In January (4-16), twenty-four students from thirteen community colleges in Northern California participated in the third cycle of the Winter Research Program for Community College Students at CBST (program known as ‘CCWinter’). This year the program was co-facilitated by Drs Corbacho and Gurkoff  and co-funded by CBST (NSF funds) and the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences (HHMI funds). Twenty-two of the students plan to transfer to a four-year university in 2010, of which sixteen plan to transfer to UCD as their first choice. The big majority of the participants  (83%) are working students, with an average of 18 work-hours a week.

Participating Community Colleges: American River College (6), Cañada College (1), Contra Costa College (1), Consumnes River College (3), Hartnell College (1), Mendocino College (1), Merced Community College (1), Mission College (1), Napa Valley College (1), Sacramento City College (2), Skyline College (1), Solano Community College (2), Yuba College (2).

In the words of the participants:

‘There were no straightforward answers during this internship; the only answers that were discovered required countless hours of research. Though frustrating at times, these types of challenges certainly added to the suspense and fun of conducting successful research. I certainly look forward to doing more research in the future.’-  Angel Asante, Contra Costa College, majoring in biomedical engineering

‘Before this internship I didn’t have a clear idea of what research entails and if it was right for me. I had always wanted to become a veterinarian, but my eyes are now open to more possibilities such as a dual degree program to also obtain a PhD. I never would have guessed that I could have learned so much and grown so much as a person in just two weeks.’ – Terra Berardi, Sacramento City College, majoring in zoology.

…’time was spent working together, discussing, planning, testing, gathering data, coming up with conclusions, and writing reports; all while having a ton of fun.’ Hiram Dominguez-Cruz – Merced Community College, majoring in biology.

‘The research that we did was extremely interesting and it challenged us to think on our feet. There was no SOP or lab manual to tell us what to do.  More than once we were unsure of how to proceed.  We had to work together though, and accumulate our collective knowledge.  This was the challenging and fun part about the research.  Working collectively, we were able to solve the problems that were presented to us. I learned a lot and I was able to put a lot of what I new to use.

This internship really opened my eyes to the possibilities that there are for research in the future, possibilities that I was unaware of before. ‘ Jazmyn Wright, Solano Community College, majoring in biology.

For more comments visit:

https://sites.google.com/a/cbst.ucdavis.edu/www/educa/cm/ccwinter-winter-internship-program-for-community-college-students/2010-ccwinter/2010-winter