We are so proud of our ACE Scholars! They are undergraduates in many disciplines who come from all around the nation to help us understand the evolution and control of cancer. The students devote hours each week to the program, working individually and then meeting in groups on-line to develop research projects that suit their interests and expertise. The subjects they choose to work on are as diverse as the language used to inform patients about their cancer diagnosis to computer simulations of cancer evolution. And the students are not putting in all this effort for course credits: they are motivated by the ideas and the urge to understand cancer in the hope of, one day, controlling it!
Of course, the students couldn’t achieve all they have achieved, publishing research papers and winning poster competitions, without the efforts of their inspirational tutors, Zachary Compton and Cristina Baciu. Cristina has just received a doctorate in mentoring students on-line and Zach is finishing up his doctorate research in evolutionary theory. Their complementary skills and shared enthusiasm for the ACE Scholars program has led to them winning special research support from ASU to expand the program to provide research experience to students who are doing their entire university degree on-line.
Over 100 students have joined the ACE Scholars program since it was established 3 years ago many continue participating until they graduate with their degree. As their experience grows, they become mentors to the more junior students.
Read all about how the ACE Scholars program operated during the COVID lockdown days in this research article by Cristina Baciu and Zach Compton and our ACE colleague, Carlo Maley, just published in The Chronicle of Mentoring and Coaching. BaciuCComptonZMaleyC
