Dear STEM, we are
recruiting for IMSD, Initiatives to Maximize Student Development, and our
Pathways Scholar groups. IMSD has been at UNM for 40 years (previously as
MBRS) and I have run the program for the past 11 years. In that time, we
have graduated 40 PhD students at UNM and around the country and have
about 50 students in graduate school (a few in medical and other professional
schools) around the country. Here is a map showing where our students and
some IMSD students who are faculty or working in industry are located (I’m not
totally done with the map) https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zgABtRiBtq20.kXF_wnAZcDJE
IMSD is for STEM
students who have an interest in getting a PHD. We accept students in a wide range of
disciplines related to biomedical research, including CS, Chem Eng, Math, Physics,
etc. We do our best to encourage IMSD students to grow their math and/or
CS skills because these are powerful tools for their futures. Students
participate in a mentoring program and work in laboratories and are paid up to
$12K per year (it’s actually slightly higher than that). IMSD is a
diversity program, so students are typically underrepresented minorities or low
income (Pell-grant eligible). IMSD students will have 2 more years until
graduation. Eligible students should contact Lupe Atencio: latencio@unm.edu and look at our
webpage: http://biology.unm.edu/imsd.
Pathways is for
freshmen, sophomores, and transfer students. We have two Pathway Scholars classes (Tues and Wed at 4:30).
I started this 3.5 years ago because the IMSD mentoring program was
working so well and I wanted to understand what our freshmen and transfer
students were experiencing and see if the mentoring program could help
strengthen them. We focused on Native American students but welcomed
anyone who could use what we have to offer. Our current estimates are
that our 6-year graduation rates for Native Americans will be about 60% higher
than UNM’s rates (21%) and about 33% higher for Hispanics. If you know
students in your classes, your dorms, etc. who can use community, mentoring,
introduction to how to thrive in an academic situation, financial and math
survival skills, and who could blossom by knowing what their majors
should be and moving forward towards a career, please have them contact Lupe or
me.
Have a great spring
semester.
Maggie Werner-Washburne (
Regents Professor
Biology Department
University of New Mexico
PI – UNM Initiatives to
Maximize Student Development
SACNAS, past president
