Underrepresented students at community colleges face challenges of financial resources, persistence rates and transfer rates to four-year universities. This hampers their ability to progress towards building a career in a STEM field or to enter a graduate degree program.

Drs. Regis Komperda, Mikael Bergdahl and Byron Purse and their colleagues at Southwestern Community College (SWC) have developed a mentoring and research experience bridging the SDSU and SWC chemistry and biochemistry programs. Students interested in chemistry are offered scholarships, paired with faculty mentors, and provided critical lab experience and research opportunities.

This project will help remove roadblocks to student transfer and post-transfer success by supporting
students while they complete chemistry and STEM programs at SWC and earn chemistry and biochemistry degrees at SDSU. It will ultimately allow them to graduate with less debt and continue on to careers and graduate studies in STEM.

This work is supported by the National
Science Foundation (DUE-1929758).

"Positive mentored undergraduate research experiences are key to helping students feel like part of the scientific community and to their persistence in earning degrees. We are thrilled to bring these students into the research lab and to help them achieve their goals.” -Regis Komperda 

https://newscenter.sdsu.edu/sdsu_newscenter/news_story.aspx?sid=77800