REU Site: Computational Biology Research - Gateway to STEM

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This REU Site award to Princeton University in Princeton, NJ, will support the training of six formerly incarcerated students for nine weeks during summers of 2021 and 2022. The Site offers intensive exposure to scientific thinking for non-STEM majors with excellent grades in mathematics coursework. Students will learn how research is conducted, its ethics, its roles in society, and how to present their results orally and in writing. Assessment of the program will use the online SALG URSSA tool. Trainees will be tracked after the program to determine their career paths. Computational research approaches are rooted in mathematics; and biology, being all around us, is a natural subject of human intellectual curiosity. Projects will span many departments and faculty mentors. Exposure to the rewards and benefits of STEM education and careers, and to the connections among science, biology, and the lives of their communities, may lead some trainees to consider a STEM major. STEM education offers high-level workforce readiness for formerly incarcerated students, enabling them to be valued employees who contribute to American economic success and become respected members of society, and opening paths to more rewarding futures for their families. STEM education of formerly incarcerated students has the potential to diversify the STEM workforce; bring new insights that may enrich employment practice; and bring to the workplace perspectives that may spread to the society at large. All participants will become more informed citizens with enhanced ability to identify and interpret facts and communicate across disciplinary and experiential boundaries. The Site leverages and extends a long-standing volunteer effort at Princeton University that includes teaching of community college-accredited STEM courses to incarcerated students and cooperating with reentry professionals to advance the education of formerly incarcerated students in New Jersey. In year one of this pilot, the Site will accept students from local reentry partners while establishing new partnerships nationwide. The demographics of incarceration mean that most trainees will be from under-represented groups and have no prior research experience. More information, research descriptions, and applications are available at https://vonholdt.princeton.edu/REU.html or from the PI (Dr. Bridgett vonHoldt, vonholdt@Princeton.EDU) or co-PI (Dr. Jannette Carey, jcarey@princeton.edu).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.