Summer Research Opportunities

The student application for the 2024 Summer Research Opportunity is open. Priority consideration of applications will begin on March 1, 2024

2024 PUMA-STEM Summer Research Application

2024 PUMA-STEM Research Project Descriptions

The Promotion of Underrepresented Minorities in Academic STEM (PUMA-STEM) alliance is a group of seven liberal arts institutions and one community college that work together to achieve the goal of increasing the graduation and retention rates of students working on STEM degrees who identify as African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and Native Pacific Islanders. We offer students the opportunity to participate in an 8-week summer research program where they will work with a faculty advisor to complete an independent research project. PUMA-STEM summer research participants will be selected by the Project Director and Faculty Site Coordinators through a competitive process.

To be eligible for the summer research experiences, applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents, currently enrolled for classes at a PUMA-STEM LSAMP Institution and pursuing a bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline.

The eight-week summer program will involve weekly meetings of research students and faculty from all institutions and will rotate among the institutions to build a community of research scholars. Participating students will experience high-quality scientific research, build identity as scientists, learn about STEM graduate programs and gain STEM career development and professional skills.

Program Benefits

• Students will work on interesting, unique problems from a variety of STEM disciplines, and build oral and written communication skills.
• Accepted students will receive $3,500 stipends.
• Students will be eligible to apply for travel money to attend both regional and national conferences.
• PUMA-STEM summer researchers are eligible for additional LSAMP program opportunities.
• Students will become connected to a diverse and inclusive community of STEM researchers.

Program Eligibility and Requirements

• Accepted students must:
  • Be enrolled as a STEM major at one of the PUMA-STEM alliance institutions with at least one semester of coursework remaining before graduation.
  • Be a United States citizen or permanent resident.
• Students enrolled at any alliance institution will be eligible to apply for a summer research position at alliance institutions where summer research will be taking place (Benedictine University, Concordia University Chicago, College of DuPage, Dominican University, Elmhurst University, Lewis University, North Central College, and Saint Xavier University).
• PUMA-STEM summer research students are required to:
  • Attend the summer research orientation, as well as all alliance-wide meetings.
  • Meet regularly with their research advisor.
  • Present their research with a poster or talk at regional conferences, such as the ACCA Student Scholarship Symposium or the Annual Louis Stokes Midwest Regional Center of Excellence Conference. They will also be encouraged to present at national conferences if appropriate.

The PUMA-STEM Alliance is supported by the National Science Foundation through the LSAMP Program under Award Number 1911271. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.