La Sierra Summer Research Experience, LLU partnership hones students’ career paths

Arroyo, a biology major, was accepted into La Sierra University’s Summer Research Experience, or SRE this year and through the program’s collaborative partnership with Loma Linda University worked for eight weeks in an environmental microbiology lab headed by Dr. Ryan Sinclair at the LLU School of Public Health. She helped track levels of Covid-19 in the region and helped construct and test a controlled experiment that would help the lab test different methods of sample collection, she said.

At the end of Summer Research Experience, she and fellow Moreno Valley College student Daisy Rosales who was also accepted into La Sierra’s program and worked in the LLU lab, gave scientific poster presentations in August during a symposium at Loma Linda University. Rosales presented on nutrients and bacteria at the Salton Sea while Arroyo presented her project titled “Developing an Intermediate-Scale Flow Through Pipe Reactor for the Assessment of WBE Passive Sample Efficiency.”

“Participating in the symposium I had been nervous, but I knew that it was very likely that I would have to speak to people about my research once I started my career,” said Arroyo. “After I had participated in it, I learned that I enjoyed it and actually look forward to taking part in another one in the future.”

The Loma Linda University lab, which operates as part of LLU’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship or SURF program coordinated by Associate Professor Kylie J. Watts, collaborated with La Sierra in accommodating the two students who chose to work with Sinclair based on their career goals, said Michael Gutierrez, La Sierra University assistant professor of chemistry and developer of Summer Research Experience.

“Participating in this program helped to confirm my interest in research as a career." -- Giselle Arroyo, biology major, Moreno Valley College, Summer Research Experience participant

The SRE program, one of several Title V-funded programs that supports regional STEM education and college attainment, is an intensive course in which students are expected to work full time in the lab each week over eight weeks. “They get a lot done,” Gutierrez said.

Arroyo said that her lab activities also involved assignments to “help with sample collection, extraction of RNA, and running the qPCR [quantitative real-time PCR] machine [for measuring Covid-19]. Outside of the lab there where meetings to attend that where very informative and helped me understand how I can reach my educational and professional goals.”

Arroyo’s involvement in SRE and the research presentation process gave her future and her self-confidence a boost, laying the groundwork for a career path. “I would love to work in a research lab where I work to solve and analyze problems,” she said.

Summer Research Experience got underway in 2021 as a pilot program funded by a Title V grant. The program offers an opportunity for undergraduate students to work in an active laboratory environment while receiving compensation for expenses to facilitate training. The students assist with experiments and research while earning real-life experience in the laboratory.

During the pilot rollout last summer, La Sierra University biology students Kaitlyn Mamora and Ailinh Nguyen conducted research with associate biology professor Eugene Joseph. They presented their analysis and findings in April with a research poster during a competitive poster event at the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Annual Meeting and Experimental Biology Conference.

SRE participants in 2022 included La Sierra students Diana Lozano and Melissa Acevedo who worked with Joseph in his lab respectively studying impacts of carcinogens in cosmetic products and the healing properties of green tea in relation to pancreatic cancer. The La Sierra students concluded their program with 20-minute presentations in August in Palmer Hall.

Summer Research Experience exposes undergraduates early on to professional research and raises the prospects of scientific research as a career goal, Gutierrez said.

The SRE program fueled Arroyo’s goals to transfer to a four-year university in fall 2023 and then apply for a doctoral program in microbiology.

“Participating in this program helped to confirm my interest in research as a career. It allowed me to hone my leadership skills and taught me how to problem solve in ways that no classroom environment can mimic,” she said. “And as an undergrad who is transferring to a four-year university and who wants to get a Ph.D. this opportunity will help me stand out as a prospective student.”

For further information on Summer Research Experience and other Title V programs and STEM educational opportunities visit https://lasierra.edu/title-v/stem-ed/stem-education-pathways/.