CSCI Student Research

Student Research Assistant Program

The experience of being an undergraduate student research assistant is the pinnacle academic experience for any science student and a proven best practice. The College of Science is working to expand the number of students who have the opportunity to participate in this program in order to (1) Transform students into thinking of themselves as scientists through being entrusted by an experienced researcher with crucial pieces of equipment or critical processes (2) Increase employability upon graduation and the odds of acceptance into graduate school (3) Help students pay their tuition while working in their field and allows them to find mentors in the industry.

Student testimonies

"I feel that this experience was a meaningful part of the reason that I just received a job offer from Kaiser, and that the experience I gained while working on this project will help me to be more successful in my new role. I offer my most sincere thanks to the funders of this project for giving me this wonderful opportunity." - Kelly Radimer, Statistics (Mentor: Eric Suess)
"In addition to the lab experiments, I presented at three different conferences. I won first place in the prestigious Dolores C. Shockley Competition - named after the first Black woman to receive a Ph.D. in Pharmacology. I also won first place at the recent CSU Student Research Competition and competed against graduate and undergraduate students across the 23 CSU campuses." - Taylor Quintana, Psychology & Biology (Mentor: Ram Kandasamy)
"Being a paid student research assistant was an amazing opportunity, especially as a first-year graduate student. As I am a first-generation Mexican American student, graduate school came with its own unique obstacles and challenges. As I had lost my job due to the pandemic, it was great to be able to solely focus on my research and schoolwork and not have to worry about needing to work another job." - Alejandra Moreno, Biological Sciences and Chemistry (Mentor: Ana Almeida)
"Truth be told, this program helped more than I ever thought it would. For starters, I have been doing research for almost two years and never imagined that I would be so lucky as to get paid for it. Throughout this semester specifically, I was able to set up and test my own installation of NASA's HEASARC software. This was done in order to analyze UVOT data from the SWIFT telescope." - Jarred Gray, Chemistry (Mentor: Amy Furniss)

Student sitting in front of a computer smiling.