This award provides support to an ongoing affirmative action mentorship/research program entitled the "Summer Undergraduate Affirmative Action Research Program," (SUAARP). This program is designed to encourage minority and other underrepresented students to consider graduate training and careers in the biological, agricultural, and resource sciences. SUAARP has been in existence for six years and has hosted 61 students. Approximately 41% of these students have attended or are presently enrolled in graduate or professional programs. This year nine students who have completed at least two years of college-level education will be invited to spend eight weeks on the Davis campus, working with a specially selected faculty member on a research project of mutual interest. Students are expected to work 40 hours/week as integral members of a research team, participating in laboratory meetings and other lab-related activities. Students are enrolled in Summer Session I and II and receive 5 units of independent study credit.
