PROPEL Provides Mentors Access to Diverse Pool of Aspiring Undergraduate Researchers

Many professionals cite undergraduate research experiences as pivotal in their career development. To access these opportunities, undergraduate students must navigate a hidden network to find positions that are often not broadly advertised. How can faculty, staff, postdocs, graduate students and other mentors help in making these opportunities accessible to all students? 

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The new Promoting Research Opportunities for Equity in Learning (PROPEL) program, launched in August 2024 through a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Inclusive Excellence Award, promotes equitable access to academic and research opportunities for all undergraduate UMass Amherst students. The program builds upon the Biology Undergraduate Apprenticeship (BUA), which has supported equitable access to research opportunities for thousands of students since its start 15 years ago.

Through the PROPEL website, mentors can easily post positions and review applicants from across the university or narrow their search for students within their major, department and unit. To establish clear deadlines for students, there are four yearly application rounds during which mentors have two to three weeks to post positions and students have one week to apply. 

Beginning Nov. 1, the second round of postings will be open through Nov. 17 for mentors looking to promote their research projects for winter and spring. To access the form, users log in with their NET ID from the website’s home page, request mentor status and post research opportunities that can include both paid and for credit options. Online applications will be open for students from Nov. 18-25.

Feedback from BUA and the initial round of PROPEL indicates students appreciate the variety of opportunities that are fairly offered to all with clearly defined application periods. Students are guided to work on their applications using the resources and staff available in the Office of Undergraduate Research, the College of Natural Sciences (CNS) Career and Professional Development Center, and the College of Engineering (CoE) Career Development and Experiential Learning Center.

Response has been positive as one student noted in the feedback forms, with one response exclaiming “Huge kudos to whoever came up with this! I’m very lucky to have found the perfect lab for me using this program!”  Another replied, “Love the site! I think it gives so many students access to opportunities they may not have had otherwise!!”

PROPEL Research Fellows Nekeria Ransom, Sophia Taylor, Noor Omar Musad and Sophia Deligiannidis are using this feedback to conduct thesis research to improve mentorship, student access to research opportunities and accessibility for students with disabilities.

On the mentor side, the PROPEL leadership team is building an undergraduate mentoring ecosystem on campus through an Office of Faculty Development grant, “A Bottom-Up Network for Developing Transparent Policies and Mechanisms for Equitable Access to STEM Undergraduate Research Experiences.” The grant initiative brings faculty from departments in the Colleges of Natural Sciences and Engineering together to learn from renowned scholars about faculty experiences and traditions in different disciplines.

The team will use these practices in their roles as mentors, teachers and more broadly in our communities to effectively mentor diverse undergraduate researchers.

PROPEL leadership team members include Jeff Blanchard, professor of biology and PROPEL program director; Syde Orange, CNS associate director for Student Success and Diversity; Freke Ette, CoE assistant director for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Lori Astheimer Best, senior lecturer in Psychological and Brain Sciences; and Paula Rees, College of Engineering associate dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

For more information or to join the mentoring community, contact Jeff Blanchard at jlb@umass.edu.