Thirteen Black undergraduate students in the Scott-Jewett funded Cal State Fullerton mentoring program, Bolstering Black Undergraduate Student Creative Activities and Research, presented their research at the Southern California Conferences for Undergraduate Research at Cal State San Bernardino on Nov. 23.
Representing eight different departments and five colleges, Black undergraduates shared their work in oral presentations and posters at a daylong conference that was attended by undergraduates and faculty from across Southern California. The SCCUR conference recognizes some of the best and the brightest in the region, and BUSCAR students brought all that and more to their presentations.
BUSCAR undergraduate fellow Jade Coombs said that participating in the conference was a welcome “opportunity to speak with faculty from different schools who shared their own insights on my work, which in turn gave me more to think about and work toward in the future.”
Students’ oral presentations focused on Black caregiver challenges (Abigail Harris); the use of cool pigments to mitigate urban heat islands (Nanziwe Bhebhe and Jaachi Nwanevu); and the enrollment and successes of K-12 Black students (Trinity Jack and Marresha Milner).
Posters covered a range of topics related to Black representation (Sumiayah Etchison, Amirah Kambe, Cindy Michel and Jordyn Reese); mental health portrayals in film (Coombs); the novels of Gloria Naylor (Tami John); Black hair movements (Leilani Rains); and Black women in STEM (Gieselle Binion).
Terri Patchen, director of the BUSCAR program, and BUSCAR faculty mentors Asya Harrison, Latoya Lee, Amirah Saafir and Edward Watson also attended SCCUR to support BUSCAR fellows at their first regional student research conference. Since early 2024, BUSCAR fellows have been working with Black faculty mentors on research that aligns with their interests and career goals.
“BUSCAR students were poised and engaging, sharing novel research with students and faculty from other universities and fielding questions about their work. They made an excellent impression on everyone they met,” said Patchen, professor of elementary and bilingual education.