Opportunities and events

Cortland LSAMP relies on a planned series of workshops, seminars, community-building exercises and one-on-one research experiences with faculty to help first-year and transfer students thrive in the sciences.

General descriptions of key programs are listed below.

Summer Bridge Program

Also known as Building Bridges with Cortland LSAMP, this program is designed to launch your training as a scientist and begin your journey to a career in STEM. First year and transfer students invited into the program (after completion of the interest form) move in to their dorms a week early then travel together to our William H. Parks Family Center for Environmental and Outdoor Education , located on the shore of Raquette Lake in the Adirondacks. Here, students work with faculty to collect real scientific data to learn about the geology, biology and chemistry of the lake. It is essentially a science retreat and STEM orientation to kick-start your success in your STEM courses.

Early Move-in and First Year Programs

At the start of their first semester, students will move to campus a few days early and will then spend two nights at SUNY Cortland’s William H. Parks Family Center for Environment and Outdoor Education at Raquette Lake in the Adirondacks.  At Raquette Lake students get to know each other and some of the faculty running the program. They also conduct guided scientific research after gathering lake water samples at different depths from the deck of a pontoon boat on Raquette Lake.  After returning to campus and before “Welcome Weekend”, LSAMP students participate in short workshops on topics such as writing in the sciences and how to best present scientific data in your lab reports. They also meet the STEM faculty at Cortland, including their faculty advisor. The fall semester includes a few additional activities that bring Cortland LSAMP students together.

 The spring semester includes a 0.5 credit seminar course that meets ~7 times during the semester. This course, “Careers and Community in STEM” introduces LSAMP students to careers in STEM and also the opportunities for an early research experience open to them, as members of the program.

Internships and research experiences

A major part of this program is an eight-week summer research experience modeled after the SUNY Cortland Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship Program. Students will earn a stipend, summer housing costs are free, and each will work individually with a faculty member to complete authentic, exciting and timely research project.  Faculty mentors also assist students in finding and completing internships if research projects are not a good fit for the student. Cortland LSAMP students who conduct summer research early in their college experience gain vital hands-on lab skills that serve to increase their success in their science courses.  For those students who wish to go on to graduate or professional programs after Cortland, this research experience will enhance their applications, making them more competitive as applicants for these programs.  

Symposium

All of the colleges and universities in the Central New York alliance will come together for a symposium at the end of each summer where students present research. The alliance also plans to create a network of internships and opportunities through alumni and faculty connections that may support students after they have passed through the program.

Social events

Participants will attend at least two seminars featuring visiting scholars from underrepresented backgrounds who will speak on their career path and their research. Students also will be encouraged to participate in regular social events and community-building activities with others in the program.

Past Events

Fall 2022 events

Monday, Oct. 24
7 to 8 p.m.
Bowers Hall, Room 1129

Seminar

Glaucia Del-Rio, Ph.D.                 

Rose Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

“Women studying birds in the Amazon rainforest – the first ornithological expedition lead and undertaken exclusively by women, the Emily Snethlage Expedition”