Like many undergraduates pursuing a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degree, Maggie Fox couldn’t quite figure out how to add an international studies course to her packed schedule of classes, labs, and independent research. So when she received an email while on winter break asking if she’d like to do research in France, she quickly and furtively tapped out her reply on her phone during her sister’s holiday dance recital.

“Do I need to know how to speak French?” she asked. “No!” came the quick reply.

“Then sign me up!” she typed back, ignoring her mother’s raised eyebrows. The email came from Shanise Kent, the director of the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program at Binghamton University, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) LSAMP alliance. Fox had joined the Binghamton LSAMP group to connect with other students of color like herself who were STEM majors.

Fox spent that next summer doing materials science research on conductive polymers at the University of Grenoble in France. “At that point, I was unsure about my future decisions—do I apply for graduate school, go for a research job, or teach high school?” recalls Fox. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to explore another area of research in another country.”

It was also a true exchange of scientific knowledge and culture—Fox shared how to do a vapor polymerization method with the Grenoble group, and they taught her how to grow silicon nanotree structures. She learned new

research techniques and had the freedom to plan her own experiments.

“The experience sold me on applying to graduate school, because they treated me like a graduate student there,” says Fox, now in her third year as a Ph.D. student at University of California, Los Angeles, studying sustainable materials and energy storage systems.

The Louis Stokes Regional NSF International Center of Excellence (LSAMP-NICE) serves to facilitate those connections and promote opportunities, just as the fortuitous email to Fox’s phone did, so that both undergraduate and graduate students who are historically underrepresented in STEM careers may participate in significant international research collaborations. LSAMP-NICE blends the best practices and networks built by nearly 30 years of LSAMP alliance institutions with the financial and logistical support of U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) programs and collaborating institutions around the globe (see box). LSAMP-NICE also provides competitive faculty awards to U.S.-based research advisors so they can collaborate and build partnerships with laboratories overseas; connects students to the practical support they need to secure travel visas and housing; and promotes the involvement of students underrepresented in STEM in international collaborative research—an integral part of the LSAMP-NICE mission.

Students who traveled to France, Saudi Arabia, and Costa Rica have shared about how their experiences abroad encouraged them to continue careers in research, boosted their confidence, and helped them grow into IM

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LSAMP-NICE international research experiences transform underrepresented STEM students into global scientists and citizens

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global citizens whose research will make significant impacts on the world.

“In this age of globalization, it is imperative that underrepresented minority students be given the opportunity to do international research,” says Martha Mondoa-Tchounwou, LSAMP-NICE co-principal investigator and director of the Scholars Academy and Student Support Services at Jackson State University in Mississippi. “LSAMP-NICE provides a bridge between international research institutions and minority-serving institutions to make it easier for students to study abroad, receive meaningful international experiences, and gain vital knowledge and cultural skills that will make them global citizens.”

Emmanuel Gras, a researcher and organic chemist at CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) and coordinator for the U.S/France/Belgium International Research Experiences for Undergraduates (iREU) Site in Translational Chemistry, says that every scientist learns from meeting people from other countries and cultures and that these exchanges are beneficial for both the students and their host laboratories. “We get students with different training and backgrounds who strengthen their abilities in a different environment, and the U.S. students are always so enthusiastic that they bring an exquisite energy to our research teams.”

Making research careers a realityLike Fox, Anthony Keyes had the opportunity to do a

3-month summer research internship in France at the University of Bordeaux and then returned to complete a Master’s degree within the same French laboratory. Keyes was a prime candidate because he had already done research as an undergraduate at Jackson State University in organic nanoparticles. LSAMP-NICE matched Keyes to an organic polymer chemistry group in Bordeaux that was developing iron oxide nanoparticles for targeted delivery of anticancer drugs.

“From a research perspective, that summer was the first time I felt like a scientist,” says Keyes, now in a Ph.D. program at the University of Houston, Texas. “I had a clear goal on where the project was headed and I was given a large amount of independence, and we published the work in a peer-reviewed journal.”

After finishing her first summer of research as an environmental science student at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota, Kimberlee Blevins had the chance to do 2 weeks of research in Costa Rica through the All Nations LSAMP. Wrapping up collecting

and analyzing data on how bee body size was related to foraging distances, she was primed to do more research. “I was hooked on the research bug, and doing international research was the next challenge I wanted to take on,” says Blevins.

Blevins joined a project to analyze camera-trap photos of an invasive ginger plant to see which birds and mammals were pollinating the plants. The trip to Costa Rica reinforced her desire to help solve global problems through her tribal ties to the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation reservation lands. She is pursuing a Master’s degree in environmental science at Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, North Dakota, to investigate the health and environmental impacts of oil and gas extraction.

Through another LSAMP-NICE–facilitated trip in January, Casandra Salinas competed in the Ninth Annual Undergraduate Poster Competition at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. The week spent presenting her research, networking with other student researchers from around the world, and learning about KAUST and Saudi Arabia, convinced Salinas that she should apply to microbiology Ph.D. programs abroad as well as in the United States for the next phase of her research career.

“I love traveling and I was pretty stoked about the chance to present my research,” says Salinas.

“The experience sold me on applying to graduate school, because they treated me like a graduate student there.”

— Maggie Fox

Punching holes in imposter syndromeBut Salinas’ confidence hasn’t always run so high. She

credits her mentors in the Oklahoma LSAMP alliance with helping build her up to a place where presenting her research to an international audience seemed normal.

