{"id":2741,"date":"2016-02-02T11:45:25","date_gmt":"2016-02-02T11:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.168.99.100:8080\/?page_id=2741"},"modified":"2021-04-23T13:06:43","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T20:06:43","slug":"nsf-c4","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.darkenergybiosphere.org\/education-diversity\/for-undergraduates\/nsf-c4\/","title":{"rendered":"NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates: Community College Cultivation Cohort (C4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

[warning]The C4 program has ended and will not be soliciting future applications. [\/warning]<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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Schroeder \/ USC<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

As part of our undergraduate education program, we focus heavily on hands-on research activities for community college students.\u00a0 In the summers of 2016-2018, we held the Community College Cultivation Cohort (C4) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) at USC. Each summer, cohorts of 8 highly motivated community college students interested in environmental microbiology were selected from across the US for the residential C4 program with a paid stipend.<\/p>\n

C4 students spent 9 weeks characterizing the physiology (cellular function) and phylogeny (evolutionary history) of 1-2 recently isolated, novel marine microbial species. Working individually and in teams in select labs, these cohorts learned and applied state-of-the-art techniques ranging from DNA sequencing to microscopy and sterile techniques to analytical chemistry to fully characterize novel bacterial isolates from marine environments of interest to C-DEBI. The students were mentored individually by a scientist and a graduate student or postdoc, and they benefitted from group activities and multi-lab meetings. In addition to the research component, the program provided professional development activities that focused on successful transfer to a 4-year university and the application procedures for admission to graduate school.<\/p>\n

The C4 students, in collaboration with Principal Investigator Dr. Jan Amend and several postdocs, generated original data in the characterization of several novel bacteria from marine systems. These studies resulted in Genome Announcements,<\/em>\u00a0International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology<\/em>, and Microbiology Resource Announcements<\/em> manuscripts with C4 students as authors:<\/p>\n