Research Mentor News, April 2017

As Spring fills the air with the scent of flowers, our first cohort of Scholars is preparing to start the next phase of their career. Some have already accepted offers for Ph.D. programs. Read on to discover all the celebrations BUILD trainees have this year … so far.

Graduating Scholars Accept Graduate School Offers

Amalia Lira with her BUILD Mentor Gino Galvez
Amalia Lira and her BUILD Mentor Gino Galvez

It is the season for graduating seniors to evaluate graduate school offers.  So far six BUILD Scholars have received and accepted Ph.D. program offers, with three more deciding soon.  More offers and acceptances are expected to be added to the list below in the coming weeks. (BUILD Mentors are indicated in parentheses.)

  • Rhea-Comfot Addo, University of California San Diego, Ph.D. in Biology Sciences (Kelly Young)
  • Amalia Lira, Michigan State University, Ph.D. in Educational Psychology/Technology (Gino Galvez)
  • Nicholas Neito, Iowa State University, Ph.D. in Biochemistry (Jason Schwans)
  • Lori Digal, University of Utah, Ph.D. in Chemistry (Michael Schramm)
  • Nathan Sollenberger, University of Florida, Ph.D. in Psychology (Arturo Zavala)
  • Sima Chokr, University of California Irvine, Ph.D. in Neuroscience (Kevin Sinchak)

Successes like these are made possible, in part, by your mentoring efforts. Thank you for your efforts to help nurture the next generation of health researchers.

BUILD Trainee Summer Internships and Awards

Several Year One and Two Scholars will be attending summer internships this year. And many have received awards and honors this year.

Internships

  • Malik Rogers, University of California Berkeley Public Policy Institute Analysis (PPIA) (Roudi Roy)
  • Monica Robles, University of Texas El Paso (Christiane Beyer)
  • Kadisha Aburub, Dr. Lucia Florendez, Division of Occupational Science (Judy Brusslan)
  • Kenya Alfaro, Nanotechnology and Biomedicine, University of Georgia (Robert Schug)
  • Jason Harris, Department of Bio-Engineering, University of California San Francisco (Ehsan Barjasteh)
  • Jayvien McNeil, Dr. Stephanie Budge, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Zachary DuBois)
  • Chyann Richard, Minority Health Disparities- Summer Research Institute (Michelle Barrack)
  • Nancy Vasquez, SPAN (Speech Production and Articulation Knowledge Group) with Asterios Toutios (Nancy Hall)
  • Tian Walker, Mother's Cultural Experience Study - Dr. Molly Fox and Food Insecurity, University of California Los Angeles and University of California Irvine, and Loneliness Among Older Adults - Dr. David Himmelgreen, University of South Florida (Zachary DuBois)
  • Carlos Alvarado, Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, University of California Irvine (Editte Gharakhanian)
  • Rudolph Cheong, Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, University of California Irvine (Deborah Fraser)
  • Melany Garcia, Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, University of California Irvine (Selena Nguyen-Rodriguez)
  • Jairo Maldonado, The Big Ten Alliance (Panadda Marayong)
  • Alex Jackson, Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, University of California Irvine (Christiane Beyer)
  • Michael Torres, Dr. Huang Infectious Disease Lab, University of California Irvine (ErlyanaErlyana)
  • Vivianna Goh, Department of Bio-Engineering, University of California San Francisco (Long Wang)

