HUNTSVILLE, Ala — HudsonAlpha is excited to welcome seven new employees to campus as part of the Boosting Retention, Interest, and Diversity through Guided Experiences in STEM program also known as BRIDGES. BRIDGES is a National Science Foundation-funded program that brings in students from Alabama’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities that have recently graduated and whose studies were impacted by the COVID pandemic.
7 fellows are at the start of initial training in HudsonAlpha's Educational Outreach Program. HudsonAlpha BRIDGES fellow Marshae Scott believes sometimes choosing the right career can be challenging. "A lot of times we are lost and we don't know what's out there. We don't know what we want to do with our lives."
But, in this case... HudsonAlpha is here to help. "We feel like it's very important to be able to offer this kind of opportunity for these students because they've faced a lot of challenges through the COVID pandemic and we've seen that students have not been able to get into the labs and really experience what it's like to learn those skills," said HudsonAlpha Director of Workforce Development Michele Morris.
For this first two weeks, fellows will learn lab and computational skills, as well as onboarding as new employees at HudsonAlpha. "So being able to bring them into the institute and give them that opportunity really strengthens them and builds a bridge to their next opportunity," Morris added.
Furthermore, as the program continues fellows will transition to their permanent labs within HudsonAlpha for a year, to expand their skills before moving to graduate school or into the workforce. "In my journey of applying to medical school, one of the main things that I've been lacking is research experience. I feel like coming here, doing this program and taking heed to this opportunity will just allow me to be able to get that research experience in me and further be able to guide myself through and figure out which career path I want to take. So just being able to come to a place like this, a program like this, and have so much information at our disposal, it just gives us the tools we need to go out and change the world," Scott explained.