For a second consecutive year, the Letters & Science Summer of Excellence Research Program—better known as LASER—continues to connect underrepresented first-year students with mentors and offer them hands-on lab experience. Through an eight-week program, students immerse themselves in a STEM field by conducting on-campus research 25-30 hours a week while connecting with an expert mentor who supports their journey to success. Three students participated in 2021, LASER’s first year, and that number jumped to seven this summer.
Diana Morales Mijares, a current sophomore and neurobiology/genetics double major, discusses how the LASER Program propelled her forward to break barriers as a freshman. Morales Mijares worked in the lab of chemistry professor Helen Blackwell, conducting research with a focus in chemical biology, specifically the synthesis of inhibitors in relation to regulating quorum sensing communication between bacterial species.
Research, like the work Morales Mijares did in the Blackwell lab, is critical not only for her own scientific advancement but also for the field. Lab research typically revolves around one bacterium, but their project investigates the communication between bacterial species. Hands-on learning in the lab provides an alternate approach to problem-solving, including an emphasis on collaboration with other students and mentors.
Morales Mijares and the other LASER students also took a one-credit course on science communication.
“[LASER] expanded my experience with talking to individuals that don't come from the same STEM backgrounds,” Morales Mijares says. “Hearing from their perspectives is enlightening.”
LASER is one of several initiatives launched by the Center for Academic Excellence (CAE) to give students early exposure to research experiences. José J. Madera, Assistant Dean and Assistant Director for STEM initiatives, discussed the importance of the interconnection between lab research and the impacts this research can have on the future. For the students, it highlights the importance of forming connections between the classroom, lab, and the world.
“What we are trying to achieve is for them to feel more confident–more motivated–so they can continue in that STEM track,” Madera states.
This has been especially true for Morales Mijares, as the discoveries she made changed her perspective on STEM courses, such as organic chemistry. With the ability to connect course concepts to real-world scenarios using the foundation she built in the Blackwell Lab, she was able to efficiently understand how and why the reactions occur, rather than just memorizing the mechanisms of reactions.
For Morales Mijares, another essential piece of her LASER experience was learning to find success in failures. Failing in the lab taught her the importance of resilience, which fed into the idea that most learning comes from failing and being forced to reframe and adjust. Morales Mijares found that learning to fail makes everyday successes that much sweeter.
“Every day in the lab when I do a procedure without my mentor having to look over my shoulder, it is a big success,” she says.
Unlike most programs that focus on third- and fourth-year students, LASER is tailored to first-year students on a STEM track.
Morales Mijares returned to the Blackwell Lab this fall and continues her path to medical school. After the LASER Program, she hopes to participate in a graduate program to pursue her passion for research, a possibility her LASER experience opened to her.
As for the future of LASER, Madera hopes to expand the program to 20 students in its third year. He wants it to be the “engine” that fuels other majors to create programs in non-STEM disciplines that encourage undergraduate students to pursue experience in their potential future careers. Possibilities include majors such as Economics, Information School and Psychology.
“The concept is the same,” says Madera, summing up LASER’s philosophy, “Start here and go anywhere else.”