CSULB BUILD Celebrates Grads with Commencement and Welcomes New Cohort

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Contact Info: nicole.streicker@csulb.edu

By Nicole Streicker

On May 6, California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) BUILD hosted an in-person commencement ceremony on campus in the Beach Auditorium of the University Student Union (USU). Hosting the event in-person was an exciting opportunity because the previous years’ students were celebrated with a virtual ceremony. Attendees included students, their families and loved ones, their research mentors and the BUILD Team. The event was hosted by Nicole Streicker, BUILD Program Manager, with speeches by the Training Directors: Jesse Dillon, PhD, (Dillon is also a BUILD PI), Araceli Gonzalez, PhD, and Young-Hee Cho, PhD; and BUILD Graduate Mentors: Tiffany Gonzalez, Patrick Allen, Faiyaz Omerjee, Isabella Di Lauro and Ariel Gilligan. 

Group photo of the BUILD Trainees, Graduate Mentors, Training Directors, Staff, PIs and Keynote Speaker at Commencement
BUILD Trainees, Graduate Mentors, Training Directors, Staff, PIs and Keynote Speaker at Commencement
Photo Credit: CSULB BUILD

 

The event featured BUILD student speakers nominated by their cohorts. Johann Tailor represented the BUILD Fellows (who started BUILD in their senior year), and Tyler Nelson and Taylor Thomsen represented the BUILD Scholars (who started BUILD as juniors). Each gave moving and encouraging talks sharing their own stories and conveying those of their peers. 

The event culminated with a keynote speaker and the certificate and sash ceremony. The team was delighted to have Carlos Gutiérrez, PhD, University President’s Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, at California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) as the keynote speaker for the event. Gutiérrez also serves on the CSULB BUILD external advisory board. Photos from  the event, taken by Keira Wong, are available on the website

Congratulations to the 2021-22 Fellows who completed the One-Year BUILD Program: 

Congratulations to the 2020-22 Scholars who completed the Two-Year BUILD Program: 

Meet our new 2022-23 Cohort: New cohort meet-and-greet

Some members from the new cohort of BUILD Trainees chat with the Student Training Program Coordinator, Sarah Velasco. Pictured (L to R): Isabel Villafuerte, Kimberly Izarraras, Amber Simonpietri, Shannon Chaffin, Sarah Velasco, Isabel Ramirez-Flores, and Emily Montes.
Some members from the new cohort of BUILD Trainees chat with the Student Training Program Coordinator, Sarah Velasco.
Pictured (L to R): Isabel Villafuerte, Kimberly Izarraras, Amber Simonpietri, Shannon Chaffin, Sarah Velasco, Isabel Ramirez-Flores, and Emily Montes.
New BUILD cohort trainees mingle with current cohort, graduate mentors, and the BUILD Team.
New BUILD cohort trainees mingle with current cohort, graduate mentors, and the BUILD Team.

 

The new cohort started the eight-week Summer Undergraduate Research Gateway to Excellence (SURGE) Program on June 7, 2022. SURGE is the trainees’ first experience of the BUILD program at CSULB and concludes on July 28 with the Annual BUILD Summer Research Symposium, in which each student presents a research poster. The summer program includes lots of activities, trainings and events, such as a trip to the ASI Beach Kitchen, field trip to UCI, Elevator Speech Competition and the Summer Symposium. Students will get a break before returning to campus on August 22nd for the first day of fall classes. 

Check out our Instagram feed to get to know our new cohort! Shape  Description automatically generated with low confidence @csulbbuild or  instagram.com/csulbbuild/  

2022-23 NIH BUILD Fellows

2022-24 NIH BUILD Scholars

 

Graduate Mentors 

An imperative element of the BUILD community is the ongoing support of near-peer mentoring provided by CSULB graduate students, so the BUILD team honors them each year. In May 2022, they celebrated each of the BUILD Graduate Mentors (GMs) by giving them a thank you gift and saying goodbye to those who graduated. Congratulations to the graduates: Patrick Allen, Tiffany Gonzalez and Faiyaz Omerjee! 

For the 2022-23 academic year, two GMs will continue working with the BUILD trainees, and they’ll be joined by two additional GMs. BUILD Graduate Mentors take part in the weeklong GM Training during SURGE. This year, Sarah Velasco, BUILD Training Program Coordinator, will be hosting the sessions. 

Please welcome our 2022-23 BUILD Graduate Mentors

The Diversity Program Consortium Coordination and Evaluation Center at UCLA is supported by Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health / National Institutes of General Medical Sciences under award number U54GM119024.
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