Engaged Opportunity Grants
Engaging Community College Students with Museum Research
Closing the gap facing community college transfer students in accessing research opportunities
Cornell students who transfer from community colleges have fewer STEM research experiences than traditional students do. This pilot project explores a potential solution to help close this gap all while including students in an NSF–funded project to produce CT scans of 20,000 vertebrate specimen from museums across the country. The project team seeks to address community college students’ lack of individually mentored research experiences in their freshman and sophomore years, making the transfer students less attractive to laboratories looking for undergraduates. Additionally, the team seeks to build peer-to-peer networks to help students negotiate the process of accessing research opportunities.
Grant category: Other
Topic: Education
The Team
-
Casey Dillman
Cornell Museum of Vertebrates
- Malvika Talwar, independent consultant
- Community partner: Tompkins Cortland Community College
Engaged Opportunity Grants
Supporting a wide range of community-engaged learning projects, from student leadership programs and partnership building to events and conference travel. Open to all faculty and staff.