Where are they now? LS-NSSA / MnDRIVE Partnership

Over the past five years, the MnDRIVE initiative has partnered with the Louis Stokes North Star STEM Alliance (LS-NSSA) to create summer research opportunities for first generation college students and other underrepresented students across the University of Minnesota. The program provides valuable work experience and mentorship opportunities for students considering or preparing for a science-based career. It also puts talented students into university research labs, which as you will see from the examples below, is hugely valuable for the lab teams and research projects.

However, the events of the past six months led to the suspension of most MnDRIVE research opportunities this summer. Despite the setback, the partnership leadership is taking advantage of this pause to assess the programming and ask how we can better support our students and take meaningful steps to counter systemic racism in academia and the workplace. We believe there is more that this program can offer in providing a truly exceptional research internship experience for all students.

We are proud to highlight a few students that have participated in the program, and look forward to sharing more examples of the positive impact the MnDRIVE / LS-NSSA program can have.

Learn more about our students and their research:

Destiny Weaver – Mentorship Makes a Difference: A Q&A with Destiny Weaver

Chinwenwa Iheme & Sandra Osei – Students Gain STEM Experience as Interns in MnDRIVE Labs

Tamirat Ali – MnDRIVE Program Catapults Undergraduate Researcher to National Stage

Kovic Odhiambo – Igniting a Passion: Students Build STEM Knowledge in the Lab