High school and college students to showcase their research at UTSA TRiO Symposium

(July 12, 2018) – San Antonio area high school and undergraduate students will experience a unique opportunity this month at UTSA. Approximately 150 students who participated in UTSA’s TRiO Upward Bound, Educational Talent Search and McNair Scholars programs will present their summer research projects and compete for top honors at the 8^th annual TRiO Research Symposium. The two-day event will take place on Friday, July 20 and Saturday, July 21 in the H-E-B Student Union Ballroom (HSU 1.104) on the UTSA Main Campus.

Each TRiO program has a summer component where students are exposed to general research skills and techniques, while developing their critical thinking and presentation skills. The symposium allows all students to come together to showcase their hard work that went into developing their research.

The high school and undergraduate students will present their research posters during the symposium. The poster showcase is Friday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. New this year, the 3 Minute Ready, Set, Research competition, adapted from the UTSA Graduate School, where students will have three minutes and one PowerPoint slide to convey their research to a panel of judges consisting of UTSA faculty and staff.

On Saturday morning, students and their families will attend an awards ceremony where parents will have an opportunity to see the research projects and hear about their child’s summer experience in their respective TRiO program. The ceremony will feature Dr. Ruth M. Ruprecht, a research scientist with the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, who will serve as the keynote speaker. Dr. Ruprecht was the first to demonstrate the in vivo safety and efficacy of AZT drug treatment in animal models, including prevention of maternal virus transmission. AZT later became the first FDA-approved AIDS drug and the first drug to prevent HIV transmission from an infected woman to her newborn. Dr. Ruprecht has collaborated with scientists in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Africa and currently the director of Texas Biomed’s AIDS research program. She has studied lentiviruses since the discovery of HIV and has worked with non-human primate (NHP) models for more than 25 years.

The UTSA Institute of P-20 Initiatives facilitates academic access for historically underserved students. Its TRiO programs give low-income and first-generation college bound students the opportunity to improve their grades, and enroll and graduate from a higher education institution.

— Darrell Balderrama

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