Awards and Honors

  • Trevor Teafatiller, President’s Scholar, CSULB (Hamid Said)
  • Lauren Dunne, ASI Travel Award, CSULB (Guido Urizar)
  • Amalia Lira, 2nd place, CSULB Research Competition; Outstanding Senior, CSULB (Gino Galvez)
  • Trong Pham, President’s Honors Award, CSULB (Young-Hee Cho)
  • Jessica Rayo, Distinguished Scientists Award, Psychosomatic Conference, Sevilla Spain; Press Release for Psychosomatic Conference, Sevilla Spain (Donna Spruijt-Metz)
  • Layla Ramos, Doris A. Howell Scholar, CSULB (Houng-Wei Tsai)
  • Nicholas Neito, HIS-STEM WRE Scholarship, CSULB (Jason Schwans)
  • Author Yao, President’s Scholar, CSULB; Outstanding Graduate Student Award, CHHS, CSULB (ErylanaErylana)
  • Alica Corrales, Robert L. Solso Award, WPA (James Miles)
  • Michael Carrillo, 2nd place, CSULB Research Competition; Dean’s Honor List, CSULB (Bryan Rourke)
  • Nathan Sollenberger, CSULB President’s List; Lucio Morales Academic Achievement Award, CSULB; Outstanding Senior in Psychology, CSULB (Arturo Zavala)
  • Katherine Leyba, 2nd place CSULB Research Competition, CSULB (I-Hung Khoo)
  • Vanessa Altamirano, President's List, CSULB (Courtney Ahrens)
  • Tatiana Avila, President’s List, CSULB (William Pedersen)
  • Maria Barajas, Dean's List, CSULB; Networking Plus Scholarship, Boys and Girls Club of West Valley (Araceli Gonzalez)
  • Preston Johnson, President's List, CSULB (Lindsey Sterling)
  • Hannah Liska, Psi Chi psychology honors society (Robert Schug)
  • Adam Manoogian, CSULB Undergraduate Honors Program (Arturo Zavala)
  • Jayvien McNeil, President's List, CSULB; Phi Beta Kappa Invitation (Zachary DuBois)
  • Vicky Phun, President’s List, CSULB (Gino Galvez)
  • Zaria Gomez, Dean’s Honors List, CSULB (Judy Brusslan)
  • Stephanie Lin, President’s List, CSULB (Virginia Gray)
  • Patricia Pittman, Dean’s Honors List, CSULB; President's List, CSULB (twice) (H. Isabella Lanza)
  • Patsy Rodriguez, President's List, CSULB (Courtney Ahrens)
  • Tina Rodriguez, President’s List, CSULB (May Ling Halim)
  • Nancy Vasquez, President's List, CSULB (Nancy Hall)
  • Tian Walker, Dean’s Honors List, CSULB (Zachary DuBois)
  • Leo Ly, Second Place in Annual CSU Student Research Competition 2016, Bakersfield, CA; IGESC 2016, CSULB (Ted Yu)
  • Jairo Maldonado, President's List (three times) (Panadda Marayong)
  • Alex Jackson, President’s List (twice) (Christiane Beyer)
  • Edward Thai, President’s List; Dean’s List (Ted Yu)
  • Marian de Orla-Barile, IEEE-HKN Electircal & Computer Engineering Honor Society Inductee, CSULB (Erika Holland)
  • Eun Ae Park, IEEE-HKN Electrical & Computer Engineering Honor Society Inductee, CSULB; TBP(Engineering Honor Society inductee, CSULB; Presidential 2016 fall semester; Dean's List 2014 fall semester (Young-Seok Shon)
  • Shiva Nilakantan, President’s List; Dean’s List (Ehsan Barjasteh)
  • Christian Loo, Nishikawa Award, CSULB; James Stephenson Award, CSULB; Engineering Honors Scholarship, CSULB (Jason Schwans)
  • Jordan Ngo, Dean's List, CSULB; President's List, CSULB (Deepali Bhandari)
  • Do Kim, Engineering Honors Program (I-Hung Khoo)
  • Edgar Cubillo, President’s List; Dean’s List (David Stout)
  • Tamunotelema Higgwe, Dean's List; NSCS (Ted Yu)
  • Anthony Sanchez, Engineering Honors Program; Dean's List; President's List (Praveen Shankar)
  • Dejuante Walker, President's Honor List; Dean's Honor List (Ted Yu)
  • Yohanna Brown, Dean's List, CSULB (Arturo Zavala)
  • Rhea Mehta, President’s List, CSULB (Arturo Zavala)
  • Miguel Portillo, President's List (May Ling Halim)
  • Yeji Yang, Dean’s List (Arturo Zavala)
  • Michael Chin, Dean's List (Stephen Mezyk)
  • Katherine Henson, Middle Class Scholarship, CSULB (Ashley Carter)
  • Stephany Martinez, Federal Pell Grant, CSULB; Cal Grant B Fees; Call Grant Stipend (Deborah Fraser)
  • Tina Nguyen, Middle Class Scholarship, CSU Long Beach (Vas Narayanasawami)
  • Dalia Sandoval-Olmos, Federal Pell Grant, CSULB; State University Grant, CSULB (Douglas Pace)
  • Angela Tran, CalGrant, CSULB; Federal Pell Grant, CSULB (Paul Weers)

In addition to BUILD trainees, Sheena Cruz, BUILD Associate’s GA, received the University Outstanding Student Research Awards and won first place in her category at the California State University Long Beach Student Research Competition in February 2017.

Purchasing Guidelines Overview

There has been some confusion about procuring technology products, such as computers and software, using a CSULB Procurement Credit Card. Due to specific ADA compliant requirements, there are restrictive elements associated with using this card when purchasing software. Cardholders must submit a completed and approved E&IT Checklist prior to purchase in accordance with accessible technology initiative (ATI) guidelines. If you have any questions about this, contact the Purchasing Department at 562-985-4296 with any questions.

