatal, and the cloud forests of the world-famous Monteverde region. In Mastatal, participants worked together to collect pilot data comparing the functional and phylogenetic diversity of forests and ground-dwelling arthropods that was incorporated into a grant proposal aimed at providing more research opportunities in the region. In addition to collecting data together as a class, students designed and carried out their own independent research projects, working solo or as part of a small group. As in past years, some of the students are planning to present their results in regional and national conferences this coming academic year. Pura Vida!
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Summer 2017 Research Symposium
The Summer Research Symposium has become a key mark to the end of the summer at CSUMB. The 2017 Summer Research Symposium   grew once again , taking up all three floors of the Tanimura and Antle Family Memorial Library! . The symposium was a collaboration between UROC, the Monterey Bay Regional Ocean Science Research Experience for Undergraduates program, the Naval Post Graduate School, and Hartnell Community College. 

The symposium comprised of 25 oral presentations (13 REU, 8 UROC, and 4 NPS) and 67 research posters (45 UROC, 20 NPS, and 2 Hartnell Community College). 

Prior to the symposium, UROC partnered with CSUMB's Educational Opportunity Program's summer bridge  to facilitate an interactive session on how to navigate and get the most out of a research poster. The day of the event EOP staff sent them on a scavenger hunt of research posters! 

UROC Scholar, Emily Smith (Social and Behavioral Sciences) was highlighted in the CSUMB news for her research in pre-Incan archaeology.

Meet the UROC team!                         
Dr. Heather Haeger is the Educational Research Associate in the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Center (UROC) at California State University, Monterey Bay. She conducts research on educational equity in high-impact practices and the transition to graduate education. Heather is currently working with two undergraduate researchers, Flor Gomez and Camille Smith, to assess UROC programs and explore barriers to participation in research.
Heather is also serving as the Assessment Research Coordinator, a national fellowship from the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR). She has worked to synthesize and organize previous research on undergraduate research, build research partnerships, and support CUR members in conducting assessment on their campuses including delivering a webinar with over 80 attendees.
Heather received her Ph.D. in Education Policy, Studies and Practices from the University of Arizona. From 2011-2014, she was an Assistant Research Faculty in the Center for Post-secondary Research at Indiana University. She worked on designing, testing, and administering surveys on student engagement including the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and the Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE).

When not researching, Heather loves to travel with her husband and 1 year-old son. She’s explored 45 states in the US and hopes to make it to all 50 soon.
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