“The students have been very reliable, capable, and hardworking. This program is great for getting first-year students involved within their discipline early. They find friends and a sense of belonging with other students in the research group, and this helps with their confidence in the field.”
- OSU Faculty Member
 
“It has been very educational for me to see what barriers my student has to overcome. I thought I knew what the challenges were, but realized through this experience that I was underestimating them.”
- OSU Faculty Member

Program Timeline

Each student will select a Faculty Mentor that they are interested in working with and will begin an undergraduate research project during their second term at OSU. The undergraduate research project will start during winter term and end in spring term of the student's first year at OSU. It will be up to the student and the faculty mentor whether or not the research can continue through summer term, but no funding is available to support this continuation. STEM Leaders students will be conducting research approximately 5 hours each week and will give a final presentation through one of the two campus wide symposiums, marking the culmination of their research project.