Career Ready Graduates

Transcript

All right, everyone, let’s get ready for the one and only, Zaid. Zaid is a junior from Beaumont majoring in biology with a minor in chemistry. He’s gonna tell us about research, internships, and the resources that go along with supporting students through those opportunities. Zaid, the floor is all yours.

I appreciate it, Alex. Hey, everyone. I love Lamar University because it allows you to apply your studies into the real world with research and internship opportunities. Here, many lecture classes also have a lab component where the small professor-student ratio allows for a more nurturing environment. For every class you take at Lamar, there will be a research or internship prospect that lets you delve deeper into your studies. After taking the stem cell seminar class, I became involved with the professor’s research lab, which focuses on cancer and stem cells. A current project we’re focusing on examines how micro plastics affects wound healing. Lamar University also offers opportunities for off-campus learning. I spent a summer in Dallas at the Thermal and Vascular Physiology Lab. This past summer, I was honored to receive the Beck Fellowship at Lamar University which awarded me a $10,000 stipend to travel to Canada to work on a project involving auto feed receptors and cancer cells. The Office of Undergraduate Research offers students like myself, research stipends and grants as well as many fellowship opportunities. There are also a variety of co-op opportunities for engineering students, career expos, and research conferences here at Lamar. Student organizations such as the Lamar Undergraduate Research Association, of which I am president, seeks to encourage students of different labs to interact, share what they’re working on and to gain insights from their peers. Whatever topic you study at Lamar University, you won’t just read about it in the textbook, but you’ll also get experience doing it. With an abundance of opportunities and a tight-knit student community on campus, you’ll never feel alone. I’m truly blessed to be a part of the LU Family, to gain technical and communication skills to be better prepared for the workforce and to have fun. Back to you, Alex.

Wait, Zaid. You’re telling me that research isn’t just someone in a lab coat doing science stuff? It’s that and more? Wow. That is awesome that Lamar encourages and supports students to do research and internships of all kinds no matter what year in school you’re in, thanks Zaid.