High-achieving, underrepresented students get a glimpse of graduate school

This past summer, the Institute hosted 10 students for the virtual Access to Careers in Engineering and Sciences (ACES) program. The UC Office of the President-supported Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) partner program funds this summer training initiative. The program introduces high-achieving, underrepresented undergraduate students to the possibilities of graduate education and the breadth of UC Irvine graduate programs in the fields of biomedical engineering, biophotonics and related Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) disciplines.

ACES has resulted in the acceptance of five talented Black students to University of California campuses in STEM Ph.D. programs. Breyah Matthews joined the UC Irvine Advanced Power and Electricity program in the Department of Electrical Engineering and is entering her third year of graduate study. Alexius Lampkin was accepted at UC Davis, but chose to attend University of Wisconsin as a Ph.D. student in Chemistry. In addition, Chris Johnson, Lauryn Alexander and Jakari Harris were accepted into Ph.D. programs at UC Irvine. Chris is in his second year in the UC Irvine Department of Biomedical Engineering. Lauryn matriculated at West Virginia University to pursue a Ph.D. in Forensic Sciences and Jakari Harris enrolled in a joint Ph.D. program in Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech/Emory University.