Document Type
Article
Abstract
The goal of this Research Education Program (REP) is to increase diversity in science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine (STEMM) fields. However, few programs include research internship opportunities and summer education programs for student participants. In our REP we integrated a research internship program into the summer curriculum and provided stipends aimed to alleviate the financial stress for underrepresented minority (URM) students, allowing them to focus on research, academics, and professional development. More than 90% of research mentors were satisfied with interns’ ability in various aspects of STEM research, including integrating research with academic work, developing research skills, engaging in research, formulating scientific hypotheses, implementing constructive feedback, and their readiness to become independent researchers. Over 80% of student interns reported satisfaction with the positive impact of the internship program on their professional development in scientific research, oral presentation, and written communication skills. This improvement was attributed to experiences such as preparing posters and manuscripts, collaborating in teams, working independently, and engaging in overall program activities. There was a significant positive association (r(9) = .60, P < 0.05) between student satisfaction and research mentors' evaluation of their satisfaction with students' performance during the research internship program.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Publication Info
Published in Innovative Higher Education, Volume 50, 2025, pages 2043-2065.
Rights
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
APA Citation
Elkhider, I., Edwards, N. T., Goodwin, R. L., Chosed, R. J., Lowe, L. L., Driggins, S., Harris, R. H., Shorter, K., Gao, Z., Ojo, S., Karunwi, O., Igwe, N., & Nathaniel, T. I. (2025). Empowering underrepresented minority students: A STEM-Focused research internship program bridging the path to graduate and professional success. Innovative Higher Education, 50(6), 2043–2065. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-025-09797-x