Office of Undergraduate Research

Student Success and Transfer Articulation through Research and Support Services

Office of Undergraduate Research: Student Success and Transfer Articulation through Research and Support Services (STARS) Program

STARS Program is funded by a Department of Education grant aims to increase the institutional capacity of CPP, Citrus, and Mt. SAC to engage Hispanic and other low-income students in STEM disciplines through undergraduate research and related wrap-around services.  
The goal of this program is to ensure exposure to undergraduate research early and throughout the student’s university and college career with support services that ensure students develop a sense of STEM self-efficacy, receive timely information, receive proactive advising and mentoring, and foster students’ sense of belonging to both higher education and the STEM community. We ask that faculty members strongly encourage students from traditionally underrepresented groups in postsecondary education, such as Hispanic students, low-income students, first-generation students, and other disconnected students to apply for the STARS Program (student application will be available shortly).  

 

What will the program provide?

  • The STARS assistant director can facilitate the connection of the faculty mentor to our industry advisory partners which includes NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, among others. 
  • The STARS assistant director will work with the Office of Undergraduate Research at CPP, Student Support Services (SSS) programs, and cultural centers, among other programs at CPP, Mt. SAC, and Citrus to identify students in the target population. The staff will also coordinate with the Offices of Financial Aid and Scholarships to identify all low-income students. 
  • The STARS program will announce the research opportunities and promote the program across the partnering institutions. The application system will be established, and initial screening will be conducted to select students that fit the faculty mentor's expectations.  
  • The STARS team has developed faculty mentor training workshops built upon the work by Drs. Byars-Winston and Pfund (University of Wisconsin- Madison) and Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning, Salient Practices of Undergraduate Research Mentors. Through these resources, mentors can develop practices that help mentees strengthen their STEM identity, develop confidence as STEM professionals, and navigate within the STEM culture. Mentors will also be trained to seek frequent feedback from students and validate the different approaches that students might take to a research question based on their educational and personal experiences. 
  • The STARS program will recruit students and will provide financial support for the duration of the research. Each student will receive $1,000 per semester during the academic year and $4,000 for the 8-week summer research program.  
  • Faculty mentors can receive up to $800 reimbursement for supplies for the academic year or up to $400 per semester related to the research project per mentee.
 

Who are eligible to become mentors? What is required?

We are recruiting faculty members interested in supporting the undergraduate research mentorship under STARS. Faculty participating in the STARS Undergraduate Research Experience will: 
  • Establish a mentoring relationship with the student(s) accepted into their labs. 
  • Design a research project that allows CPP and community college students to be engaged in several of the following: literature review, experiment design, data collection, data analysis, and research presentation. 
  • Articulate structure for the research experience which could be as short as one semester, or spans over multiple semesters, including a full-time (8-week) summer research program.  
  • Be available to students across the research project providing guidance and feedback on their work and engaging student(s) in conversation about the project to help them strengthen their analytical and critical thinking skills as well as their understanding of the discipline. 
  • Guide in the development and approval of a student‐made research poster and research paper.  
  • Participate in faculty mentor workshops before the start of the research program. 
  • Participate in occasional student cohort-building activities during the research program. 
  • Complete all pre-and post‐surveys to help assess the undergraduate research program. 

 

 

STEM Guidelines

The project should be a STEM project idea or in a STEM field.
STEM includes the following disciplines:
  • Agriculture and related sciences
  • Biological and Biomedical Sciences
  • Computer/Info Sciences/Support Tech
  • Engineering
  • Health Sciences
  • Mathematics and Statistics
  • Physical Sciences
  • Clinical Psychology