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When Laura Feldman started working as an attorney, she saw the relevance of her Syracuse University biology degree when working in areas of pharmaceuticals and malpractice. Now, as an attorney at the first fully woman-owned law firm in Philadelphia, she wants to bring the benefits she’s seen in her degree to SU students belonging to groups with poor retention in STEM fields.

A $1.5 million grant going to the SUSTAIN program, or Strategic Undergraduate STEM Talent Acceleration Initiative, aims to minimize the rate of women and other marginalized students that drop out of STEM programs. It provides a $5,000 scholarship for selected students’ first two years at SU, in addition to any preexisting financial aid packages or awards.

Students and faculty in the program said SUSTAIN expands beyond financial assistance, and works to expose students to research and career development opportunities while emphasizing community.

“When I was a science major, there wasn’t a lot of support, and having that support is really useful in allowing people to succeed,” Feldman said. “One of SUSTAIN’s biggest successes is giving underprivileged students equal footing.”

In founding SUSTAIN in 2017, John Tillotson, an associate professor of STEM education and chair of the department of science teaching in the College of Arts and Sciences at SU, said the goal of the program is to create a robust environment for professional development that includes faculty mentoring, introductory courses and a social network.

“When the grant ended, the program was so successful that we had several private donors who have since given well over $2 million in private funding, and now the program operates entirely on private donations,” Tillotson said. “It’s very close to being endowed.”

Tillotson said the grant program opens up doors beyond the classroom for participating students. He added that the program includes four seminar courses for students over the first two years of college to ease the transition process to college life.

“In that original grant of those 28 scholars, a big group of them continued to live together after they got out of the dorms,” Tillotson said. “I still get pictures and social media posts that they send me where they’re all on vacation together.”

Amra Mujcic, who studied biochemistry and psychology at SU, was a first generation college student and participant in the SUSTAIN program. She graduated in three years and is now a first year medical student in the University of Buffalo M.D./Ph.D. program. Mujcic said SUSTAIN was more than just a financial scholarship to her because it provided her with social connections.

“SUSTAIN helped me grow up. College was completely new to me as a first generation student and I had to figure out how to navigate it,” Mujcic said. “I learned how to make connections with my peers and faculty, which I wasn’t used to.”

Ryann Washington, a sophomore at SU majoring in biology and forensic science on the pre-med track, said being offered the SUSTAIN scholarship spurred her decision to attend SU.

“I was fully committed to Penn State, and then I got an email about the SUSTAIN program, so I started to consider Syracuse again, ” Washington said. “A lot of schools don’t offer a program like SUSTAIN. Once I got in, it nudged me to come.”

In her time as a SUSTAIN student, Washington said she’s been able to regularly speak with mentors who help her explore opportunities and build professional connections.

“When I first came to college, I never knew that I would have the interests that I have now,” Washington said.

Barrington Bucknor, another former SUSTAIN student, also pointed to the mentorship opportunities as a main benefit of his experience with the SUSTAIN program. He said he worked with Carlos Castañeda — an assistant professor of biochemistry at SU who runs the Castañeda Lab for biophysics and biochemistry at SU — doing undergraduate research while he studied biochemistry and neuroscience.

Bucknor said the scholarship helped him balance academic and research commitments, which he said was his main priority as an undergraduate.

“SUSTAIN made it possible for me to hit the ground running with this endeavor. The rest was a matter of good mentoring, drive and a natural love for exploration,” Bucknor wrote in an email statement.

But aside from the career boost that SUSTAIN provided him, the social aspect was the most memorable, Bucknor said.

“Peers that I have met freshman year, I still share professional and personal goals with. Speakers that imparted their knowledge and experiences with the scholars have molded my approach to applying for different career building opportunities,” Bucknor said in the email. “The connections I have made have served as a foundation to support me through successes and failures.”

Published on March 2, 2023 at 4:32 am

Contact Claire: cksamsta@syr.edu