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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.
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
On May 6, CSULB BUILD hosted their first New Cohort Meet & Greet, giving incoming Fellows and Scholars an opportunity to meet and mingle with current Fellows and Scholars. This was a unique opportunity for students to connect with the graduating class of BUILD trainees and get to meet the Year Two Scholars who will be away at their internships during summer. The team provided bagels, coffee and tea, and played an icebreaker game of “people bingo.”
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! @csulbbuild or instagram.com/csulbbuild/
2022-23 NIH BUILD Fellows
Emily Aniya, Molecular Cell Biology and Physiology
Robert Born, Statistics
Anayeli Hernandez, International Studies with a Minor in Translation Studies
Kimberly Izarraras, Biochemistry
Emily Montes, Environmental Science and Policy
Tammy Nguyen, Psychology
Samantha Perez, Biochemistry
Jason Phan, Psychology
David Quiroz, Biomedical Engineering
Isabel Ramirez-Flores, Sociology with minor in Child Development Family Studies
Natalia Shcherbakova, General Biology
Amber Simonpietri, Molecular Cell Biology and Physiology Major
Annie Tong, Psychology
Khanh Ngoc Tran, Biomedical Engineering
Isabel Villafuerte, Biological Sciences
2022-24 NIH BUILD Scholars
Maeve Allen, Psychology
Karama Al-Ubidy, Biochemistry
Nicholas Banuelos, Environmental Science (minor: Biology)
Shannon Chaffin, Biomedical Engineering
Katrina Jensen, Biochemistry
Anais Johnson, Biochemistry
Jack Karapetian, Aerospace Engineering
Victoria Min, Health Science, emphasis on Community Health Education
Tess Nguyen, Psychology
Rohan Patel, Chemical Engineering
Jeremiah Sabale, Psychology
Alina Tran, Psychology
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!
Isabella Di Lauro, Scholars Year 2 GM (continuing) | Graduate Program: Psychology
Ariel Gilligan, Fellows GM (continuing) | Graduate Program: Biology
Kayleigh Hart, Fellows GM | Graduate Program: Kinesiology, Sport and Exercise Psychology
Taityana Lopez, Scholars Year 1 GM | Graduate Program: Psychology
