April 10, 2024

The Sherman Fairchild Foundation has awarded Susquehanna University nearly $300,000 in grant funding to support summer research.

The three-year grant will support Susquehanna’s Summer Research Partners Program, which awards 15 students a paid eight-week summer research experience in the sciences. Funds will pay for wages, housing, research supplies and conference travel. The 15 students funded through the grant represent approximately half of the total number of students who participate in Susquehanna’s Summer Research Partners Program.

Specifically, the funding will assist Susquehanna in:

• Fully supporting all proposed summer research projects, enabling more students to spend their summer in a full-time, faculty-mentored research position.
• Expanding student conference attendance, including to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, the Landmark Summer Research Conference, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Sciences annual meeting.
• Increasing summer student and faculty interaction across projects by holding regular meetings that focus on discussions with professionals, career preparation skills, learning about career fields of interest through alumni connections and short presentations by research labs, as well as events for faculty during the summer months to increase connections and knowledge across research projects.

“Susquehanna enjoys an active and dynamic undergraduate research environment that allows students to engage as research assistants, collaborators, coauthors and co-presenters at national and regional conferences as early as their first year,” said Kathy Straub, dean of Susquehanna’s School of Natural & Social Sciences. “These opportunities are paramount to preparing our students for career paths that take them to graduate school, medical school, industry and beyond. We are extremely grateful to the Sherman Fairchild Foundation for honoring Susquehanna with this award.”