As someone who was born in the United States, but raised in rural Mexico, Salinas keenly felt like she didn’t fit in as a student researcher. “It felt like I should be working in the agricultural fields or in fast food. I didn’t see people like me in research,” she says. But OK-LSAMP directors Brenda Morales and Jason Kirksey, who is also vice president for institutional diversity at Oklahoma State University, flipped her perspective. “They made me see the significance of my contributions to research.”

For Salinas, getting to Saudi Arabia on her own would have been out of the question, but the experience helped

her overcome her doubts and her imposter syndrome. “The idea of going to college seemed not doable. Then I didn’t believe I was capable of finishing a degree, especially not one in biochemistry and molecular biology,” she says. “Even on my way to KAUST, I was thinking, ‘I’m so lucky!’ But I missed an important point: I’ve actually worked for this.”

High cultural exchange ratesOf course, cultural exchanges happen beyond

laboratory walls too. Fox and Keyes both traveled extensively through Europe and developed friendships with other student researchers that carried forward into graduate school.

The students from the All Nations LSAMP alliance who traveled with Blevins to Costa Rica had a chance to visit with the indigenous Boruca community to learn about their history, see their dyed-fabric arts, and share a meal. The visit left a deep impression on Blevins. “Sometimes the issue of tribal lands rights feels victimizing, as if you are the only tribe fighting these issues,” she says. “It was mind-blowing to hear about another tribe’s land-rights struggles in a different country.”

Salinas came away with unforgettable memories: “You don’t really understand other cultures until you immerse yourself in them and are fully surrounded by the environment,” she says. Salinas shared a late-night Arabian coffee chat with two Saudi Arabian students exploring the region’s views on women, culture, and religion.

Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP)Across the United States, the 57 Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) provide professional development and academic and financial support for both undergraduate and graduate students from historically underrepresented minority groups in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Created in 2018, the Louis Stokes Regional NSF International Center of Excellence (LSAMP- NICE) is specifically charged with broadening underrepresented student participation in international collaborative research. LSAMP-NICE is a collaboration of four institutions: Salish Kootenai College, a tribal college in Pablo, Montana (Steve Dupuis, LSAMP-NICE PI); Jackson State University, a historically black university in Jackson, Mississippi (Glake Hill and Martha Mondoa-Tchounwou, co-PIs); Louisiana State University, an R1, or research-intensive, institution in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (Zakiya Wilson-Kennedy, co-PI); and the University of Illinois at Chicago, an R1 and Hispanic-serving institution (Denise Yates, co-PI). All LSAMP projects are funded through the NSF Broadening Participation initiative.

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“The idea of going to college seemed not doable.

Then I didn’t believe I was capable of finishing a degree, especially not one in biochemistry and

molecular biology . . . even on my way to KAUST, I was

thinking, ‘I’m so lucky!’ But I missed an important

point: I’ve actually worked for this.”

— Casandra Salinas

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Lucy Okumu, director of KAUST’s international office, says part of the mission of the university is to foster exchanges between scientists around the globe. “We recognize that financial constraints are a big barrier for top students going forward in research careers,” she says. The poster competition, she says, builds awareness among those students that there is an opportunity to study at a world-class institute like KAUST and receive full financial support.

These students came away from their travels with a sharper sense that solving global research challenges, such as climate change or the need for pandemic vaccines, requires them to participate as both global scientists and citizens. “The LSAMP students are just like sponges,” says Gras. “They are very open-minded and get everything they can from their stay abroad.”

Global currency for changing mindsGoing into his fourth year of doctoral studies, Keyes

already has three first-author publications to his credit. He has been developing new polymerization platforms to synthesize novel block copolymers that could help in recycling and reusing mixed plastics for new materials. But in addition to newfound confidence, while in France,

Keyes also found his voice as an advocate for minority scientists.

As a Black man, Keyes often found himself answering questions about diversity initiatives such as LSAMP-NICE. He explained the importance of promoting minority participation in research by pointing to the larger French lab group, which was run by five men and one woman, all white. “If you can’t see yourself in the professors you work for doing research, then that is a huge problem,” says Keyes. “It’s disheartening for minorities like me to navigate science when our voices are not being heard, and leaders in the field do not mirror the diverse range of us who aspire to be scientists.”

Having these conversations is uncomfortable, he says, but they need to happen: “I was very outspoken—it was one of the key skills I polished in France. It’s not just minorities, however, who should learn to initiate these tough conversations.” Everyone, he says, needs to discuss issues of systemic racism in academic science.

Similarly, Blevins explains that students attending tribal colleges in the United States often don’t see themselves as world-traveling researchers. “Our extended families are very close-knit,” she says, adding that students rarely leave home for university studies, much less the country.

But her participation in LSAMP programs broadened Blevins’ horizons on the impact researchers can make globally and in their own communities. “We are so focused with my own tribe’s concerns, but seeing the problems that farmers face with pollinators or those that another country has with an invasive species brings it full circle for me as a researcher,” she says. She recognizes the challenges of having the Bakken oil field and extraction infrastructure in the Fort Berthold Reservation’s backyard, and she knows that the environmental and health impacts of oil and gas extraction must be addressed—not only for the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, but also globally.

“Every country has a global issue that needs solving,” says Blevins. “Tribal and other underrepresented STEM students bring a different perspective, and that’s required when doing research—you want to look at a problem from as many angles as possible.”

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“From a research

perspective, that summer

was the first time I felt like a

scientist.”— Anthony

Keyes

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