Holding ESTEEM in High Regard

CMSE

For the second year in a row, Peter Kofinas, Professor and Chair of the University of Maryland (UMD) Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE) and Jesse Matthews, a ChBE undergraduate student, have served as mentors for the ESTEEM/SER-Quest Summer Research Program, hosted by the UMD Center for Minorities in Science and Engineering (CMSE).

ESTEEM – which stands for Engineering Science and Technology to Energize and Expand Young Minds – is designed to give high school students who are underrepresented minorities experience working on a college-level research problem. Over a period of four weeks, groups of two to four students, recruited from local high schools, work together to develop a research topic and then present their work at a symposium during the final week.

"I’ve been a mentor for this program for the past two summers - in person last summer, and virtually this year," said Matthews. "As a mentor, I design a research problem for the participants and then guide them on how to complete it. Normally, I do some lectures early in the program on the theory behind the research, and then direct related experiments and the written work. In 2019, I continued working with the students through the fall semester as they prepared to present their work at the LSAMP symposium."

This year's (virtual) program ran July 6 - 31, 2020, and included two weeks of SAT preparation. To learn more about eligibility, or how you can become a mentor, follow this link or contact Marissa Massey (cmse@umd.edu).

Published July 29, 2020