
Five American Samoa Community College (ASCC) students took part in a week-long orientation for BUILD EXITO, a program designed to support undergraduate students interested in pursuing research careers in the biomedical, behavioral, clinical, health, and social sciences.
Funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) students accepted to BUILD EXITO receive scholarships, stipends, mentoring, research studies, summer seminars, and paid jobs.
ASCC students Motutama Sipelii, Tausaafia Uiagalelei, Alisi Tagaloa, Ruby Salome Fia and Mr. Ulelemaikalani N. Kwon, , traveled to Portland, Oregon with all expenses paid to attend the orientation.
In the new school year the five students will take an introduction to biomedical research class referred to as a “gateway course,.”
Portland State University (PSU) and Oregon Health & Science University serve as learning centers for students who choose career paths in the medical science fields.
After the summer orientation and during their gateway course, each student will be mentored by a third-year BUILD EXITO peer mentor from one of the four partner universities, which are PSU; the University of Alaska, Anchorage; the University of Hawaii at Manoa; or the University of Guam.
The students may earn a stipend of $1200 stipend for a one-month summer research intensive at PSU or one of the other three partner universities;
Two ASCC students in the first year cohort, Ernest Puletasi and Sefilina Skelton, have continued biomedical research studies.
Puletasi majors in Bio-engineering at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, while Skelton is majoring in Biochemistry at Dixie State University in Utah. The two remaining two students, Suluga Taliau and Yean Ji Jung, expect to graduate from ASCC in spring 2017.