Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center

News

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• UROC Host First Ever McNair Alumni Panel

  On December 13, 2019, the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center (UROC) hosted the first ever McNair Alumni Panel where we welcomed seven former UROC McNair Scholars all currently in different stages of their doctoral studies. We also welcomed founding UROC Director, William Head, and UROC Donors Phillip Butler and Barbara Baldock, who have financially supported 14 UROC undergraduate researchers since 2011.

• Fall Showcase 2019 Winners

  Now in it's 5th year, CSUMB hosted the Fall Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, & Creative Studies Activity Showcase on November 7, 2019. Modeled after the Cal State University Student Research Competition, the Showcase provides students the opportunity to highlight their scholarly work at CSUMB.

• CSUMB Students travel to Japan to work on Okinawa Memories Initiative

  There are caves everywhere in Okinawa. Some are tunnels, hundreds of meters long, carved by people preparing for the bloodiest battle in all of World War II. Most caves, however, are the natural products of underground rivers seeping through Ryukyu limestone. To go inside these caves and experience the darkness and silence is to imagine the experiences of those many people who died there. This is one way that researchers can come one step closer to understanding the history of the place. Today, Okinawa is a vibrant, cosmopolitan place, intimately linked to other parts of Asia. And yet the war, in which one-third of Okinawan civilians died, can still be felt in many places and conversations.

• CSUMB Undergrad Selected for Pre-Doctoral Scholarship

  We are pleased to announce Selena Velasquez has been selected as Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholars for the 2019-20 academic year! Velasquez is also a recipient of the CSU Trustee Award for Outstanding Achievement and will receive faculty mentorship from College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences Assistant Professor Kevin Grobman. This year, the Sally Casanova Scholarship program reviewed over 250 applications from across the CSU. A total of 74 total Sally Casanova Scholars were selected, in both undergraduate and graduate categories. This marks the 6th consecutive year CSUMB undergraduates have been awarded in the Pre Doc Program. Learn more about Velasquez accomplishments and her efforts to pursue a Ph.D on our news page.

• Spring 2019 Community Engaged Research Grant Recipients: Kelly Medina Lopez and Shantel Martinez

  Kelly Medina-López and Shantel Martinez are using this grant to support the development of a research and theory intensive experience that examines the US/Mexico borderlands. Central to this experience is a 10-day visit to the US/Mexico border in El Paso, Texas. This research intensive experience will allow students to dive deep and cultivate nuanced understandings concerning trans border lives and narratives at the El Paso/ Juárez border. El Paso/Juárez provides a unique research opportunity as it is one of the largest and most militarized port of entries for the United States and Mexico border with 6.8 million pedestrians, 12.3 million personal vehicles, and 760,000 commercial vehicles crossing in 2015 (Department of Homeland Security). Given the rich and often contentious political history of the region, El Paso/ Juarez presents itself as a unique border site to conduct research, often not presented to Undergraduate students. Additionally, with Trump’s rhetoric of border security, the lives in El Paso/ Juárez are delicately contingent upon border crossing and trans migratory politics, culture, and bodies. The goals of this class is for CSUMB students who are interested in border narratives to immerse themselves in a transnational research experience in shared expertise with our colleagues at University Texas, El Paso and La Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez. Outcomes:

• MSCI Student's Summer Research Secures Award at recent SACNAS Conference

  Charles Nye, a Marine Science student and UROC Researcher, recently received a Student Presentation Award at the National Diversity in STEM Conference for his summer research project. Put on by the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), this conference allows students to share their research in a professional setting, network with STEM professionals, and attend professional development sessions.

• MSCI Student's Summer Research Secures Award at recent SACNAS Conference

  Charles Nye, a Marine Science student and a UROC Researcher, recently received a Student Presentation Award at the National Diversity in STEM Conference for his summer research project. Put on by the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), this conference allows students to share their research in a professional setting, network with STEM professionals, and attend professional development sessions.

• Spring Intensive Courses

  Are you interested in getting research experience over Spring Break? The BIO 195: Special Topics (1-4 units): Wildlife Research Techniques course is designed to get first-hand experience in wildlife biology. Read more about our two courses and make sure to register by February 4, 2019! Open to all majors and no research experience required.

• CSUMB’s Bryan Sierra-Rivera Receives CSU Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Achievement

  SEASIDE, Calif., September 11, 2018 – CSUMB senior Bryan Sierra-Rivera has been awarded the 2018 California State University (CSU) Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Achievement, the CSU’s highest recognition of student achievement. The 23 awardees, one from each campus in the CSU, were publicly recognized during the CSU Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach on September 11, 2018.

• CSUMB Marine Science & UROC alumna featured in San Francisco Chronicle

  CSUMB Marine Science & UROC alumna, Emily King, was recently featured in the San Francisco Chronicle discussing her project on the invasion of destructive snails in Bay Area waters. To read more about her research, check out the article on the San Francisco Chronicle website.

• ​California State University, Monterey Bay TELACU Scholar

  Bryan Sierra-Rivera was born in Mexico City and raised in a small rural village more than 90 minutes from reliable healthcare. In 2000, his parents moved the family to the United States in pursuit of a better life. A first-generation American citizen and first-generation college student, Bryan now plans to be the first member of his family to earn a Ph.D.