The term “software” in this context includes webinars and electronic software that requires a “click through” agreement or has attached terms and conditions. The later requires approval from Purchasing in advance of purchase. To get approval, send an email to Purchasing@csulb.edu with the following attachments:

1.    A completed E&IT Checklist
2.    Copy of the Terms and Conditions and/or Copy of the Licensing Agreement
3.    How much will the product cost?
4.    Will the product be loaded on to a University Computer versus an on-line Cloud based solution?
5.    Will level 1 or 2 Data be included? (Definition Link Information Security - Information Classification Standard)

If you are purchasing “Property & Sensitive Items” that meet criteria, they will need property processing (tagging) and level 1 data protection per the Property Management guideline.

Save the Date: Year 2 Scholars Commencement in May

If you are mentoring a graduating Year 2 Scholar, save the May 19 date, when we will be holding the first BUILD Commencement event. Festivities include food, a video montage, keynote speaker and dancing! Keep your eyes open for your invitation.

Save the Date: BMC Reunion

BUILD mentors who have participated in any of five BMC training cohorts are invited for a reunion.  This open house style event will be April 26 from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm in the patio area of the Karl Anatol Center. Please RSVP to Myriam.Loeschen@csulb.edu.

Have You Updated Your Research Mentor Profile Yet?

How to Update Your Mentor Profile Video

New BUILD trainees are actively seeking their mentors for the new school year and they are using the new mentor matching database. To better attract the right mentees to your program, it is advisable that you make sure your BUILD Research Mentor Profile it up-to-date. You can do that by following these instructions:

  1. Go to http://web.csulb.edu/HealthEquity/build/BUILD_mentors
  2. Locate your profile
  3. Click on the edit icon in the upper right-hand corner
  4. Update your information
  5. Click the “Save” button at the bottom of the page

To help you navigate the mentor database, an instructional video has been created. You can find it here: https://youtu.be/CA8fqGvubZM. Please be sure to select from our new selection of keywords and check the box if you will be accepting trainees this year.  Remember, if you don’t make sure that your keywords and profile is accurate, new mentees might not be able to find you.

To help make this process as frustration-free as possible, Carma Spence is available to help you. If you run into any trouble or need help with this process, feel free to contact her at ext. 5-2319 or Carma.Spence@csulb.edu.

Upcoming BUILD Multicultural Workshops

We have three upcoming opportunities for you to attend the BUILD Multicultural Workshops. As a reminder, attending at least one workshop is required of all BUILD mentors who have or will be accepting trainees into their lab. Even if you have already satisfied this requirement, we invite you to attend workshops of interest.

  • Myths and Facts about Language and Ethnic Minority Students in Learning Situations and Possible Effects on Academic Preparedness and Success. You have two times from which to choose: Tuesday, April 18, 10 am to noon, or Friday, April 21, 1 pm to 3 pm.
  • Stereotype Threat and Unconscious Bias. Tuesday, May 2, 2017, 10 am to noon.

For more information, visit the Multicultural Workshops webpage.

Acknowledge BUILD in Your Papers and Submit the PMCID

Before you know it, the BUILD Annual report to NIH will be due. Keeping track of the output from the mentor’s and trainees’ research is an important part of this reporting. Remember, as you submit papers, and other results of research supported by BUILD, to acknowledge the program. In addition, we need the PMCID numbers for papers (not PMID numbers). You can find instructions on the website.

Grant Writing Support Available from NRMN

Are you preparing a proposal to submit to NIH in the upcoming months? Would you like to be coached by experienced grant writers so you can more effectively write your grants? The National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) is offering three programs that will pair you with highly skilled grant writing coaches.

Proposal Preparation Program

If you are preparing a new, or resubmitting a revised, NIH K- or R-series proposal with an NIH deadline of January-March 2018, apply for mentoring on the NRMN website. Sessions will be held at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in Minneapolis and supplemented by online sessions, June 26 through Nov. 17, 2017. Applications are due April 10, 2017.

This program will also be offered at Northwestern University in Chicago, supplemented with online sessions. You can apply for this location on the NRMN website. Applications are due April 10, 2017.

Steps Towards Academic Research

Are you a postdoctoral fellow or junior faculty member with minimal or no grant writing experience? Do you have a sincere interest in establishing a research career and can commit to a year-long training program? Then apply for this program on the NRMN website. Sessions will be held at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, supplemented with online sessions, July 5, 2017 through June 8, 2018. Applications are due May 8, 2017.

Coming Next Month …

  • BUILD Graduates

Be Prepared

If you'd like to know what is coming up in the BUILD Learning Community for your mentee, download the current syllabus. This will give you a heads up on what events your mentee is required to attend and therefore will not be available to work in your lab at that time.

Communicating with BUILD

We invite your news about your BUILD Trainee and any questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions about BUILD.  If you have any of these, in relation to being a BUILD Research Mentor, or concerns about your BUILD Student, please contact us at BUILD.mentors@csulb.edu.  Be sure to keep an eye out for the May newsletter.