Like many undergraduates pursuing a science,technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
degree, Maggie Fox couldn’t quite figure out how to add
an international studies course to her packed schedule
of classes, labs, and independent research. So when she
received an email while on winter break asking if she’d
like to do research in France, she quickly and furtively
tapped out her reply on her phone during her sister’s
holiday dance recital.
“Do I need to know how to speak French?” she asked.“No!” came the quick reply.
“Then sign me up!” she typed back, ignoring hermother’s raised eyebrows. The email came from Shanise
Kent, the director of the Louis Stokes Alliances for
Minority Participation (LSAMP) program at Binghamton
University, part of the State University of New York (SUNY)
LSAMP alliance. Fox had joined the Binghamton LSAMP
group to connect with other students of color like herself
who were STEM majors.
Fox spent that next summer doing materials scienceresearch on conductive polymers at the University of
Grenoble in France. “At that point, I was unsure about my
future decisions—do I apply for graduate school, go for
a research job, or teach high school?” recalls Fox. “It was
a once-in-a-lifetime chance to explore another area of
research in another country.”
It was also a true exchange of scientific knowledge andculture—Fox shared how to do a vapor polymerization
method with the Grenoble group, and they taught her
how to grow silicon nanotree structures. She learned new
research techniques and had the freedom to plan her own
experiments.
“The experience sold me on applying to graduate
school, because they treated me like a graduate student
there,” says Fox, now in her third year as a Ph.D. student at
University of California, Los Angeles, studying sustainable
materials and energy storage systems.
The Louis Stokes Regional NSF International Center
of Excellence (LSAMP-NICE) serves to facilitate those
connections and promote opportunities, just as the
fortuitous email to Fox’s phone did, so that both
undergraduate and graduate students who are historically
underrepresented in STEM careers may participate in
significant international research collaborations. LSAMP-
NICE blends the best practices and networks built by
nearly 30 years of LSAMP alliance institutions with the
financial and logistical support of U.S. National Science
Foundation (NSF) programs and collaborating institutions
around the globe (see box). LSAMP-NICE also provides
competitive faculty awards to U.S.-based research
advisors so they can collaborate and build partnerships
with laboratories overseas; connects students to the
practical support they need to secure travel visas and
housing; and promotes the involvement of students
underrepresented in STEM in international collaborative
research—an integral part of the LSAMP-NICE mission.
Students who traveled to France, Saudi Arabia, and
Costa Rica have shared about how their experiences
abroad encouraged them to continue careers in research,
boosted their confidence, and helped them grow into IMAGE: © VIVAT/SHUTTERSTOCK.COMAdvertorial